Created with Purpose

We’re sticking to the basics this year, and it doesn’t get more basic—or more important than this: who we are and why we’re here.  In this episode we talk about creation, eternal life, and divine identity. Along the way, there’s laundry, meetings in heaven, and a reminder that no matter how basic we feel, we are truly His sons and daughters.  This episode is "Created with Purpose," and we are so glad you are here!

This Week's Challenge
This week, create something—small or simple—and do it intentionally as a reminder that you are a child of an eternally creative God.

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Show Notes

Drip-Drip Drop, Words and  Music by  Matt Hoiland
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Transcript

Created with Purpose

 Cydni: [00:00:00] I am excited to dive into the Old Testament this year. I really love those stories. How come you love them? I just love the beginning. You know, like on the first day I separated the lights from the darks, I'm talking about laundry. And on the second day I let it rest.

And on the third day I started that load and on the fourth day I let it rest again and it was good. And on the fifth day I started the washer and I switched it and it was good. And on the sixth day and also the seventh day, I also let it rest and it was really, really good. That's the mom's version. or anyone really. Young, old, whatever. With laundry. With laundry. Anyone with laundry. I felt like the real story of the creation. Sure, there's the earth, but what about the situation in the laundry room? Sher It is Work without end. 

Sher: Okay. 

 Cydni: Welcome to the [00:01:00] Cydni and Sher. Where we podcast. 

Sher: So we're gonna stick to the basics this year, Cydni. 'cause you are a basic bish. I really am. It's true. Cydni and I have been talking about this a lot. We're thinking about all the qualifications that we have to do this podcast and to talk about anything really, it doesn't matter, 

 Cydni: right? We made a list and it's blank. It was very easy to make. It wasn't easy list to make. We're like, let's bounce back and forth on why we should and could do this. Let's start with our qualifications, and then we've been working on the first one. And so far all we have really is that we purchased Mike's. Yeah, that's it. And we love God. That's a big one. We do though. We really do. 

Sher: Yeah. Thanks God. And that is the most basic of all things. The basic Bishop, love God. And that's important. It's true. All right. So today, Cydni, we wanted to talk a little bit more about the meeting in heaven and the reason we're here on Earth. So last week we talked [00:02:00] about, the preexistence, and we wanted to still focus on that just a little bit because there was a verse that we wanted to just dwell on, which is in Moses chapter one, verse 39, 

 Cydni: and you're going to say that, but I just have to say, when you said the meeting in heaven. Have we just been conditioned for meetings? Why do we have so many meetings? We do. We have to meet about everything and then talk about the meeting, and then have a meeting about the meeting, and then a pre-meeting and a post-meeting. maybe that's what the meeting in Heaven was about was the meetings we'd have.

Sher: I think you might be right. you're onto something because I feel like that they said we were gonna have less meetings and now I feel like we have more meetings so that we can have less meetings. Right. Do you see what I'm saying? 

 Cydni: Yeah. I will say if you get anything from this podcast, Ben has taught me one of the best things about meetings that he was taught to by one of the executives, and it was that if you're going to have a meeting, you need to do the three Bs.

Be brilliant. Be [00:03:00] brief, be gone. Ooh, I like that. Isn't that good? Especially the be gone part, right? I was like, if you could get one outta three, then be gone. I bet we were in the back. Like, how long is this meeting and have it gonna take. Like, we get it. We really have to go over it again. And then Satan's like, well, I hop.

Oh. We're like, oh crap. He's gonna talk. How long is he gonna talk? I bet that is what happened. I bet you're right. I bet we were ready to go. We accepted the plan. We were all on board. And then they were like, any other comment? And he's still blabbing. 

Sher: Just blabbing on forever. I bet. We were just like, shut up. 

 Cydni: It's like, I would like to say something Father like, oh my gosh, I just. I think you're right. Some of our personality is carried down to the earth experience. So when specifically we are ever sitting in a meeting, if they ever let me back into one of those, and we are a little bit, you know, ready to leave. [00:04:00] Just know that's just who we are. 

