#21 Living The Gospel of Joy vs. The Gospel Burden

How can two people be a part of the same church, doing the same things every day but one feels joy and the other feels burden? I know because I have been both people.

I've recently seen a trend where the solution is to live the gospel according to our own standard. Keep what suits us and leave behind the rest. But I would like to suggest that there is another solution that will bring even more joy!

In this episode I share my journey in how I went from living the gospel of burden to living the gospel of JOY and the priceless principles I learned along the way. I hope it helps you or anyone you know who is feeling overwhelmed in the effort to measure up.

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Transcript

Sheri Dew said, I fear that some of us understand just enough about the gospel to feel guilty. Guilty that we are not measuring up to some undefinable standard, but not enough about the atonement to fill the peace and strength, the power and mercy it affords us.

Welcome to the Hope. Smiling brightly. YouTube channel and podcast.

Sharing stories

and ideas that will empower you to overcome doubt.

Cultivate the kind of faith miracles are made of and experience the transformative grace of Christ. Whatever it is, Christ is the answer. I am your host, Amber, also known as Amber Dawn Pierce on social media, but hopefully most especially known as someone who loves to share the light of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. You are listening to episode

21, Living the Gospel of Joy versus the Gospel of Burden.

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I have been so excited to share this episode with you. But first, there's going to be a very exciting announcement at the end of this podcast, something that has been 16 years in the making, and it goes right along with this topic.

So make sure you listen until the end.

Ponder with me. How is it possible that two people can be living the exact same gospel, being members of the exact same church, doing things every day that are very similar, yet one person is living a gospel of joy and the other is living a gospel of burden.

Well, I don't know how that's possible because I've been both people.

I used to quite often have these kinds of thoughts coming into my mind, thoughts like, and it would be so much easier if I wasn't a member of this church, that the church requires so much, and I just am constantly feeling like I'm never enough. Maybe I should just let it all go and I will finally feel peace in my life.

Now, I obviously don't feel that way anymore, but I am seeing very similar messages as I scroll through social media. As I listen to the people around me. Messages that sound something like the gospel is so exhausting. Or do you know what? God loves me whether I drink coffee or not, whether I wear my garments or not. Or maybe you've heard people say, I am so tired of the rules and never feeling enough.

Honestly, when I read or hear these messages, I feel such compassion because I've been there. And I've noticed, though, that people who are feeling this way think that there are two options. One of those options I've seen is, hey, do you know what? I'm going to stay in the church, but I am going to live the gospel to my standard.

So they stay in the church, but then maybe feel like they need to leave some of the things they've covenanted to do. Or option number two, like I'm completely done with it. I'm out. I'm leaving this high demand religion. I've also seen a very similar expressed result from those who choose one of these two options, and that is that they feel that they are happier and have a better relationship with Jesus Christ.

And honestly, I believe them. And I'm explain why. At the end of this podcast. But right now I would like to suggest that there is a third option. It is an option that I discovered because even though I was having these thoughts, I could not deny the truth that I knew the Holy Spirit had whispered to me and witnessed to me too many times of the truthfulness of the gospel,

and so I knew that I must be missing something.

I heard people talking in General conference about how this was a joyful gospel, and I'm like, really? Where is it? So I knew I just had to be patient and trust and God showed me the way for me. I traced living the gospel of burden all the way back to when I was a young child. From a very young age, I took on the role of people pleaser.

Now, when we are faced with a threat or a traumatic situation which is inevitable in life, we have trauma responses and you guys will recognize the first three fight or flight or freeze, but there is actually a fourth trauma response that a lot of people forget. It's fight, flight, freeze, or please become a people pleaser. Becoming the person in this situation who takes on the role to keep the peace by any means possible, often sacrificing your own needs in order to meet the needs of others.

I'm not going to go deep into this, but it suffices to say that the please response leads to a low self-esteem, lack of identity, perfectionism, and unhealthy relationships, and it can show up in all relationships, including your relationship with God. This is what happened to me somewhere in the middle of trying to please and find the acceptance of others.

My perception of God became completely skewed. The belief that if I could just please others enough, then I could prevent bad things from happening. But then if something bad happened, then that meant I failed. And so I just needed to try harder. Imagine this in a relationship with God that if you could just please God, you could prevent bad things from happening.

