Our Relief Society lesson was given by Mandy Smith out of the Gospel Principles manual on Obedience (lesson 35):
We learn in the New Testament, straight from the mouth of the Savior Jesus Christ that the greatest commandment that each of us have is to love the Lord with all of our hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves.
Why is that?
-Love plays into all other aspects of obedience to the commandments - if you love others, you will be kind to them, and think twice before stealing from them, hurting them, and if you love God you will do the things He has asked you.
-Love is also the GREATEST motivation behind true obedience.
Sometimes, one obeys simply because they fear the consequence of disobedience (such as a child receiving a spanking). Other times one obeys because they want the blessings associated with obedience (such as a child receiving a cookie). The purest form of obedience, however, is that which is done in love. When we obey because we love our Father in Heaven and our Savior, we are happiest, we learn the most and we become more like them.
So - How is it then, that we show our love to the Lord?
By keeping His commandments
"If ye love me, keep my commandments" the Savior declared. So what is it that keeps us from doing this? What is the difference between willingly obeying and unwillingly obeying?
-Really, we can justify about anything - for example, take the Word of Wisdom we have been given. If you take a few sips of coffee here and there it is not going to affect your health and it would be easy to justify doing it. However, when we change our perspective of the commandment from being "this isn't good for my body" to "Heavenly Father has asked me not to do this, and I love Him, so I won't" the motivation behind our obedience completely changes.
On that note, do we always understand the reason that we are given a commandment, or do we always understand why it is important for us to follow?
No - in fact, sometimes that is exactly the point. When we obey, even when we don't know why, our faith in the Lord increases. Someone once said "We don't follow because we can see, we follow because we can't see".
Sometimes we will obey, not fully understanding why, and later be able to look back and recognize the blessings that came from our obedience (both physical and spiritual).
Also accompanied with obedience to the commandments is obedience to promptings of the Spirit that we may have. More often than not, we don't understand or know why we may be prompted to call someone on the phone, drop by, not go "that way" home, drive more carefully, etc...and sometimes we never find out why we had those feelings or promptings. But, every once in a while, we follow the prompting of the Spirit to do something and we are blessed with seeing the direct result of our obedience, whether it is blessing another's life, keeping us safe, or just avoiding some kind of inconvenience. Our Father in Heaven loves us, wants to help us, and when He does, He will whisper quietly to us. May we always obey!
Finally, in 1 Nephi 3:7, we learn that the Lord will never give us a commandment without first providing a way for us to obey. THIS DOES NOT mean that it will always be easy!! Sometimes we have to try and try again, just like Nephi and his brothers, before finding success. Yet the Lord will help us. He will not leave us alone - ever.
Through these experiences we grow stronger and gain attributes that maybe we would not have had without these lessons!
Finally, Christ is our perfect example of Obedience. He obeyed the Father in ALL that He was asked to do.
Because He obeyed, He made salvation possible for all of us.
This week think: How can remembering the Savior's sacrifice and example help me to be obedient?
You are all loved and cared about -
The PU2 Relief Society Presidency