Sher: It's true. We can't help it, I guess. Well, we can. We're supposed to overcome, but I don't think that's something to overcome. I feel that No, it's an okay characteristic. I think it's, I think we're 

 Cydni: enlightened. Yeah. 

Sher: Because we respect other people's time. Right. That's it.

 Cydni: Like our own, yes. Like our own personal nap time. Right. The Sabbath nap. It is the holiest of all holy events. Well, no, there's others, but it's like up top 10. I don't wanna be too blasphemous. 

Sher: Yeah, just a little bit. 

Alright, so back to Moses chapter one, verse 39. The Lord says, for behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

And this is what God wants for us. He wants immortality and eternal life for us. Now, I know I just said we're gonna focus on this Cydni, but I'm gonna act like you today and I'm gonna throw a wrench in your plan. Oh, just like Satan. If I start talking too much, feel free to tell me to shut, shut up. Here we [00:05:00] go with, 

 Cydni: here's a plan, and someone's like, oh, I don't like that plan.

Sher: I'm gonna do my own plan. So I thought we should talk about verse 38 and verse 41st, if that's okay with you. I accept. Thank you. I'm gonna start with verse 38 and it says, and as one earth shall pass away and the heavens thereof, even so, shall another come. And there is no end to my works, neither to my words. Father 

 Cydni: us again. No end to my works. That's the laundry analogy I brought you. In the beginning, God was like, I want you to experience what it is to have no end to your work, and he gave us. Laundry, specifically socks. 

Sher: I feel bad for you because I feel like I am just doing my laundry and I feel like it never ends. I can't imagine what you're up against. Cydni. 

 Cydni: It's rough over there, but my friend just mentioned that there is this thing, a box of socks that you grab new socks every day out of it. Like tissues, but it socks. Someone gave it to her husband. For a gift's, a box [00:06:00] of socks.

Yes. How many socks are in there? I don't know. I haven't looked it up yet, but I thought if ever we're sponsored, I wanted to be by the box of socks. I could get behind that. 

Sher: Who knew? All right, the reason I thought we should start here is because God is telling us that the earth and the heavens, they're gonna pass away. And that is a very long time. But then another will come. And we learn that our Father in Heaven has no end to this work, that it's just ongoing. And when I was reading this, I wanted to focus on the word creation because God is creating endless amounts of worlds and work.

In this whole work idea, working eternally and creating eternally, I know my dad is in paradise right now. Loving the plan because my dad loves to work and he loves to build and he loves to create and he is perfectly happy. 

 Cydni: That is the generation of men. Those guys. Those men, that's my dad and my grandfather, my grandpa, I remember that man was up with the sun and he stayed out [00:07:00] on the crops and the fields and he just loved work.

Sher: I just wanna take a nap and drink a diet Coke.

 Cydni: That's the work of our generation. I know this is what's wrong.

Sher: So back to the word creation. We're learning in this verse that God loves to create, He loves to work, He loves to build, and this is what makes Him happy. Last year we learned that our Father in Heaven is an eternal and wonderful creator and President Uchtdorf said, though we cannot understand the meaning of all things. We do know that God loves his children because he said, behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Heavenly Father is able to accomplish these two great goals, the immortality and eternal life of man because he is a God of creation and compassion. Creating and being compassionate are two objectives that contribute to our Heavenly Father's [00:08:00] perfect happiness.

So from this we can learn that. Working and creating is part of our happiness plan and part of God's plan for us. When we create and use what is inspired in our soul, we are in tune with our Father in Heaven. But there is more. In that scripture, it says that there's no end to my works, neither my words. So what the Lord says is eternal. Our heavenly Father and our Savior only speak eternal truth. So I was thinking that God promises so much.