But if bad things happened, that means God is displeased and you failed. So for every bad thing that happened to me, I tried to fix it by promising God all the good things that I would do better next time to try to please him. Of course. What happened? More bad things. And so I just knew that God was constantly disappointed in me.

And I just tried harder. Every righteous daughter of God. Things that I could think of to put on the checklist I put there, hoping that maybe I would be good enough, do enough to prove that I was worthy of his love, and that

I was of some sort of worth to him.

I know this isn't the exact scenario for everyone, but for whatever the reason and however we get there, it is very common for this to happen among members of the church and especially women.

This belief that we must earn God's love and approval and prove our worth through actions. But here's the problem. God's love is infinite. It cannot be increased or decreased. Our worth is infinite. It cannot be increased or decreased. So when you're working and working at something that cannot be changed, it leads to utter exhaustion. I wish I had realized that I was trying to check off the one box that was checked off from the day I was born.

The first time I started to understand that I had things completely mixed up was because of something I saw in the parable of the Ten Virgins. There's been lots of talk of the oil and what the oil symbolizes. And the thing I love about symbolism is that it can mean so many different things. Remember that the oil used in these lamps in biblical times was pure olive oil.

Pure olive oil symbolizes healing through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which was only made possible because of the pure love of Christ. On the surface, that's pretty simple, right? We need oil in our lamps. Oil is the atonement of Jesus Christ. But obviously it wasn't that simple because half of the virgins didn't have oil in their lamps. Half of them, half of them were told, I know you not.

Or as we know from the Joseph Smith's translation, ye know me not. Why? Why did this happen? If the oil is so simple? Well, I can tell you at least one reason why. Because God spoke those exact words to me.

This was at a time where everything was coming to a head. I know I've referenced this many times before in past podcast episodes, but I've never told the complete story, so I want to now. I was in a state where everything was just crashing down from years of people pleasing and God pleasing.

That wasn't working, and I really was in a horrible physical and mental and spiritual state.

I was lying in bed trying to figure things out, like, God, what? What did I do wrong? What have I got to do right? To overcome what I was going through, which was debilitating vertigo and insomnia. And as I was trying to figure it out, what I had wrong, the Lord spoke those words to my mind. You know me not.

I was blown away. What, are you kidding me? I don't know you. Hold on. Here. Do you even know me? Amber, who has been checking every Righteous Daughter of God checkbox since the day that I was born. You. You have got to have the wrong person.

I had no idea why he said that to me. And I was sure if he was not saying it for the same reason, it was said to the five virgins.

And I was even like, there is a few people that you could probably say those words to. I could suggest some it, but it's surely it's not me. And I was so blind that I kind of dismissed it or tried to give it a different interpretation. Maybe I think God is more harsh than he actually is. I just couldn't accept those words.

It did not compute in my brain until six months later. I finally was humble enough to study in the scripture. The only time that the Savior in his mortal ministry actually said those exact words. When he said, then he was speaking to the Pharisees. Of course, here again I was like, I am not a Pharisee. Give me a break.

The Pharisees killed the Savior, didn't recognize him. But as I got to the Bible dictionary and I started to read what it said about Pharisees, I finally understood. You see, I learned that Pharisees prided themselves in self-sufficiency and they reduced religion to an observance of rules. In that moment, I was like, oh my goodness, God was right. Shocker.

He actually does know me. That is what I had done. And then God led me to some more scriptures that were really helpful because it wasn't just the Pharisees that had this problem.

This was also a problem among

Nephites and the Lamanites. In fact, King Benjamin in his famous sermon warned his people of it. And again about it I accused King Noah and his people of it.

So let's go to what King Benjamin said in Mosiah chapter three, verse 15. He was describing the Israelites and warning his people not to do this. He explained, yet they hardened their hearts and understood not that the Law of Moses availeth nothing, except it were through the atonement of his blood.

They thought that it was following the law of Moses. It was the rules that mattered and forgot all about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Here is the problem, though. If I had completely misjudged God and he wasn't actually the bad guy, then who was the bad guy in this situation? Shortly after I had this realization, I had an incredibly profound dream and I hope I can do it justice here in this dream.

