This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1997 Conference.
I really liked Elder Eyring's talk in this Conference, about following the counsel of prophets. I'm constantly gaining a stronger testimony of this principle myself. Elder Eyring says:
In our own time, we have been warned with counsel of where to find safety from sin and from sorrow. One of the keys to recognizing those warnings is that they are repeated. For instance, more than once in these general conferences, you have heard our prophet say that he would quote a preceding prophet and would therefore be a second witness and sometimes even a third. Each of us who has listened has heard President Kimball give counsel on the importance of a mother in the home and then heard President Benson quote him, and we have heard President Hinckley quote them both. The Apostle Paul wrote that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Cor. 13:1). One of the ways we may know that the warning is from the Lord is that the law of witnesses, authorized witnesses, has been invoked. When the words of prophets seem repetitive, that should rivet our attention and fill our hearts with gratitude to live in such a blessed time.
I knew about this principle of witnesses already, and I think Elder Bednar even talked about it within the last couple years, but I hadn't extended it to the idea of a prophet quoting another prophet. Of course they quote each other all the time! I never thought to classify those quotes as second witnesses, and it makes me want to pay more attention when it happens. As Elder Eyring said, that kind of repetition really warrants our notice!
He give a pretty stern warning here:
When we reject the counsel which comes from God, we do not choose to be independent of outside influence. We choose another influence. We reject the protection of a perfectly loving, all-powerful, all-knowing Father in Heaven, whose whole purpose, as that of His Beloved Son, is to give us eternal life, to give us all that He has, and to bring us home again in families to the arms of His love. In rejecting His counsel, we choose the influence of another power, whose purpose is to make us miserable and whose motive is hatred.
I also thought this was great:
Sometimes we will receive counsel that we cannot understand or that seems not to apply to us, even after careful prayer and thought. Don’t discard the counsel, but hold it close. If someone you trusted handed you what appeared to be nothing more than sand with the promise that it contained gold, you might wisely hold it in your hand awhile, shaking it gently. Every time I have done that with counsel from a prophet, after a time the gold flakes have begun to appear and I have been grateful.
I'm still working on this, but I like the idea of "holding close" the counsel that we don't understand, with hearts that trust in God's ultimate plan.
Other posts in this series:
Take your pick—by Rozy
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