And I think in terms of today, like what's best for me today? What's gonna happen today? But God thinks in terms of eternity, which is a bummer for my brain wanting to just think about today. So we might need to work, create, and keep learning and obeying for a very, very long time. Cydni, in order to receive all the blessings we've been promised. And God's here for the long term. It's an eternal plan. So as we're reading the scriptures or we're reading our patriarchal blessings, or [00:09:00] we're receiving a blessing, God's promises that He gives us, they're true and they're eternal, and we need to keep hoping and keep believing and just hang in there because everything God says is truth. Everything we've been promised, all the eternal blessings will happen. We just may have to wait a while.

 Cydni: That should be really hopeful. Right. But it kind of makes me feel like a carrot in my face. But I've heard that I'm a little impatient. I love that analogy. Keep going. Like it's gonna be okay. It'll work out. Maybe not this day or next year, but maybe in 17 millennials. It'll be fine. 

Sher: It's fine. everything's fine. 

 Cydni: But Iana and I did have a conversation about what you said, the tomorrow versus eternity, because she was supposed to give a prayer on Sunday, which you were a part of, it's true. And she did not want to. And I said, who gave a prayer two weeks ago in church? And she said, I don't know. I said, neither do I. So it's [00:10:00] okay. Like people forget you get really scared you do it.

It's not so much about what you're doing, it's about how you do it. So you do it faithfully, you do it as a habit, and you gain a relationship with God. But nobody's gonna remember that you gave a prayer what you said. And honestly, I felt like 10 out of 10 mom speech.

But who did not give a prayer on Sunday? My daughter. Your daughter. That's okay, but. I kind of passed my mothering onto you that day because I said, you have to say a prayer. She said, I don't want to, and I said, go ask Sher. That was really nice of you.

Sher: But to be fair, I said to her, we all have to do things we don't wanna do. 

 Cydni: I don't, which is what I thought you would say. I did say that because I said it, but I was like, if you say it, she'll maybe listen. But then she started to cry. Which is so weird. 'cause I also had a closing prayer that day and I cried and left. Just kidding. I said it. Ugh. 

Sher: But, but then I said to her, do you not feel well today? And she said she did not, and I said, well, will you say it next week? And she said, yes.

 Cydni: She said, I know I have to [00:11:00] say it another time and I'm going to do it. Good for her. I know. So thanks for helping with that. Yeah, no problem, Cindy. Yeah. Anyway, that was along the outline for sure. So definitely you just keep continuing there.

Sher: Okay, a long time ago before the e story and everything else, we were talking about verse 38, but now I wanna skip to verse 40. Just the first little bit of the verse it says, and now Moses, my son, I will speak unto thee concerning this earth. In chapter one, I went through and counted, and God refers to Moses as His son four times. 

 Cydni: I learned in LDS theology that when God repeats himself over three times, it signifies divine emphasis, completeness, certainty, and a law of learning.

This pattern serves as a powerful tool to ensure a message is understood, remembered, and acted upon. And I really loved that. Especially when considering that he wants [00:12:00] Moses to understand he's his son, , that's what he's trying to emphasize, that it's really important to God, so much so that he'll repeat it several times. He wants him to understand and he wants him to learn. You are my son. I think that's really beautiful. 

Sher: That is, I'm so glad you said that. And God also knows that Satan's gonna come and try to mess with his head about that exact thing and call him the son, a man, not the son of God. Moses needed to be ready for that. And God made sure that he was.

God's doing the same for us. He tells us over and over that we're his sons and his daughters, and repeats it multiple times, which from what you just said, means that it's showing a divine emphasis, completeness. We truly are His sons and daughters. 

 Cydni: When you were saying that, it just came to my mind. I've always wondered how was Moses so strong when he faced Satan? And it's all connecting now. It's because of this first experience to emphasize how important this message is. And that's why [00:13:00] Moses can go so confidently before Satan, is that this really was a learning moment with, God.

So when Satan comes, he doesn't back down. He doesn't draw back. 