I was in a very small, dirty prison cell.

The floor was dirt.

There was rotten food on the floor.

I was laying on the ground. I was emaciated. I was dirty and covered in bruises.

In this dream, I recognized that my captor was also standing in the cell, looking down on me. And I had this feeling of just feeling so confused as I looked up at my captor because my captor was looking at me with utter disgust and hatred.

But I felt nothing but love for this person and didn't understand why they were treating me this way. And then

ray of light

shined into the prison cell

and illuminated

my captors face. And I saw that the captor was me. I was the one that was so unforgiving, demanding hard on myself, causing myself this pain. It was never God.

This whole time, I thought it was the gospel that was making me feel overwhelmed and not enough. But it was actually me and my incorrect perceptions. Well, what do I do now? I hadn't lived my whole life setting goals and doing things out of fear, out of fear, of not being enough. And my motivation completely surrounded the need to be accepted and enough.

So if I believed that I was enough, then what would motivate me? I was so afraid to walk away from this motivation. Obviously it wasn't working for me right? But I didn't know how to do it any other way. The thought of giving up that checklist, that way of life was even painful. But this is where I had no option but come to a place of complete submission.

I did not know how to change. I couldn't just snap my fingers and be like, okay, I'm not going to do things out of the need to prove myself anymore. I'm going to just do things because I love you, like it? That wasn't going to work. So I just begged God. I told him I knew that I had it wrong, and I just asked him to please help me.

That's all I knew to do. And at that time, as I was trying to convince myself that perhaps I could do this, I wrote this description in my journal that I want to share with you. Who do you want to be? Number. Person

number one, who believes they are not enough, sets every goal to try to be enough.

Always feels they are falling short and rarely feels joy. Or do you want to be person number two? Who knows there enough sets the same goals because of the confidence that they are already enough? No, they are enough no matter the outcome and lives in joy. I realized in that moment that if something didn't change, I would end up walking away from the gospel.

If I walked away from the gospel, it would not be because it wasn't true or because it just didn't work for me. It would be because my beliefs and perceptions surrounding the gospel were not true and did not work for me. So what was truth? What was right? Well, God slowly taught me, and I've narrowed it down to ten things that I want to share with you.

Really, all that matters is whatever the spirit causes to stand out to you as I go through each of these. So don't worry about remembering them all. Just listen to what the spirit wants you to hear. The first thing God taught me was your only labor is to look after. I realized how similar I was to the Pharisees, I thought it might be helpful to study what the Savior said to the Pharisees.

He was trying to help them see. And one of the first scriptures I came to was a scripture that all of us could say by heart. In Matthew 1128, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. This is what he was saying to the Pharisees. They were laboring under all these rules.

So was I. And then I was heavy laden and whoa! Did I ever need rest? But my eyes caught on the word labor, and I was like, okay, if all of these checklists are not the labor, then what is what is my labor? And it led me to another scripture in first Nephi 1741. This is where they are talking about when the Israelites had been bit by serpents, and the labor which they had to perform was to work, but they didn't do it.

Now what were they to look at the brass serpent? And what did the brass serpent symbolize? Jesus Christ, that was their only labor. And why didn't they do it? Because of the simpleness of the way. The easiness of it. I saw myself here as well. The only thing I needed to do every day was look to Christ. But for all those years, I couldn't accept that.

Because honestly, as perfectionists, we like the complicated. We like to give ourselves hard things so that we can prove our discipleship. It is also profound what it says in alma 3320 describing the same scenario. Now, the reason they would not look is because they did not believe it would heal them. Do you see that this whole this whole time I thought the actions are what would heal me.

That is what I was looking to. That was my God. But in reality, it was the Savior that is, who heals us. Now this is going to be fun. Let's look at a people that had it right that were completely opposite of the Israelites. The anti Nephi leaves the people of Ammon. These were the kind of words used to describe them.

A zealous and beloved people, highly favored people of the Lord, firm in the faith of Christ, even unto the end. And they were people who would not break their covenants. What did they understand differently that enabled them to be characterized this way? Let's go to alma 25, verses 15 and 16. It explains it all. Yea, they did keep the law of Moses.

