Living a Covenant Life

I love serving in Primary, because I realize that if I can teach a gospel principle so that a child can understand it, then I probably understand it myself.  This past month, we taught the children about making baptismal covenants and how these covenants affect the way a person lives their life after they have entered the cleansing waters of baptism.

A covenant is a two way promise that we make with Heavenly Father.  We promise to do certain things and He promises to bless us with certain things.  To covenant means to "come together" or to be "bound together by promises".  The Lord has always made covenants with his children on earth. These covenants affect how we dress, talk, and act towards one another.

Baptism is the occasion for one of the first covenants we make with God.  Being baptized means we are serious about becoming a disciple of Christ and that we are willing to keep his
commandments.

One of the promises we make when we are baptized is that we are willing to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ.  We become a member of his family, therefore, we take upon us the family name of Christian.  As we take Jesus' name upon ourselves we should want to act like Him and follow His example in our daily life.  We should be willing to "stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places." ( Mosiah 18:9)  Christ has given us guidelines that help us to follow him.  He expects us to love each other, to bear one another's burdens, to mourn with those who mourn, and to comfort those who are in need of comfort. (Mosiah 18:8-10)

Another promise that we make is that we will always remember Him.  Becoming a member of his church is a full time endeavor.  We are not just a Sunday religion, we are to walk the walk every day, mindful of Christ and doing our best to live according to his teachings.

We also promise that we will keep his commandments.  Not perfectly of course, but we will do our best.  We learn more about those commandments and gain a testimony of each one as we progress and grow spiritually.

The Lord promises us that as we do our part, he will bless us that we might always have his spirit to be with us.  What a tremendous blessing that is!

As we are faithful in living our baptismal covenants, then we will desire to make additional covenants in the temple.  Baptism puts us on the path that takes us to the temple, where we will receive even more blessings that will prepare us to return to live as families with our Father in heaven.

I'd like to share some ideas on how we can intentionally live our covenants each day.  The principles of covenant living are the same for all of us- those have been laid out by the Lord.  The practices may look different from person to person.

Living our covenants each day should be our highest priority.  Do we think enough about honoring the promises that we have made, and continue to make each week?  On Sundays, when we partake of the sacrament, we renew our baptismal covenant, recommitting ourselves to follow Jesus by taking his name upon us, always remembering him and keeping his commandments.  We could also start our day this way, reciting those promises in our morning prayers and asking for grace to honor them.  For those of us who have made temple covenants, what if we reminded ourselves as we dressed each morning, what those symbols on our sacred clothing stand for?  Would we have a greater desire to honor our covenants as we step out into our day?  Would we have a greater motivation to  make choices to help us to stay on the straight and narrow and to treat ourselves and others with respect? 

Part of the Lord's plan of happiness involves, "enduring to the end" or "remaining faithful".  As we intentionally honor our covenants, today, and then the next day, and the next, we will remain faithful.  "Enduring to the end" is doable when I look at the "end" as, not the end of my life, but the end of my day.  A string of days turn into a week, weeks turn into months, months into years and years into a lifetime.

C. S. Lewis, said, "Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing yet has been done."  I love this quote.  Each day we need to place our trust in God to give us the grace to faithfully live out his plan.

When we live our covenants daily it might look like this:

* We will show up and show love.  The way we do this will look different  as we move through the seasons of our lives.  The Lord knows each of us individually, our strengths and our weaknesses.  He knows our health issues, our energy levels and most importantly he knows the desires of our hearts.  He doesn't expect us to do more than we are capable of doing, but I think he expects us all to do "something".  He will dictate to us through his spirit how this should be done.  We should never be too busy to live our covenants and loving God and loving people are the fundamental part of those covenants.

* We will focus on ourselves and not judge how others are living their covenants. Dealing with my own issues is a full time job, thank you very much! 

We can't see into each other's hearts. God alone can do that, therefore he is the only one who can judge us correctly.  What we can do is to be encouragers for one another.  Smile, give hugs, send texts and emails, drop a card in the mail.  Pray.  Ministering to one another is covenantal living.

