“You Can Do This,” New Era, Apr. 2020, 12–14.
You Can Do This
Involve the Lord in your goal setting, and He will help you learn what He wants you to become.
Adapted from a February 23, 2020, Face to Face event.
When I was young, I had an experience with heavenly help and goals. There was a radio repair shop close to where I lived, and I got a job there to sweep out the shop. While there, I became fascinated with radio. The owner of the shop showed me how to do some basic radio repair, and my interest increased. I continued to learn more by reading books, and soon I discovered that I could be certified as a transmitter engineer if I took an exam. Now I was developing a goal.
I studied, took the exam, passed, and was licensed as a transmitter engineer while I was still in high school. When I got a little older, I became a radio announcer, which allowed me to introduce records and interview people. I kept that job all through high school and college. Even after I got married, that was my source of support for my family. It affected my life a great deal to have a goal and have heavenly help in pursuing that goal.
Set Effective Goals
The Children and Youth program is designed to help you set goals and become more like our Savior in four areas: spiritual, social, physical, and intellectual.
When we set goals, we often make the mistake of setting a very long-range goal. A student once told me that he was studying to be a brain surgeon. I said, “That’s all right, but shouldn’t your first goal be to pass a course in biology?” You can take the long view, but remember that the most effective goals are short-term goals that get you toward your destination.
Some of you may wonder how to know when one goal is done and when to start a new one. The completion of one goal naturally leads you to others. And that’s part of the process of revelation. Don’t wonder when you’re going to complete a goal—just listen for a new one. Be prepared for what the Lord may inspire you to do.
Prepare to Receive Revelation
To receive revelation, we need to prepare ourselves. I have found in my personal scripture study that I should always pray before I read the scriptures. And then I’m patient. The Lord gives us revelation in His own time, in His own way, and according to His own will. So sometimes we just have to wait.
There’s one other thing about personal revelation we should keep in mind—the Lord never shouts; He whispers (see Helaman 5:30). Some people think they’ve never received revelation because they’ve never heard a loud voice or seen an angel. But the Lord whispers. So when you seek revelation, listen for a whisper.
Help Others with Their Goals
Be a leader and help others with their goals. We’re all at a different place on the road to eternal life. And you may be further down the road, more committed, or more faithful in keeping your commitments than someone else.
You need to seek the inspiration of the Lord on how to get close to those who are in a different place than you, and especially to those you lead and teach. Getting next to a person and encouraging them is an important part of that. Seek to know what words to share with them that will sink into their hearts and motivate them.
Overcome Obstacles with Patience
Life is full of challenges. As you set goals and work on them, you will come across these obstacles. And often when you get a challenge, you don’t see the way around it. Sometimes you just have to be patient and try when it doesn’t seem possible.
Attaining our goals does not mean that we’ll be free of opposition. Overcoming opposition is a process of growth, and growth is why we were put here on earth.
Move Forward with the Lord’s Help
You can do this. And God will help you. He wants you to succeed. Your leaders and your parents want you to succeed. Setting goals and accumulating the desire to do what the Lord wants you to do is something that only you can do. The Lord will help.
Involve the Lord in your plans, in your goal setting, and seek His help as you go forward with your efforts. As you learn more about personal revelation, and as you learn that the Lord doesn’t shout but whispers, you will increase in your confidence that you can be guided personally by the Lord.
Growing spiritually, socially, physically, and intellectually is all part of the wholeness that your Heavenly Father wants you to have and will help you to attain. Remember that this mortal experience is an experience in which we learn to become what God our Heavenly Father wants us to become, and what He has made possible by giving us His Only Begotten Son, whose Atonement assures us of immortality, and gives us the opportunity for eternal life.
I testify of Jesus Christ, our Savior, and of this, His Church, with the fullness of His doctrine and the power of His priesthood, established on this earth to guide you and me as children of God, as we move toward the destiny that our Heavenly Father’s plan makes possible: eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God.