Our Heavenly Guidance System
As we focus our lives on Jesus Christ, we will find our way home, enduring to the end and rejoicing to the end.
Jesus Christ changed my life when I was baptized at the age of 26 in my beloved Frutillar, Chile. At that time, my job took me across the ocean, rivers, and lakes of the beautiful Chilean Patagonia. After my baptism, I saw my work and my life in a new and different way, recognizing that truly “all things denote there is a God.”
In nature, salmon are born in the source of the rivers. At some point in their lives, they need to swim downriver to reach the ocean, where they find the nourishment and conditions necessary for their development.
But the ocean is also a dangerous place where predators lurk and where fishers try to catch the salmon with flashy hooks that imitate food but do not nourish them. If the salmon can survive these threats, they will be ready to use their powerful guidance system to return upriver to the same place where they were born, facing new and some familiar challenges. Scientists have studied their migratory behavior for years and have discovered that they use a type of magnetic map, similar to GPS, to guide them to their final destination with incredible precision.
We can all return one day to the heavenly home from where we came. And like the salmon, we have our own magnetic map, or Light of Christ, to guide us there. Jesus taught His disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
As we focus our lives on Jesus Christ, we will find our way home, enduring to the end and rejoicing to the end. President Russell M. Nelson taught that “the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”
Our Divine Nature and Destiny
From the family proclamation, we read that “each [of us] is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. … In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.”
Before His birth in mortality, Jesus Christ appeared to Moses and spoke to him on behalf of the Father. He told Moses He had a great work for him to do. During that meeting, the Lord called him “my son” several times.
After that experience, Satan came tempting him, saying, “Moses, son of man, worship me.”
Moses responded to the temptation by remembering his divine nature, saying, “Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God.” The truth freed Moses from an attack by the adversary.
Brothers and sisters, the hooks of mortality are real. They are often enticing, but they seek only one target: to pull us out of the course of living waters that lead to the Father and eternal life.
I know how real the hooks of mortality can be. One Sunday, as a new convert, I was teaching a priesthood class when an unsettling conversation arose. I struggled to finish my lesson. I took offense and felt that I was the victim. Without saying a word, I headed for the exit with the idea that I would not return to church for a while.
At that very moment, a concerned priesthood holder stood in front of me. He lovingly invited me to focus on Christ and not on the situation we had experienced in class. As I looked back on the experience with him, he shared with me that he heard a voice tell him, “Go after him; he is important to me.”
My dear friends, we are all important to Him. President Nelson taught that “because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us.” Our divine nature and covenant relationship with God entitle us to receive divine help.
The Need of Nourishment
Just as salmon need to be nourished in the ocean to grow, we also need to nourish ourselves spiritually to avoid dying of spiritual malnutrition. Prayer, the scriptures, the temple, and our regular attendance at Sunday meetings are vital in our spiritual menu.
In November 1956, Ricardo García entered the waters of baptism in Chile, becoming the first member of the Church in my country. Just one day before he died, he declared before his family and friends, “Many years ago, missionaries invited me to be happy along with my family. I am a happy man. Tell everyone in Chile the gospel is happiness.”
After having been nourished with the gospel of Jesus Christ, Ricardo dedicated his entire life to serving God and his neighbor with love. His example of discipleship has blessed generations, including me. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “a man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.”
Return to Our Heavenly Home
Deep inside each of us is a desire to return to our heavenly home, and Jesus Christ is our heavenly guidance system. He is the way. His atoning sacrifice makes it possible for us to make sacred covenants with God. Once we make covenants, we will at times find ourselves swimming against the current. Danger, disappointment, temptation, and affliction will test our faith and spiritual strength. Ask for help. Jesus Christ understands and is always eager to share our burdens.
Remember that He is known as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” The Savior taught, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” His atoning sacrifice allows our sins to be forgiven to the point that He no longer remembers them.
We may not totally forget our sins as part of our mortal learning so we will remember not to repeat them. Instead, we will remember Him as we take the sacrament at church every Sunday. This ordinance is an essential part of worship and spiritual development. Joy comes when we understand that this is not just another day. “The sabbath was made for man” with the intention of giving us rest from the world and renewing our body and spirit.
We also remember Him when we go to the temple—the house of the Lord. Temples give us a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ as the center of the covenant that leads us to eternal life, “the greatest of … the gifts of God.”
Attending the temple has given me comfort and great hope about our eternal destiny. I have experienced heavenly connections with people on both sides of the veil. I’ve seen healing miracles in the lives of my young children, two of whom live with unseen illnesses that require daily care for the rest of this life.
Our family rejoices as we share about the plan of happiness. My children’s faces light up when they hear that, thanks to Jesus Christ, their “afflictions shall be but a small moment.” We love our children deeply, and we know that someday, as President Jeffrey R. Holland taught, they “will stand before us glorified and grand, breathtakingly perfect in body and mind.” Our covenants bring us closer to God to the point of making the impossible possible, filling every space of darkness and doubt with light and peace.
Thanks to Jesus Christ, there are hope and well-founded reasons to continue loving, praying, and supporting those we care about.
I know He lives. He knows us and He loves us. He is the way, the truth, and the life of the world.
I invite all of us today to center our lives on Jesus Christ and His teachings. Doing so will help us avoid biting the hooks of temptation, offense, and self-pity. We will stand as temples—holy, firm, and constant. We will weather the storms, and we will make it home, enduring to the end and rejoicing to the end. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.