Sher: He's not buying it. That long. Blabbing that Satan stood up and made the meeting longer. He's saying, be gone. Be gone. Exactly. when I was reading the Cydni, what I kept thinking about is I couldn't imagine myself, first of all talking to God.

Let's just start with that. But then him saying, my daughter. To me, I just get tears in my eyes because it feels overwhelming and I feel entirely unworthy to even think about it or even hear it. But it's true. We really are his daughters Cydni and I too. Basic gals. 

 Cydni: you used gals. 

Sher: I said gals. Dang it. We are daughters of a God . And so are all of you. All of us together, all of our listeners, everyone we know, we are His children, we are his direct descendants and there's a lot of power in [00:14:00] that, which is why Satan doesn't want us to know it.

 Cydni: It's true identity is so severely attacked, but some of us are more like , the middle child of God. 

Sher: That's definitely us. So President Uchtdorf said about this, that God himself said, we are the reason he created the universe. There's that word create again. His work and glory. The purpose for this magnificent universe is to save and exalt mankind. In other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me.

Our Heavenly Father created the universe. We might reach our potential as his sons and daughters, no matter how basic we are. That's why this was all created, and it's unbelievable to imagine how much we are loved and how much our heavenly Father wants us back home. All of this, everything, this whole earth, the universe, the [00:15:00] plan, all of it was made to get us back home so that we could live with our Father in Heaven, for eternity.

So as we talk about verse 39, please remember that what makes God happy is working, creating and being compassionate towards us. He does this because we are his children and he wants what is best for us. 

So with that Cydni, we finally are to what we really wanted to talk about. Verse 39, 

 Cydni: which is, for behold, this is my work and glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I feel like that's a pretty well known scripture and I always like to break down words. I know a lot of people do, and I know people make fun of starting a talk off with a definition, but I really like that. I like defining words. I do too. I think it's good because 

Sher: as we've learned, we have no qualifications and we need someone to explain everything to us.

 Cydni: Right. We need to know the basic definitions. Exactly. Which is what I'll [00:16:00] provide right now as your basic gal. Bish. We are adding this to the Urban Dictionary. A gal Bish is a woman of God who is basic and sometimes is not allowed into meetings. But that's okay. 'cause they don't wanna go anyway.

I'm gonna go over this pretty quickly because I wanna be brilliant and bold and gone with this. Okay. If you look at the word work, it's simply the process.

The creation, redemption, exaltation. And then if you define glory, it's both God's inherent state and the ultimate reward or potential for his children achieved through agency and righteous living, making mortals his central focus what I loved a lot about this, actually to even simplify it more is we spent so much time talking about joy last year and if you apply this scripture with what we learned with joy, when you talked about joy, it was you have to have a purpose and goals to have [00:17:00] joy in life and truly God's work. Glory is his purpose and his goals, and I think it's a really beautiful idea to consider that when God says men are, that they might have joy and He himself has a specific goal and purpose in mind for that.

Sher: Cydni. I like that. Right. I really like that a lot. Because sometimes when I hear that scripture, I don't really get it. But I think you have just explained it better than anyone that I've ever heard. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. Can you jot that down on our qualification list somewhere? Where did we put that? Well, it's get it outta the trash. It's not gonna take much. I probably had millions of people explain it to me. I just wasn't listening. 

 Cydni: And now this will not be coming from me. It'll be coming from Jared Halverson from the Unshaken podcast. He breaks down eternal life and immortality in the most simple and best way. He simply says that immortality is how long you live. Eternal life is how we live [00:18:00] and who we live with. Immortal. Life is the quantity. Eternal life is the quality.

Eternal life is God saying, I want you to come home to me and I want you to be like me, and I want you to have all the privileges and all the joys that I experience. And I think that is a very beautiful and simple way. To explain that Maybe we are being a little basic here, but the basics over and over are what actually matters to a strong foundation for a happy life. And I think it's so beautiful that Moses goes through our purpose and our identity and why the earth is, we are so blessed to have these understandings.

