Lauren's talk in church ~

Lauren gave a great talk in church today, so I thought that I would post it for all to see!

I was asked to give a talk on Preparation, and so I am going to touch a little bit on how I prepared for my baptism. I guess it would apply to people preparing for a mission and many other things. When I was taking the missionary lessons, I really didn’t think anything about joining the church. I had taken these same lessons at least 3 other times before and how did I think that they were going to change. Well, I think the difference this time was that I was spiritually prepared to take what I was learning in these lessons, study and prayerfully humble myself and ask the Lord if what I was hearing was true or not. By preparing myself spiritually, I feel it opened up my heart to the spirit, and then it was made known to me that what I was learning was true.
I needed to spiritually prepare myself today to give this talk in church. There are several other things that the prophets have asked us to prepare ourselves for; one of the biggest is to be prepared for the second coming of Christ. We can never fully be prepared, so we are constantly studying and working on being prepared, by studying our scriptures, praying several times a day, setting spiritual goals, going to all of our church meetings, and many other things .By being prepared, we know that when the day comes, we will stand on the right hand of God, and know that we did all that we could.
The Prophet Thomas S. Monson, gave a talk on preparation, and said this:
Remember the promise of the Lord: “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.”3 Fear is a deadly enemy of progress.
It is necessary to prepare and to plan so that we don’t fritter away our lives. Without a goal, there can be no real success. One of the best definitions of success I have ever heard goes something like this: success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Someone has said the trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never cross the goal line.
I want to state here and now that wishing will not replace thorough preparation to meet the trials of life. Preparation is hard work but absolutely essential for our progress. The Lord urged: “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118).
Concerning your preparation, let me share with you this time-honored advice, which has never been more applicable than it is right now: it is not the number of hours you put in, but what you put in the hours that counts.
Have discipline in your preparations. Have checkpoints where you can determine if you’re on course. Study something you like and which will make it possible for you to support a family. While this counsel would apply almost certainly to young men, it also has relevance to young women. There are situations in life which we cannot predict which will require employable skills. You can’t get the jobs of tomorrow until you have the skills of today. Business in the new economy, where the only guarantee is change, brings us to serious preparation.
Make certain as you prepare that you do not procrastinate. Someone has said that procrastination is the thief of time. Actually, procrastination is much more. It is the thief of our self-respect. It nags at us and spoils our fun. It deprives us of the fullest realization of our ambitions and hopes.
In academic preparation, I have found it a good practice to read a text with the idea that I will be asked to explain that which the author wrote and its application to the subject it covered. Also, I have tried to be attentive in any lecture in the classroom and to pretend that I would be called upon to present the same lecture to others. While this practice is very hard work, it certainly helps during test week!
Years ago there was a romantic and fanciful ballad that contained the words, “Wishing will make it so / just keep on wishing and care will go.”4 I want to state here and now that wishing will not replace thorough preparation to meet the trials of life. Preparation is hard work but absolutely essential for our progress.
Our journey into the future will not be a smooth highway stretching from here to eternity. Rather, there will be forks and turnings in the road, to say nothing of the unanticipated bumps. We must pray daily to a loving Heavenly Father, who wants each of us to succeed in life.
Prepare for the future.
Our last Prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley also brought up the same saying about if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. It obviously is extremely important for the Prophets to continually bring being prepared up over and over again! Another thing that the prophets have brought up preparation for is to have a food storage set up and done, so that we can be prepared for any emergency that comes our way. We should have enough for our family, and extra to give help to others
There have been many prophets, and not just today’s prophets, but also the ones in the scriptures that have warned people to be prepared. A good example would be Moses. He prepared himself and his family for the storm to come, and because he was righteous and had a relationship with the Lord, he and his family did not perish.
I am thankful for the opportunity that I have had to learn to be prepared to accept the gospel in my life, and to prepared for this talk. I am thankful that we have a prophet on this earth today to lead and guild us and teach us to help prepare ourselves for the Lords second coming. I know that this church is true. I love my family. In the name of Jesus Christ…..AMEN