Preparing for talk

I am giving a talk in Sacrament meeting this Sunday. I have decided since my life has been out of balance, I would give a talk on balance. I am not done but I ran across a part of a talk by Brent L. Top in the April 2005 Ensign. I wanted to share it because I think it is amazing. He quotes many general authorities, I think it gives insight that we all need and struggle with. It is realistic in ways that I have never read, and relieves the old enemy guilt! I hope you will ponder it like I am going to and let it make you feel better and have peace!! I love you!

Maintaining Spiritual Balance

Just as temporal imbalance can affect our emotional and spiritual peace, so can spiritual imbalance have a detrimental effect on every aspect of our lives. To maintain a proper spiritual balance, we must remember that the Lord does not expect us to achieve perfection while in mortality. The unrealistic expectation that we must be perfect in all we do right now actually retards true gospel living and stifles spirituality. When we fall short of our preconceived notions of perfection, we tend to browbeat ourselves with undeserved self-criticism and guilt or to exhaust ourselves with unrealistic efforts to work our way to perfection.

King Benjamin’s counsel not to run faster than we have strength is as significant spiritually as it is temporally, perhaps more so. A key phrase in King Benjamin’s counsel is “be diligent” (see Mosiah 4:27). We must remember that much spiritual growth does not occur suddenly but rather through time and experience. The encouraging message of the gospel is that God does not often require us to perform sensational or extraordinary deeds but rather to try to do better today than we did yesterday. He is mindful of our desires, our determination, and our direction as well as of our deeds.

To maintain spiritual balance, we must frequently take inventory of our spiritual progress. Honest assessment of the desires of our hearts and the direction of our lives can aid us in overcoming feelings of inadequacy. Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles provided us with this inspiring counsel:

“We can distinguish more clearly between divine discontent and the devil’s dissonance, between dissatisfaction with self and disdain for self. We need the first and must shun the second, remembering that when conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it is not solely to scold but also to beckon.

“… We can contemplate how far we have already come in the climb along the pathway to perfection; it is usually much farther than we acknowledge. …

“… We can make quiet but more honest inventories of our strengths. … Most of us are dishonest bookkeepers and need confirming ‘outside auditors.’ He who was thrust down in the first estate delights to have us put ourselves down. Self-contempt is of Satan; there is none of it in heaven. We should, of course, learn from our mistakes, but without forever studying the instant replays as if these were the game of life itself.” 6

One of the barriers to spiritual balance is “pseudo-self-reliance.” Robert L. Millet identified the danger of relying too much on our own limited abilities. He said that some Church members who are blocked in their progress and weighed down with guilt “seek to double their effort—to work harder. If the present pace does not eradicate the problem, they decide to run faster. Too often what follows is a type of spiritual diminishing returns—exhaustion and additional frustration. The answer to all problems is not necessarily more and harder work, particularly in regard to spiritual matters. The answer is often to learn our limits and do what we can, then turn to the Lord for assistance.” 7

Applying the Atonement

While my wife was struggling to escape from the cycle of faithful works followed by frustration and discouragement, the Spirit of the Lord whispered to her that what she was demanding of herself was not pleasing to the Lord because she was not allowing the Atonement to operate fully in her life. It is not a sign of weakness to avail ourselves of the Atonement. Rather, it shows courage, faith, and gratitude. The Atonement allows us not only to repent of sin but also to receive an outpouring of the Savior’s grace, which strengthens us when we simply do not have the power to overcome our human weaknesses. It allows the Savior to share our burdens and compensate for our many inadequacies (see Matt. 11:28–30; Ether 12:27).

There is no peace for those whose lives are out of balance temporally or spiritually. They can become tossed to and fro by the winds of discouragement and the storms of frustration. Yet just as the Savior stilled the storm on the Sea of Galilee (see Matt. 8:26), He can bless our lives with His calming, comforting, and guiding influence if we will slow down, run only as fast as we have strength, and yet “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ” (2 Ne. 31:20).