Sher: I'm gonna add to that definition just a little bit. Cydni Elder Joseph B Wirthlin said bringing to pass immortality is essentially a work of creation. Now this fits with your definition because what God creates is eternal. And then he goes on to say, God speaks and worlds are formed. At the culmination of this [00:19:00] work, man is placed upon the earth to learn, be tested, and gain experience. I'm gonna stop right there for just a second because I really like this quote. It makes me really happy because he used the word creation, which is why I went there, because it made me feel like I actually understood something for a hot second.

And so I really like that part. But he goes on to say. Eternal life is the culmination of existence. As spiritual children of God, you and I are heirs to this priceless fortune, benefactors to a glorious future recipients of grace. If immortality is God's work, then eternal life is God's glory. However, eternal life does not come automatically.

This is what you're saying. We must purge our hearts of evil and fill them with the desire to do good continually. This is the agency part. Back to Elder Wirthlin, Our Heavenly Father with love that is scarcely within our power to comprehend desires more than just our immortality. He desires each of us to partake of this greatest of [00:20:00] all gifts, eternal life. This quote just touched my heart so much. It really did bring tears to my eyes because he doesn't just want to create us and stick his here on earth and say. Good luck. He wants to give us the greatest gift of all, which is being with Him forever.

Now, think of what the Savior did for us with his Atonement and his sacrifice that was done so we could have eternal life and be an eternal family. Heavenly father and our Savior forever. And it is so overwhelming to me to think that our Heavenly Father and our Saviors love us so much that they're willing to do all of that for us, no matter how basic we are, 

 Cydni: I love that you've been talking about the word creation, which I get because we're talking about basically the creation story, so it kind of goes with it but I wanted to tell you about a creation story in our home. As we've been talking about the creation, we have spent a lot of time reading the scriptures, so I thought I'd mix it up with the kids and I [00:21:00] got out some canvases and paint, and this is 100% not up. Ben's alley, he does not wanna paint, but I, Manipulated him a little bit to do it. So when he got home from work, I was like, we've gotta have our little come follow me activity right now because we have sports and things to do, and so we have a very short time to paint, and Ben stood there and he looked into deep space, like I just like punched him in the gut or something. He was like. What 

Sher: are we doing? I'm on bedside on this one. I would hate every ounce of trying to paint. I just cannot. 

 Cydni: I know that's how he feels. Ben is really good at what he does, but if he doesn't. Enjoy it. He doesn't wanna do it 'cause he wants to do a good job at everything he does and he really does do a great job.

But I watched him just stand there and all three kids said, there's no way dad is going to paint. So he rolled up his sleeves. And he got to work and he painted, and we all painted and we listened to some good music and it was fun.

And , the idea was to create something that [00:22:00] didn't exist before right now on this canvas and whatever inspires you from the story of Genesis and the creation of the world. Everyone was creating and doing a great job, except for me. Mine was so. Bad. I was so overly confident that I would do the best and mine was horrific.

It was so bad. And then Titus and I had to leave for soccer, so we didn't get to finish ours. When we got home, Ben was standing in the kitchen. He said, you guys see my canvas? And I said, no. And he is like, I finished. Would you like to see it? Ben was so proud of it. And then he shared the coolest story with us the next day.

He said. He stood in the kitchen and I told him we were gonna paint and he died inside a little bit 'cause he did not want to paint after a long day at work. And he said he offered up a prayer and he said, if I'm going to do this, God, will you please help me one, enjoy it and two do a good job. And he ended the prayer.

And then he had just like a vision come to his head of what he could paint. And he painted it and he said that [00:23:00] he first practiced what we read about, that he created something spiritually. He saw it and then he acted. He is so dang proud of it.

It is out as if it's one of our children's paintings right now and I do not wanna move it. He was so proud. He has showed people, he's kept it out on the table and he is like, this is my painting. I painted this. And we have showed people when they walk in, I'm like, Ben painted that it's just a little tiny canvas with the galaxy on it.

