Elder Ricardo P. Gimenez, a general authority seventy, offered “a sincere invitation to seek to understand the opportunity to link everything we do with our love for the Savior.”
Love for the Savior is the “most powerful reason” to participate in traditions and activities.
“For example,” Elder Gimenez said, “when you set a goal to read the scriptures, offer sincere prayers, or prepare an activity for your family or ward, is the real goal simply to accomplish these tasks?”
There’s nothing wrong with setting goals and working hard to achieve them, he said, and he hopes members “understand that even though doing righteous things, like having church activities or traditions and appropriately doing them is a good thing, still, when we connect them with the why, we will be blessed to understand the reason.”
“It won’t be just doing good things or doing it right; we will also get it right,” Elder Gimenez said.
He gave the example of setting the goal of listening to all the messages from conference and then checking it off a to-do list. It’s “an extreme example,” Elder Gimenez said, but most “are at some point between this and the ideal.”
Ideally, members would seek to understand the messages to learn more about Jesus Christ, before sharing those teachings with others.
Elder Gimenez cautioned listeners to avoid distraction.
“In a globalized world, many voices will try to influence you and, if possible, lead you to believe that some fundamental truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ are unnecessary,” he said. “You may hear voices insisting that only a personal relationship or understanding with the Savior is sufficient and that religion or the restored church is unnecessary or nonessential.”
Elder Gimenez extended an invitation to “be slow to consider or even be immune to being influenced by these misleading ideas.”
— Collin Leonard