Conference Talk of the Week

Overview

Elder Ronald A. Rasband speaks to anyone grieving over a family member or friend who has left the Lord and broken their covenants. He admits that lecturing, arguing, and sending conference links often widen the gap, because each person must choose for themselves to follow Jesus Christ. He then asks you to hand your despair over to the Savior. Through His Atonement He has already paid for their sins, and He can change hearts when you cannot. Your part is to love the way He loves: stay interested in their lives, meet them with open arms, and keep praying for them. He uses Alma the Younger and the prodigal son to show how love and faithful prayer can help bring someone home. He closes with three suggestions: let go of guilt, put people ahead of problems, and seek Jesus Christ through scripture and prayer.

Three Key Takeaways

• 1Pressure usually backfires. Preaching, demanding, and lecturing can cause a greater rift, because God designed agency so that each person must choose for themselves to follow Jesus Christ.
• 2The battle is not yours, but God's (2 Chronicles 20:15). Your loved ones are first of all children of Heavenly Father, who loves them even more than you do, and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ there is always a way back.
• 3Love does not mean approving of someone's choices. It means taking an interest in their successes and challenges, greeting them with outstretched arms and a cheerful face, and relying on the Holy Ghost instead of your own understanding.

Reflection Questions

• Elder Rasband lists ways people try to bring loved ones back: preaching, cajoling, arguing, lecturing, ignoring. Which of these have you leaned on, and how did the person respond?
• Is there someone whose choices have become 'a problem to be solved' in your mind? What would it look like this week to see them first as a person to be loved?
• What part of your worry for a loved one have you held on to instead of giving it to Jesus Christ, and what keeps you from trusting that He has already paid for their sins and knows their heart?