1.Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease Elder David A. Bednar

2. Follow Along 3. Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease 4. What is a load? 5. Our Individual Loads Each of us carries a load. Our individual load is comprised of demands and opportunities, obligations and privileges, afflictions and blessings, and options and constraints. 6. Ponder Two guiding principle questions can be helpful as we periodically and prayerfully assess our loads 1. Is the load I am carrying producing the spiritual traction that will enable me to press forward with faith in Christ on the strait and narrow path and avoid getting stuck?... 2. Is the load I am carrying creating sufficient spiritual traction so I ultimately can return home to Heavenly Father 7. Spiritual Traction 8. 10 Truths About Loads 1. We dont always know what to do to get ourselves out of sticky situations? 2. Some loads happen because we went too far along the snowy road 3. We cant just sit there and expect our loads to be lifted for us 4. Sometimes its our loads that are actually moving and changing us 5. All loads are personalized and individualized 9. 10 Truths About Loads 6. Sometimes one load gets us out of another load 7. Loads are not always sin induced 8. Covenants ease our load 9. Loads can be made easier but wont always be taken away 10. It is the Atonement that makes this all possible 10. How Diamonds are Strengthened? The Truth About Eden page 68, Eldred G Smith Doctrine & Covenants 29:39- Bitter and the sweet So it is with us today, we must also have the bitter in order to know the sweet. Sometimes some of us think we have the bitter and not enough of the sweet. This is normal. We all have our trials of life to strengthen us. Each thinks he has the hardest or most severe trials. It may be that they are the most difficult only because they are the hardest or most difficult for you. The diamond is enhanced and made more valuable with polishing. Steel is made harder and more valuable through tempering. So also opposition builds the character of man. 11. Diamonds & Us How are diamonds like us? 12. Mosiah 24:1-25 13. Mosiah 24: 1-25 1. What process was applied to ease their burdens? 2. How were their burdens eased? 3. Why werent their burdens just taken away? 4. How is their experience like our individual loads? 14. 1. Act as Agents The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grantBlessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings. (Bible Dictionary, Prayer) 15. 2. Who is on the other end of our yoke? YOU ? 16. Earthly & Heavenly Yoke 17. Earthly Yoke Who is your earthly yoke? 18. I have spoken here of heavenly help, of angels dispatched to bless us in time of need. But when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with- here, now, everyday. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind. Elder Holland, The Ministry of Angels, Ensign, Nov 2008 19. Earthly Yoke Examples: Mary, the mother of Jesus & Elizabeth (Luke 1:27-56) Nephi & Zoram (1 Nephi 4:31-37, 2 Nephi 1:30-32) Joseph & Hyrum Smith (D&C 135) Ruth & Naomi (Ruth 1:6-18) Adam & Eve (Genesis 2:18-25) Moses & Aaron (Exodus 4:10-16) Using these examples, what do we learn about how to yoke ourselves with others? 20. Heavenly Yoke 21. Quote #1 May I suggest to you that one of the things we need to teach our students and one of the things which will become more important in their lives the longer they live is the reality of angels, their work and their ministry. Obviously I speak here not alone of the angel Moroni but also of those more personal ministering angels who are with us and around us, empowered to help us and who do exactly that. Elder Holland, BYU Book of Mormon Symposium, 1994 22. Quote #2: I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges we faceOn occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in the dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal. Elder Holland, The Ministry of Angels, 2008 23. Quote #3 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Like the servant of Elisha, there are more with you than those you can see opposed to you. Some who are with you will be invisible to your mortal eyes. The Lord will bear you up and will at times do it by calling others to stand with you. President Eyring, O Ye That Embark, Ensign Nov 2008 24. Quote #4 All people have their guardian angels. Whether our departed dead guard us is not for me to say. I can say we have our guardian angels. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 11:17 25. William R. Palmer Martin Handcart Company We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company ever apostaized or left the Church, because everyone of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities 26. I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one food ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through itI have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there. 27. Challenge: Text or write a note of appreciation for someone who has helped ease your burdens and carry your personal loads. 28. Take my yoke upon you Let me help you carry your loads Matthew 11:29 29. I wonder if we fail to fully acknowledge this strengthening aspect of the Atonement in our lives and mistakenly believe that we must carry our load all alone- through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline and with our obviously limited capacities. 30. Thus, the Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities- but also for our physical pains and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequality we experience, and the emotional distress that beset us. 31. In a moment of weakness, we may cry out, No one knows what it is like. No one understands. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. 32. Next Weeks Lesson: Spiritual Whirlwinds By Elder Andersen 33. How does the story of the Good Samaritan (and his load) propel him forward? 34. Clip of the Good Samaritan