At times living the gospel can be like an "inconvenient" truth (borrowing from Al Gore). Sometimes church responsibilities aren't totally convenient but in my experience they are totally worth it! President Hodgman gave a great talk at our Saratoga Stake Conference referring to this inconvenience and then elaborated on people that continue to serve over the years wherever and however they may be needed. He called these our "CORE" Members and shared ways we can "Strengthen our Core" in a spiritual sense by doing the following 4 things:
"C" = Be Commandment Keepers!
"O" = Be Ordinance Observers!
"R" = Repent Readily, and
"E" = Endure!
It was an excellent talk which I won't do justice to in a short synopsis but I absolutely believe all 4 are defining factors! If we miss any one of the "CORE" elements; at some point we'll stumble!
First, and quite obvious: we need to keep the commandments! When we don't, we clearly "bring on" other problems. Commandment keeping sounds so basic, yet sometimes getting back to the very basics is just what we need!
Second, living the gospel isn't just a perfunctory experience! There are certain things (Covenants/Ordinances) beginning with baptism that we need to be willing to take upon us to show our commitment and sincerity and to express our faith.
Repentence. Since I am far from perfect, I continually need to repent of dumb things I do that get in the way of my progression. It's an ongoing effort which must cause a lot of exasperation from Heavenly Father when I repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
Finally, Endurance! Staying steadfast might be the hardest part of the equation. But if you observe members who consistently continue to "hang in there" through every kind of adversity or challenge, these people have a core strength that I really admire!
It was a great stake conference! I always enjoy the talks more at the adult session on Saturday night and I finally realized why.....the Sunday morning session has cute babies, toddlers, and kids to look at and they distract me (it's a good/pleasant/sometimes adorable distraction but a distraction nonetheless).