But notwithstanding the law of Moses, they did look forward to the coming of Christ. Considering that the law of Moses was just a type of his coming, they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses, but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ, and thus they did retain a hope through faith unto eternal salvation.

They were doing things for the right reasons. They understood where their salvation came from, that it was not through all the actions. It was through Christ. We need to follow their example. The second thing that the spirit taught me was in the form of a question, as the Lord promised that he would give me rest. The spirit asked me, what is causing your unrest?

And I found the answer in this quote by Elder Ballard. One cannot be at peace if one is living a life out of harmony with revealed truth. You can be a faithful, believing member of the church, doing all the things and still living out of harmony with the truth. Thinking that you have to do all the things and exhaust yourself for God.

Thinking that you have to prove your worth. I realized I was in this insane cycle. I believed in the atonement of Jesus Christ, but I believed it was better if you didn't have to use it. This anxiety would build up in me by thinking that I had to save myself. And so I would create this checklist that was impossible to complete.

Which caused more anxiety then, to remedy that anxiety. I would turn to mindless, addictive actions, whether that was overeating, scrolling, shopping, and then feeling guilty for doing those things. Of course, that guilt would just create more anxiety. And so what would I do? I would just double down and create more checkboxes, which was the thing that was creating the anxiety in the first place.

That was truly insanity. I love the way President Nelson worded this. He said living life in separate compartments can lead to internal conflict and exhausting tension. To escape that

tension, many people unwisely resort to addicting substances pleasure seeking or self-indulgence, which in turn produce more tension, thus creating a vicious cycle. Inner peace comes only as we maintain the integrity of truth in all aspects of our lives.

So what is the truest truth? Second Nephi 2719. Nothing. Enter into his rest, David. Be those who have washed their garments in my blood because of their faith and the repentance of all their sins and their faithfulness unto the end.

We've got to stop seeking the complicated. The answer is Jesus Christ. That's all. But he knows what we are going to try to do.

And that's why he said in second Nephi 951, wherefore do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor, for that which cannot satisfy. Truly it will never satisfy. To try to earn our acceptance and worth through actions. And that is why we feel exhausted. Number three, this is one of my favorite ones. We must accept the things we cannot do.

Now this is really hard because we're doers and we

like to do other things, and we like that self-sufficiency. This inability to accept the things that we cannot do is the reason why this one scripture in the Book of Mormon is the most misinterpreted scripture in all books of Scripture. Second Nephi 2523 for we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do.

So many people read that scripture and think, oh,

then I must do all the things so that God's grace will finally kick in. Once he's pleased with all of my actions, that is not what that Scripture means at all. In fact, that Scripture is just another way to word the same scripture that was used to describe the anti Nephi Levi's.

Remember, notwithstanding the law of Moses, they did look forward to the coming of Christ. So notwithstanding all the things that we can do that are just there to help us remember Christ, we look forward to the grace of God. We know that that is what will save us. That brings me to number four. What are the things that we cannot do?

Let's go back to the oil in our lamps. This is what I love. This is why half of the virgins ended up without oil. I believe it's because they had been using the wrong oil all along. Remember? Why do we need oil? It is fuel. It is fuel for the light. But if we have the wrong fuel, we're going to literally burn out.

I thought that that oil, that fuel was all the doing. It was all the things. I also believe the oil is the motivation by which we do things. So if our motivation is to earn God's love, to earn his acceptance, to please him, to somehow save ourselves, that is inefficient. Oil. It is not going to last. And if you think about it, why did half the virgins not get the oil?

What were they doing?

Well, they were sleeping. Why were they sleeping? I think that it was because they were so darn exhausted from doing all the things, not doctrine, that that really makes sense to me. And quite honestly, I bet they were like, you know what? If this is oil, I don't want any of it. They had it wrong.

The oil wasn't the doing. The oil was what only Christ could do for us. We cannot do the atonement of Jesus Christ. We cannot do the pure love of Christ. But these are the very things that we need within us. So that our light will burn bright. Because remember, if the oil is is our fuel, our motivation, then.

The wick is our actions. We have to be doing things for the right reasons. The first and great commandment is to love God for a reason. All action needs to come from this love. Here's another interesting thing that the Savior said to the Pharisees in John five verse 42, but I know you that ye have not the love of God in you.

