August 2017 Visiting Teaching Bookmark

Living a Consecrated Life

“To consecrate is to set apart or dedicate something as sacred, devoted to holy purposes,” said Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “True success in this life comes in consecrating our lives—that is, our time and choices—to God’s purposes.”1

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said: “We tend to think of consecration only as yielding up, when divinely directed, our material possessions. But ultimate consecration is the yielding up of oneself to God.”2

As we consecrate ourselves to the purposes of God, our faith in Jesus Christ and in His Atonement will increase. As we live a consecrated life, we can be made holy through those actions.

Carole M. Stephens, former First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, said:

“Elder Robert D. Hales taught, ‘When we make and keep covenants, we are coming out of the world and into the kingdom of God.’

“We are changed. We look different, and we act different. The things we listen to and read and say are different, and what we wear is different because we become daughters of God bound to Him by covenant.”3

Consecration is the covenant God makes “with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). Living a consecrated life is in harmony with God’s plan for us.

Additional Scriptures and Information

1 Thessalonians 1:3, Doctrine and Covenants 105:5  

1. 

D. Todd Christofferson, “Reflections on a Consecrated Life,” Ensign, Nov. 2010, 16.

2. 

Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance,”Ensign, May 2002, 36.

3. 

Carole M. Stephens, “Wide Awake to Our Duties,”Ensign, Nov. 2012, 115–16.

                                

Consider This

How does consecrating our lives to the Lord help us become more like Him?

Listen to Children sing the song: "My Covenant Path"

July 2017 Visiting Teaching Bookmark

“Jesus achieved perfect unity with the Father by submitting Himself, both flesh and spirit, to the will of the Father,” taught Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

“… Surely we will not be one with God and Christ until we make Their will and interest our greatest desire. Such submissiveness is not reached in a day, but through the Holy Spirit, the Lord will tutor us if we are willing until, in process of time, it may accurately be said that He is in us as the Father is in Him.”

Linda K. Burton, former Relief Society General President, taught how to work toward this unity: “Making and keeping our covenants is an expression of our commitment to become like the Savior. The ideal is to strive for the attitude best expressed in a few phrases of a favorite hymn: ‘I’ll go where you want me to go. … I’ll say what you want me to say. … I’ll be what you want me to be.’”

Elder Christofferson also reminded us that “as we endeavor day by day and week by week to follow the path of Christ, our spirit asserts its preeminence, the battle within subsides, and temptations cease to trouble.”

Neill F. Marriott, Second Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency, bears testimony of the blessings of striving to align our will with God’s will: “I have struggled to banish the mortal desire to have things my way, eventually realizing that my way is oh so lacking, limited, and inferior to the way of Jesus Christ. ‘His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come’ [“The Living Christ”; emphasis added].” Let us strive humbly to become one with our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Additional Scriptures and Information                                                                                    John 17:20–21 Ephesians 4:13                                                  Doctrine and Covenants 38:27

Click the image of Jesus Christ & God Our Father to Here the Song:  "I will" by Hillary Weeks

For More inspiration listen to this Conference Talk:

That They May Be One in Us - D. Todd Christofferson