Live the truth you have

"In order to live your best life, you need to live the truth you have.  And it's by partnering with the Lord for His work as well as for your life that you fully live the truth you have about our Heavenly Father's plan for all His children."

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Do we really appreciate the miracle and the blessing of having a living prophet?  We Latter-day Saints know we have a living prophet on the earth today, but I wonder how many of us remember what the Prophet said in the last General Conference.

I know I couldn’t remember.  So in a spirit of repentance, I looked for President Monson’s remarks.  As I read his words, the memories came back to me.

I remembered what he said, but I also remembered what I felt.  I felt that perhaps President Monson will not be with us much longer since he didn’t look that great.  I felt the need to align my priorities more with foundational truths.  I felt the need to try a little harder to be a little better.

As much as those feelings still apply today, reading President Monson’s words four months later brought to me a new feeling.  I feel I’ve missed an important aspect of living one’s best life.

It’s part of the plan

Recently I’ve been addressing the theme of living your best life.  It’s my only goal for 2017.  I’ve recognized that living one’s best life is more about the journey than the destination.  It’s about the constant struggle to improve, never settling for status quo — especially when that status quo is mediocrity.

I’ve even acknowledged the role the Lord plays in living your best life by continuing to embrace a longstanding theme of Joy in the Journey Radio.  It makes perfect sense we can’t have our best life if we don’t partner with the Lord.

But President Monson’s words helped me realize I must do more than partner with the Lord and constantly seek to improve if I am to live my best life.

President Monson began his remarks by sharing an experience while on assignment at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City.  The Mormon Pavilion there at the fair showed the now classic Church film Man’s Search for Happiness.  President Monson described his impressions of watching a group of attendees — and in particular a gentleman in his mid-30s — respond to the film.  He then continued to speak about our Heavenly Father’s plan.

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Essential to the plan is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without His atoning sacrifice, all would be lost. It is not enough, however, merely to believe in Him and His mission. We need to work and learn, search and pray, repent and improve. We need to know God’s laws and live them. We need to receive His saving ordinances. Only by so doing will we obtain true, eternal happiness.

You can’t live your best life unless you live the truth you have.

Put the Lord first

A few years ago I began a tradition of ending every year with a 40-day study of the Sermon on the Mount.  During my study last year, I had a wonderful experience after seeing something I had never before noticed in the pattern for prayer which the Lord provides.

The Lord begins his teaching on prayer with these words:

   After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
   Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
   Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6:9-11)

How often I’ve begun my prayers by expressing gratitude for blessings (“Hallowed be thy name”) before rushing to detail all the help I needed in my life (“Give us this day our daily bread”).  That pattern doesn’t match the Lord’s.  It skips over an important element: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.”

As I recognized the pattern of prayer in the Savior’s teaching, I understood I had never prayed with the intent of putting the Lord first.  The Lord had always been important, but I had never begun my prayer with “Thy kingdom come.”  I had always jumped to “Give us this day our daily bread.”

I determined to align the pattern of my prayers more fully with the Lord’s teachings. As I put the Lord first by discussing my participation in His work before bringing to Him anything about His participation in my life, I began to feel closer to Him.  I began to feel more like He really was a partner for my life.

Living the truth I had brought me closer to my best life.

Christ is the key

Partnering with the Lord to live our best life is our Heavenly Father’s plan for us in mortality.  Christ was never intended to be with us only in those pivotal moments of our journey home.  Rather the plan is for Him to be with us for each and every step of that journey.

You can’t have your best life without Christ.  That’s because, in order to live your best life, you need to live the truth you have.  And it’s by partnering with the Lord for His work as well as for your life that you fully live the truth you have about our Heavenly Father’s plan for all His children.

President Monson declared,

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We are blessed to have the truth. We have a mandate to share the truth. Let us live the truth, that we might merit all that the Father has for us. He does nothing save it be for our benefit. He has told us, “This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

From the depths of my soul and in all humility, I testify of the great gift which is our Father’s plan for us. It is the one perfect path to peace and happiness both here and in the world to come.

Living the truth — not just having it — and partnering with the Lord for His work — not just for your life — is what the Lord wants for all of us.  When you live the truth you have, you can better live your best life.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.