That was their problem. And President Oaks said, we are challenged to move through a process of conversion toward that status and condition called eternal life. This is achieved not just by doing what is right, but by doing it for the right reason. The pure love of Christ. This also makes me think of the vision of the Tree of Life.

What were all the people walking towards? What did they all desire? It was the fruit of the tree. And what did that fruit represent? Yay! It is the love of God which shed itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men. Wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. Yay! It is the most joyous to the soul.

This is the key to that gospel of joy, being filled with God's love and letting all actions come from that. When this is our fuel. There is no more burnout. There is no more exhaustion. But how do we fill ourselves with this love? Remember, we cannot do it. We can't do the pure love of Christ. We can't do the atonement of Christ.

That's why Moroni explained that we must pray for it with all the energy of heart. And I love how President Oaks explained it. The reason charity never fails. You hear that? It's fuel that never fails. And the reason charity is greater than even the most significant acts of goodness is that the pure love of Christ is not an act, but a condition or state of being.

Charity is attained through a succession of acts that result in a conversion. Charity is something one becomes. Elder Bednar explained it in this way. He said ultimately, the gift of charity possesses us. We do not possess it. All right, number five, when we have the correct fuel, all the same things are no longer exhausting and we will be able to better discern what is not needed.

One morning I woke with the word roots in my mind, and so I immediately went to the scriptures and started looking at scriptures with the word roots. When I came to Jacob, five, verse 48, I understood what God was trying to reiterate to me. Remember, this is the allegory of the olive tree. And some of the trees were dying for a very specific reason.

And I knew as I read this, this is the reason why my spirit was dying. And there needed to be some change, it says, and because the branches have overcome the roots thereof. Behold, they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. I saw all these branches as these righteous acts, doing all the things, and taking that strength unto ourselves, not realizing that the real strength was in the roots, but the roots became weak because of that incorrect focus.

The roots is Jesus Christ. It's his love. And what is so cool is so what has happened? What did. The lord of the vineyard do to try and save these trees? He pruned them. He cut them back. And I see that as cutting back all these needless expectations, all the things, and helping us realize the only things that are truly needed.

And that can be seen in the parable of the ten virgins as well, because it also is said that we must keep our lamps trimmed. Remember, to trim a lamp is to trim that wick. If the oil is the motivation, the wick is the actions that come from that motivation. Then there are some things that we're going to have to trim off and let go of.

Number six God taught me we are still just as loved and of just as much worth, even when we can do nothing. During that time in my life. I was forced to be in a position because of my health, that I could do nothing. I had to say no to anything that was asked of me. I could hardly check a single box.

I was in bed most of the time, and at first that was so hard for me because remember, my whole life I thought doing things is what brought me value. And here I was doing nothing. And so I begged God, please, please him, heal me so I can do so. I can do all these things for you. But God needed me to see was even when I could do nothing, I couldn't check the boxes.

I couldn't fill any of my roles. I still had the same worth. What an important lesson. Number seven. It isn't about the doing. It's about the becoming. This quote by President Oaks was so profound to me that I put it in my journal with a little bit of commentary. So I want to share that with you. He said the final judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts that we have done.

It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts. What we have become. It is not enough for anyone to just go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.

As I read this, a light bulb went off and this is what I wrote in my journal. I've been myopic, short sighted when it comes to who I am. Me getting down on myself for one bad day, week year is not thinking eternally celestial. I'm just looking at the sum total of good and evil acts. At the end of the day.

And with that comes condemnation, because I wasn't perfect. Not good enough, but good enough for what? Does one bad day determine who I am? What I've become? No, I can't think this way. The process of becoming requires the good and the bad, the sin, the righteousness. I can rejoice in a bad day. Is that even possible? God sees it all in the beautiful process of becoming number eight.

We must be born again. What did the Savior tell the one Pharisee who came to him wanting to understand? Remember Nicodemus, the Savior said, he must be born again. Now when we are born into these mortal bodies, our spirits enter our bodies. And from that time forward we are taught in a fallen world who we are. And you better believe it's not going to be very accurate.

But when we are born again, this is the opportunity for another spirit to enter our bodies the Holy Spirit. A third member of the Godhead. And we have to be born again as this little baby, because we have to be re taught all that we learned about ourselves from this fallen world. And who will teach us the Holy Spirit of truth?

