Teachings of Our Times Lesson--Pandemic Style

     Here is is June, and we still have to stay home from a physical meeting.  Once again, teacher Cori Daley provided us the a lesson that turned out to be very timely. It was "A Good Foundation for the Time to Come" by Elder Gary E. Stevenson.
“What might spiritual cornerstones of our personal and family lives be? They may be the
simple, plain, and precious principles of gospel living—family prayer; scripture study, including
the Book of Mormon; temple attendance; and gospel learning through Come, Follow Me and
home evening. Other helpful resources to strengthen your spiritual foundation may include the
Articles of Faith, the family proclamation, and ‘The Living Christ’.”
For Elder Stevenson, he feels the principles included in the first four questions of the temple
recommend serve as a strong basis for a spiritual foundation:
• Do you have faith in and a testimony of God, the Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ;
and the Holy Ghost?
• Do you have a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of His role as your Savior
and Redeemer?
• Do you have a testimony of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
• Do you sustain the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the
prophet, seer, and revelator and as the only person on the earth authorized to exercise
all priesthood keys?"   Cori ended her lesson on a personal note:
   "Full-disclosure, I may have shared with a friend that I was feeling like planning these lessons in
this Covid-19 world felt redundant. I may have even used the phrase “spoon-feeding the talk to
the ladies”, when we can just read the words of the general authorities straight from the talk
that was given without any inference from the likes of me. I’m sitting here now, wishing I could
eat these words. I know it is cliché to say that I needed this lesson more than anyone else.
However, in this case I have to say, I believe it is true. The truth is, the concerns of the world
have been weighing on my heart and mind maybe more than I should admit. I have taken part
in many uncomfortable discussions in my effort to understand the who, what, when, where and
why’s of our country’s current trials. I have suffered real disappointments, anxieties and
depressions over the last few months that I feel have tarnished my spirit. Y’all are thinking
“Join the club”, right? Our world has been thrown into turmoil by a worldwide pandemic,
unemployment, economic instability, political unrest, riots, looting, natural disasters and
personal trials. Stability seems like a far off dream, can you believe we are not even half way
through 2020?! While many of these things are effectively out of our jurisdiction, there is one
thing that we can control, this is the building-up of our foundation in Jesus Christ. It is the
timeliness of this talk that has reminded me that we do have control over what is really
important, the most important. It is my hope that when we are asked the question, “How do
you still have faith with all the heartache that surrounds you?”  We can look to the foundation
that we have cultivated in our Savior for the answer.