But I thought it was such a beautiful example of creation of one. Not wanting to do it it's work and it's something you've never done before and that you see it first and you have faith and you just go for it and you act and then you create something beautiful. And it is beautiful and I am so proud that he did it. I want that painting out forever. 

Sher: Well, I can't wait to see it now. 

 Cydni: I'll show it to you. 

Sher: Maybe he'll inspire me to want to paint something. 

 Cydni: I think he's gonna quit his actual job and become a painter now. So I don't know what I've unleashed. I'm looking for a job if anyone is hiring. My husband's [00:24:00] an artist now. my takeaway with Ben is how proud of it he is he wants people to enjoy it. That's also how God is with us, that he has created something so beautiful and he wants us to enjoy it, but he wants us to be part of it too. He wants us to also create and I was inspired to read both the young men's and young women's themes, and I'm just going to share the beginning because this is how important our identity, our divine identity is to us.

This is from the Young Women's Theme. I am a beloved daughter of heavenly parents with a divine nature. An eternal destiny as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I strive to be like him. I seek and act upon personal revelation and minister to others in his holy name. And here is the beginning of the young men's theme. I am a beloved son of God and he has a work for me to do with all my heart might mind and strength. I will love God, keep my covenants [00:25:00] and use his priesthood to serve others beginning in my own home.

When I read these, I felt such peace in my heart that there are so many young men and young women around the world who stand up every Sunday and they say this, that just like God told Moses several times, you are mine. That our young men and our young women stand up and they're reminded of who they are.

 This week we challenge you to put to work the gift of creation that is yours. And now this means different things to different people. So we would like you to consider this quote from President Uchtdorf. The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, background, or ability, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. Everyone can create.

You don't need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty. You might say, I [00:26:00] am not the creative type. If that's how you feel, think again and remember that you are spirit children of the most creative being in the universe. Isn't it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God?

Think about it, your spirit body is a masterpiece created with the beauty and function and capacity beyond imagination. You may think you don't have talents, but that is a false assumption for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper, and do not require a brush, a pen, or keys of a piano.

 Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before. What you create doesn't have to be perfect. Don't let fear of failure discourage you. Don't let the voice of critics paralyze you. Whether that voice [00:27:00] comes from the outside or the inside. If you still feel incapable of creating, start small. Try to see how many smiles you can create. Write a letter of appreciation, learn a new skill, identify a space, and beautify it.

Sher: This brings us to our final thoughts as we stick to the basics and learn about Moses 1 39, it's unbelievable how personal all of this really is. God is not distant or abstract. He calls Moses my son, and he means it just as much for you and for me. His work is eternal creation. His words are eternal truth, and his purpose is clear. He wants us to live forever and come home to him.

He thinks in terms of eternity, even when we're just trying to get through a day. So if some promises feel slow or unfinished, that doesn't mean they aren't real. It means God is still working. [00:28:00] Our job is to keep hoping, to keep creating, keep obeying and believing because we matter to Him and everything He does, every word, every sacrifice, all of it is done out of love for His sons and daughters. This is our prayer from 

 Cydni: Cydni and Sher. Don't forget to switch the laundry. 

 Cydni: New York. New York, unique New York. Lemme do like a jumping jab. Okay, good. This is not, this is a boxing stand, so I'm a boxer now. I don't want you to edit and be like, I will punch her in the face. That's gonna be my new job. My work is punching Cydni in the face. 

Sher: that was before this podcast. 

 Cydni: Oh, what, what reason? Thanks for letting me critique you. Feel free. 

Sher: Right back at you. Basic. 

 Cydni: I'm not basic. I'm not basic [00:29:00] anymore. Don't forget to switch the laundry. 

Sher: I was like, thought you were talking to me for real, for real. Did you though? Actually I do need to switch the laundry. Have a good week. Bye.