It is like being raised up all over again, but by God who knows the truth of all things. And it might be hard to unlearn some of the things that we think are truth. But this world, this life, it is not reality. I mean, it is, but the reality of who we are. Happened long before we came here.

And we have got to remember that. And the Holy Spirit, through our rebirth, will help us do just that. Number nine, God is pleased with you. This is one of my favorite things that God, Tommy. But actually, it was one of the hardest for me to believe. So during this time, I happened to be looking through one of my scrapbooks from high school, and I came across a picture from my senior prom.

As I looked at it, my immediate response was disappointment in myself. I looked at myself and I remembered my weaknesses at that time in my life. I looked at my dress and I thought, oh, I wish I had understood more about modesty. And as I was thinking these things, the Lord spoke directly into my mind. These words I was pleased with you.

I was in shock. I was like, wait, what? I wasn't perfect. And you were pleased with me? I mean, look at me. I was a silly teenager who messed up all the time. And you were pleased with me like I asked again, does not compute. Then God helped me see the other half of the picture. If you're listening to this on my podcast and not watching on YouTube, I'll describe this to you.

The other person in my senior prom picture was my father. Just before prom. I broke up with my boyfriend, and I didn't have anyone to go to prom with, and I just decided that I wasn't going to go. Unexpectedly, a really cute boy asked me to prom. I said yes, even though I didn't know him at all. I knew nothing about him.

And as a few days passed, I just started feeling uneasy. I didn't know what his standards were. I didn't know what his expectations would be, and I was just worried about putting myself in a compromising situation. I felt bad and I apologize to him and told him that I could no longer go. Well, you know, it's my senior year and all my friends were so disappointed.

They're like, come on, Amber, you can't miss your senior prom. And everyone had dates, so it wasn't like I could just go with another friend who didn't have a date. And so I decided to ask my dad. He was certainly someone that I could trust, but God helped me see. When I looked at this picture, and when I look at any quote unquote picture of my life.

This habit of me only noticing what I thought was wrong. But what God sees is all the reasons he is so pleased with us.

What a profound lesson. Number ten I wonder if you'll resonate with this, because this is common among people pleasers and perfectionists because of this intense desire to please God. It's easy to get paralyzed. I wanted so desperately in all things to make sure I was doing God's will. So it made decisions very difficult. Because what if it wasn't God's will?

What if this was my will? How do I discern it? And I was laying

in bed one day,

going through this struggle in my brain of what to do, almost to tears, because I was just like, you know what? I don't know what God's wants, so I just don't think I can do anything. And God spoke to my mind words that I had never realized.

And as I speak them, I hope you hear them and believe them for yourself. He said, I have confidence in you and I trust your decisions. Wow. Tears streamed down my face as I understood something I had never believed in my life, and what freedom and confidence that brought to me. And I hope you can feel it too.

Finally, to the conclusion here, I want to go back and specifically address some of those things that I mentioned at the beginning that I commonly see spoken online. But before I do that, I want to share that exciting announcement with you. I told you this was 16 years in the making. 16 years ago, I started doing a business with my college roommate and best friend.

It was that same business that I was prompted to walk away from and start using my gifts to share the gospel. Both my friend and I felt that God would bring us together again to do something to bless his children. And it's been years and we have been prayerful and so patient, wanting to know what it was and when it would happen.

And it is finally here. Then my friend

Sherri Brower is one of the most gifted teachers and coaches that I know. In fact, it is her that has coached me through many of the things that I've shared with you today. It is her that has taught me priceless principles. And if you've been listening and any of this has resonated with you.

If you have felt any amount of exhaustion or been in that place where this is, the gospel feels like a burden, but you really want to get to a place of joy. We have something for you.

Sherri is the founder of

sunshine in the Soul Retreats. And for the first time, and I know not for the last time, both smiling brightly with Amber, Don Pierce and sunshine in the soul Retreats with Sherri Brower

are coming together.

We are hosting a three night, four day retreat in Saint George, Utah,

April 23rd through the 26th.

