After General Conference: Heeding and Heeding Not

By Lauren Madsen

“There are no other people [who are] led as this people are led.” 

--George Albert Smith

There is a phrase heard often in our house, “LISTEN TO MY WORDS.” 

My husband and I have been blessed with four kids who are learning and growing. We are doing our best at helping them be good humans. When they are feeling stress, anxiety, fear, or when they are needing a little guidance, I will say to them, “Listen to my words.” What I really mean is, “If you calm down for a minute, and hear what I am saying you’ll see that I can and want to help you.” In D&C 19:23 the Savior says, “Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.”

As I read that verse I picture Jesus Christ trying to tell me the same thing in my own moments of stress, anxiety, fear and pride. “Listen to my words.” And what He really means is, “Be still. Hear what I am saying and you will see that I can and want to help you.”

Where do we find His words? Neil L. Andersen taught: “The word of God contains three very strong elements that intertwine and sustain one another to form an immovable rod. . . First, the scriptures, or the words of the ancient prophets. . . The 2nd is the personal revelation and inspiration that comes to us through the Holy Ghost. . . The 3rd…[is] a critical addition intertwining with the other two: the words of the living prophets.” 

Living in the last days, we know that prophets’ words aren’t always popular or convenient. Neil L. Andersen “Don’t be surprised if at times your personal views are not initially in harmony with the teachings of the Lord’s prophet. These are moments of learning, of humility, when we go to our knees in prayer. We walk forward in faith, trusting in God, knowing that with time we will receive more spiritual clarity from our Heavenly Father.” 

President Eyring said it another way: “Sometimes we will receive counsel that we cannot understand or that seems not to apply to us, even after careful prayer and thought. Don’t discard the counsel, but hold it close. If someone you trusted handed you what appeared to be nothing more than sand with the promise that it contained gold, you might wisely hold it in your hand awhile, shaking it gently. Every time I have done that with counsel from a prophet, after a time the gold flakes have begun to appear and I have been grateful.”

What I hear from these two apostles is: Faith. Trust. Humility. Prayer. Patience. And Time. In those moments of not understanding or agreeing with what is taught at general conference, where do we go? To our knees? To the scriptures? To the temple? To faithful friends and family? To the internet? To social media? To the great and spacious building? Our answer to that question makes all the difference. 

How pleased Satan must be as he deceives even the very elect into letting go of the iron rod. Or redefining what the iron rod is. Or shaming those who have partaken of the fruit, causing them to drop it and set out for the great and spacious building, where they are ultimately lost. There is no doubt that Satan is working to undermine prophets. We must be so careful to tune out the voices of scoff and scorn coming from outside (and unfortunately sometimes inside) the church. We must heed them not, just as it says in 1 Nephi 8:33.

Just as President Nelson and our other leaders were foreordained before the world was to be our prophets and apostles in the last days, so were WE foreordained to be the ones who would listen to them. The Savior said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). We are His sheep. Sister Sheri Dew said, “Can you imagine that God, who knew us perfectly, reserved us to come now, when the stakes would be higher and the opposition more intense than ever?”

I love the vision Elder Neil L. Andersen painted when he said, “In a future day, looking back on our mortality, we will rejoice that we walked the earth at the time of a living prophet. At that day, I pray that we will be able to say: We listened to him. We believed him. We studied his words with patience and faith. We prayed for him. We stood by him. We were humble enough to follow him. We loved him.” 

Whatever we might be going through in our lives, let us picture the Savior encouraging, or perhaps even begging us, “Listen to my words.” Or emphasized a different way, “Listen to my words through the words of my servants, not those who would tear down your faith, not those who mock truth, not those who call evil good and good evil, not those who speak against my servants and their teachings.” 

As we heed the counsel given at general conference, we can be better equipped to discern truth from error, and these tumultuous times we live in can be navigated with peace, safety, confidence, and clarity.