First, the most important link: this week’s Come, Follow Me

Patience, forgiveness, and a willingness to serve.  

What stands out to me from the Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon time and again is how often the Lord commands members of His Church to be better. It’s not the outside world alone that needs to shape up. It’s the members.

To whom much is given, much is expected.

One of my takeaways from this week’s Come, Follow Me is the what the Lord asks of us: “the heart and a willing mind.” (D&C 64:34). Simple doesn’t equal easy, obviously.

It reminds me of this scene from a movie called “Facing the Giants.” 

The movie is a little cheesy, but the message is powerful. “I want you to promise me you’re going to do your very best.” The Lord can work with that. If we’re just flat out not willing, we dump everything right back onto His plate.

The Lord can and does issue commandments. He can authorize servants who lead His Church to determine whether we’re worthy to hold certain callings or enter His House (the temple). It’s His Church. He sets the rules.

But He asks us, and can’t force us, to see what He sees so that we give our hearts to the cause, for our benefit and others’.

But we do become watchers from the sidelines while the Gospel rolls forward. We’re left to our own conscience.

The Lord won’t force anything

The Lord’s not going to force anything upon us. We’re not forced to pay tithing. We’re not forced to serve a mission. To attend BYU. To marry. To have children. To take the sacrament. To attend the temple. To keep the Sabbath Day holy. To serve others through callings. To set aside the things of the world. We’re not forced to be Christ-like.

If we’re not willing, there’s no intervention. There are no agents who show up in uniforms at our home to force us. Our children aren’t taken from us. We’re not sent away to live somewhere else, away from more faithful members. Members are not instructed to stay away from us.  

We are commanded or invited to do these things for our own good. It’s up to us to choose if we’re going to.

We all know the painting of Jesus Christ standing at the door, knocking. We’ve all noticed there’s no handle for him to turn to open the door. We have to do it from the other side. We have to be willing to let Him in.

So, we’ve established that life goes on if we ignore the Lord. We may even accumulate a certain level of success in life without taking a minute to care for ourselves spiritually, let alone others.

We can play by the world’s rules instead. He allows that. And when we play by the world’s rules, we inherit the world’s outcomes, good or bad—but only the world’s outcomes.

The outcomes are finite.

When we live life playing by the Lord’s rules, willingly, we can inherit all of the Lord’s blessings in this life and the eternities. He has promised us this:

• 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 says: “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”
• Revelation 21:7 says: “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
• 3 Nephi 11:33 says: “And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
• D&C 78:22 says: “And he that is a faithful and wise steward shall inherit all things. Amen.”

The outcomes are infinite.

The Lord’s hope for us is that we will taste the peace and joy He offers when we give our whole hearts—real joy, not worldly pleasure—and that will lead to us not settling for anything less.

The ordinances are there for us to show obedience. But my sense is that many of the commandments and invitations are there so that we can feel a little bit of the same joy Heavenly Father feels when he blesses us.

It’s circular. We follow His commandments, we’re blessed, we feel peace and joy and charity for others, which makes us want to follow His commandments more, which blesses us, and so on.

He can do so much with people who have a willingness to serve.

What these sections say to me

These sections are about patience, forgiveness, and having a willingness to serve. I love what the Lord says about forgiveness, don’t get me wrong. But the words that stood out to me this week with my reading was more about what I get from having a willing heart and mind.

Patience, forgiveness, and having a willing heart are three of the hardest attributes to master in 2025, when so much of our lives is on cruise control. We have it so easy today. Any answer to any question is seconds away. Financial prosperity is over the top.

Magnify thine office (D&C 66:11) is what we’re called to do, whatever our office is. I like the idea that there’s no such thing as a “leadership calling” in the Church. Every calling can be a leadership calling because everyone can lead others closer to Christ.

If I see serving as loving others rather than providing cheap labor, giving my whole heart to the cause, I will start to see people the way He sees them. That will change me for the better.