We want to keep this small and as beneficial as possible. We hope that anyone who comes will feel restored in every sense of the way mentally, physically, spiritually. We'll have a fun time together, but we will also dig deep and together help find those limiting beliefs that are causing this exhaustion and burden.

This retreat is coming up very soon, so you don't want to delay. Like I said, there aren't a lot of spots, but I really can't wait for this amazing retreat. I'll leave the link in the show notes so that you can learn more and sign up, but you can go to sunshine in the Soul retreats.com. For more information.

In conclusion, let's talk about some of those key deceptions that you or someone you know might be facing. I want to address the specific phrases I am hearing and seeing online. The first one being where someone has either completely walked away from the church or walked away from some of their covenants, and the statement that I now have a better relationship with God.

Well, of course, of course you do. Because before you had a relationship with rules. And what about the statement? I am done with the rules. Let's let's just abandon these rules. So here's the problem. Whether you have determined to obey all the rules to be enough, or abandon the rules because it's impossible. The problem is, you're still focused on the rules.

You have not overcome this fear cycle thinking. Both actions come from a space of pride. The focus has to be Jesus Christ. But what about the statement that you know what? God still loves me. If I drink coffee, whatever it may be. Well, yes, of course he still loves you. But do you hear the deception? Right in that statement?

The motivation is to earn God's love. God still loves me. If I do this and this and this. It was never about God's love for you. It is about being filled with the pure love of Christ. Your love for God. First John two four he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoso keepeth his word in him. Verily is the love of God perfected. Now what about someone who says that we are in a high demand church, and how freeing it is to leave a high demand church? It's interesting. I was feeling prompted that there was something I needed to understand better about my role, and when I went to this temple, the words priest and priestess were standing out to me.

And so I went to the Bible dictionary and looked up the word priest. It stated in there that in biblical times, priests were held to a slightly higher standard. They represented Christ to everyone else. And so there were certain rules that they followed that no one else did. I recognized what a sacred role we have as members of the church.

Part of this role we are makes some sacrifices that others don't have to. But the beauty of it is it. It just brings more light into our lives. What about the argument that some of the things we are asked to do are completely pointless? The one I hear the most often is some of the things in the Word of Wisdom, specifically to not drink coffee in the beginning of the Word of Wisdom.

It says that it was adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints. In every dispensation the Lord has given commands that are just simple, that anyone could do as an opportunity to set his people apart and learn just a little more of what it is to sacrifice for the Savior. Sacrificed all. He's just giving us something small by small and simple things to great things come to pass.

But isn't it interesting how it's these small and simple things that Satan loves to mock the most? You know he's not going to be successful at mocking murder, right? And but he will take anything for the world to mock and make us feel foolish for doing it. Truly, the easiest things to obey out of the pure love of Christ, bring the most power into our lives.

Think about it. The Israelites putting blood on the door. Something very simple, but it saved their firstborn child. Or again, just look at the brass serpent. Incredibly simple and it saved their lives. Obey the word of wisdom. Incredibly simple. But are we remembering the powerful blessings of it? That we shall receive health to our navels and marrow to our bones?

Shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge. Even hidden treasures shall run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise that the destroying angel shall pass by them as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Do you see that reference? Back to another simple thing the Lord asked the Israelites to do, and the blessing that came from it.

Here's the last thing that I want to address where I'm seeing people blame. Just blame everything on the church and the doctrine of the church. Guess what? Who was the author of the Law of Moses? It was Jehovah who we know was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ established the law of Moses. Yet the law of Moses created both Pharisees who did not recognize the Savior when he came and killed him, but it also created devoted apostles and prophets and disciples of Christ.

Who knew he was the Son of God without having to be told by man? Likewise, the laws we follow have been given by our Heavenly Father. The problem is not the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It's our incorrect application of it. It has created people who hate the church and would love nothing more to see it destroyed. But it is also created apostles and prophets, devoted disciples who know who the Savior is and will recognize him when they see him again, because they will be like him and have his love within them.

So if you want to find the true gospel of Jesus Christ, His church, all you have to do is look for a church that typifies what happened while Jesus Christ was on the earth. It is right here in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints as we leave today. Some questions you might ask God, what have I got wrong about me?

What have I got wrong about you? Christ is our oil. Christ is our roots. Christ is

hope. Smiling brightly.