* As disciples of Christ, we will always leave things better than we found them.  At least, we will try.  This applies to our physical surroundings (Go ahead and pick up that trash), it applies to our encounters with others (Can people say they feel better after having been in our presence?), and it applies to our relationships (Are we the first to say "I'm sorry" and quick to forgive?  ).   Living our covenants can have a very practical side.

*When we are living our covenants we will be found praying and spending time in our scriptures each day. 

"After ye have gotten into this straight and narrow path, I would ask if all is done?  Behold, I say unto you, Nay..." "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.  Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father; Ye shall have eternal life." (2 Nephi 31:20)

Sister Reeves in April 2014 conference said this, "A friend recently cautioned, When you ask the sisters to read the scriptures and pray more, it stresses them out.  They already feel like they have too much to do."  She said, "Brothers and sisters, because I know from my own experiences, I must testify of the blessings of daily scripture study and prayer and weekly family home evening.  These are the very practices that help take away stress, give direction to our lives, and add protection to our homes."   I would add my own testimony to Sister Reeves',  reading the scriptures and praying daily help take away the stress of daily living and bless our lives.

* God's covenant people approach life in a humble manner, always ready to learn and seek truth wherever they can find it.  They will study conference talks, they will attend their meetings ready to learn and will recognize that everyone they meet can teach them something about how to be more like Christ.

* Remembering is a powerful component of covenant keeping.  President Eyring shared in a wonderful conference message how he had a practice for many years of taking the time to write in his journal each night how he had seen the Lord's hand in his life that day.  As we journal, or even spend a little time talking with our family at day's end about the blessings we've enjoyed that day, we are living our covenants, because we have promised to always remember Him.

*The more we engage in intentionally living our covenants each day, the more we will realize that our lives are not our own.  As a disciple of Christ, our lives belong to Him.  He will make more of us that we could ever make of ourselves. He will also give us opportunities that we would never have without him.  What if we changed our attitude  about many of the things we do each day to, instead of saying, "I have to...",  to " I get to..."  For instance, I caught myself this week telling someone "I had to give a talk this Sunday."  I didn't really have to do this.  But, if I'm trying to live my covenants joyfully, then I will be grateful for the opportunity to serve.  So, for the past few days I've thought to myself, " I get to give a talk on Sunday."  "I get to serve in Primary."  "I get to go visiting teaching."   Covenant living offers many opportunities to follow Christ's example and serve one another.

* As we strive to live our covenants each day, we will at times fall short.  We are sinners.  Maybe one of the most important things we do as covenant people is rely on the Atonement of Christ to help us, not only to repent when needed, but to give us strength to get up each day and try to be more faithful and obedient.  We are never alone in our quest to become like our Savior.  Living and honoring our covenants doesn't have to be difficult.  It begins with the desires of our hearts.  If we have the desire and courage to act on what we believe, we will have God's grace to help us.

As God's covenant people are we happy?  Are we experiencing joy in our families, in our marriages?  In 2 Nephi, we read of a people who lived after the manner of happiness.  They obeyed God's commandments.  They built a temple.  They worked and lived and worshipped with one another.  They honored their covenants, and they were a righteous and happy people.  We can follow their example as we choose to live our covenants each day.  When we love the Savior, we will joyfully honor the covenants we have made with Him and we will be blessed. 

Living a covenant life fills me with hope.  I cling to my covenants, knowing that God will honor my attempts to follow Him, however feeble they may be at times.  I'm committed to this lifestyle of following in the footsteps of Jesus, learning from him each day, how to love and serve others more graciously.  Life can dish out some pretty tough experiences, but I know that only He can give me that peace that passeth all understanding.  I'm especially grateful to be walking this path of covenant living, side by side with so many good people who also love the Lord.  I learn from you each day.

* From a Sacrament Talk given on June 14, 2015.  I openly admit that most of these ideas are not my own.  If fact, I'm unsure if I ever have an original thought! I gather ideas for how to live a covenant life from many places.  A few sources that have influenced these words are:  This book by Shauna Niequist, this book by Jennifer Brinkerhoff Platt and this podcast by Michael Hyatt.