We all understand this, but it is still difficult not to inhale. They will say nice things about you.’ He laughed a little and then said, ‘Dieter, be thankful for this. He said, ‘They will treat you very kindly. He explained also how gracious the members of the Church are, especially to General Authorities. During the hours we spent in the car, President Faust took the time to teach me some important principles about my assignment. One day I had the opportunity to drive President James E. He said this: “When I was called as a General Authority, I was blessed to be tutored by many of the senior Brethren in the Church. President Uchtdorf summarized this problem in a talk entitled, “Pride and the Priesthood” in the October 2010 conference. But none of them has ever tapped me on the shoulder, or written me a letter and said, “I do good work.” They are bright and clean and sharp and useful. I am looking at them now as I write this piece. He was generous enough to provide a small box full-things like scoops and clamps and tissue blades and forceps. I called him and asked if he would donate some of his instruments to assist me in teaching this lesson. My brother-in-law retired from a career as an orthopedic surgeon. What Aaron meant to say is that the credit for the effective use of instruments of healing must always go to the one who holds them and directs their work, and in both verses 26:3 and 26:15, Ammon has made this clear.Īmmon responded to Aaron’s concern with this declaration: “I know that I am nothing as to my strength I am weak therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things.” “Aaron rebuked him, saying: Ammon, I fear that thy joy doth carry thee away unto boasting.” However, when I served as an instrument in the Lord’s hands in Brazil, and wrote that letter to my mother, that is what I did.Īaron addressees this issue in Alma 26:10 when he warns Ammon about boasting, as though he (Ammon) had done some great thing. Can you imagine the instruments, after a successful surgery, boasting about how well they performed? None of them ever gets credit for their spectacular service in a medical procedure. There is another way in which all instruments are similar. It is unthinkable that a surgeon trying to heal someone who was sick or injured would afflict them with additional problems by the use of instruments that were not pure. It is an absolute imperative that surgical instruments be clean. But they all have at least one thing in common. There are dozens of varieties of surgical instruments, each with a specific purpose: everything from retractors to scalpels to surgical scissors. “Instruments.” The metaphor is nearly perfect as a description of our part in the work of salvation. In verse 3 he says, “And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.” Then, in verse 15 he says, “we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.” In Alma 26, Ammon refers twice to our true status in this work. Jacob warned his people at the temple, in Jacob 2:16, “Let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls!” That destruction comes when we fail to recognize the true source of our abilities and our accomplishments. In the October 2010 General Conference, President Uchtdorf said, “At its core, pride is a sin of comparison, for though it usually begins with ‘Look how wonderful I am and what great things I have done,’ it always seems to end with “Therefore, I am better than you.” The distance between accomplishment-even righteous accomplishment-and pride is hard to measure without a magnifying glass. I have a feeling that we all need to be careful how we speak of what we have achieved in the work of the Lord. I tried to share with him, as I will now try to share with you, the lesson I learned so long ago from my mother. I understood it better when my fourth son wrote from El Salvador to tell me about his successes as a missionary.
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