Jet Mariano

Tag: Meekness

  • MIT8 – “Watching the river run”

    “watching the river run” — Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. Long-exposure fall stream; motion becomes grace.
    Shot very low on a tripod with remote shutter. 4-second exposure at f/11, ISO 200 to smooth the water like silk while keeping the scene crisp.

    Excerpt

    The current is fast and the banks are close—but I can still choose calm. Today I’m learning that peacemaking starts inside me, then flows outward.

    Intro

    This stream looks like my week—swirl, speed, and color. I can’t control every bend, but I can decide the spirit I bring into each conversation.

    Notes from Elder Gary E. Stevenson(Oct 4, 2025 Sat AM GC)

    • Peacemaking is a Christlike attribute that begins in hearts, then homes, then communities.
    • It requires courage and wise compromise without sacrificing principle.
    • Lead with open hearts, not closed minds; extended hands, not clenched fists.
    • Taught by Jesus Christ in scripture and reaffirmed by living prophets today.

    Notes from Elder Kelly R. Johnson(Oct 4, 2025 Sat AM GC)

    • Seek validation vertically, not horizontally.
    • When others try to label us by weaknesses, stand strong in who we truly are—children of God.
    • Identity in Christ anchors peacemaking; it removes the need to win and invites us to love.
    • President Russell M. Nelson has taught that using labels can breed animosity, judging, and division; peacemakers look past labels to divine identity.

    Perspective

    Peace isn’t pretending tensions don’t exist. It’s choosing the Lord’s way—firm in truth, soft in tone, willing to listen, ready to reconcile. Knowing whose I am steadies who I am, so I don’t need to fight for labels or approval.

    Practice (today, not someday)

    Stop: rehearsing comebacks; seeking validation from reactions and “likes.”
    Start: pray before hard talks; state principles clearly, then ask sincere questions; offer one olive-branch action (thanks, brief apology, or specific help); write “I am a child of God” at the top of today’s notes.

    Final reflection

    Rivers carve rock not by force but by steadiness. Peacemaking works the same—courageous, principled, and patient because my identity is anchored in Him.

    Pocket I’m keeping

    Extended hands, not clenched fists—rooted in the quiet confidence of a child of God.

    What I hear now

    Be brave and gentle. Hold to truth. Let peace start in your heart and flow to your words.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time — Sep 15, 2025 “Grounded, Rooted, Established, and Settled”

    Sun crowns the Angel Moroni and echoes in the red-car reflection—heaven above, witness below. Today I’m choosing to be “grounded, rooted, established, and settled.” Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s devotional was given 44 years ago today (Sept 15, 1981); I’ve listened to and reread it more than forty times since last night, and it still steadies me.
    Behind the shot (BTS)
    iPhone only. I walked the grounds, lining up angles until the sun sat directly behind Moroni. I waited for the clouds to thin, then chose the red car as my foreground to mirror the spire and add a second “sun.” Composing a photograph isn’t easy—it takes patience, timing, and a little inspiration.

    Excerpt
    When life feels hot and hurried, deep roots matter. Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught us to become “grounded, rooted, established, and settled.” Today I’m practicing that—quietly, covenant by covenant—so the sun doesn’t scorch my faith.

    Intro
    What a coincidence—September 15. On this date in 1981, Elder Neal A. Maxwell delivered a devotional that feels tailor-made for our moment. He urged a discipleship with depth, the kind that survives heat and headlines: grounded, rooted, established, and settled. He reminded us that God’s curriculum is deliberate—patience, meekness, love, self-discipline—and that routine isn’t pedestrian; it’s providential. Real growth happens “in process of time” and “according to the flesh”—ordinary days doing eternal work. If the world’s scaffolding falls away, what stands? Holy ground and holy habits. I want those roots.

    Straight line
    • Deep roots > fast leaves (Colossians 2:6–7).
    • After we’ve “suffered a while,” grace “stablish[es], strengthen[s], settle[s]” (1 Peter 5:10).
    • The seed survives the sun when nourished “with great diligence, and with patience” (Alma 32).
    • Ordinary days are eternal classrooms; portable skills—meekness, charity, self-discipline—rise with us.

    Notes from Elder Maxwell (Sep 15, 1981)
    • Growth without roots scorches. Disciples withstand heat because they are grounded—not trending.
    • Scaffolding and applause fall away; covenant habits remain.
    • God’s curriculum forms eternal, portable skills we’ll need forever.
    • Routine can be resplendent: quiet covenant keeping outlasts headlines.
    • Keep gospel perspective: our basic circumstances are strikingly similar—we are God’s children, accountable, loved, and capable of steady growth.

    Perspective (directly from the devotional)
    “A hundred years from now, today’s seeming deprivations and tribulations will not matter then unless we let them matter too much now. A hundred years from now, today’s serious physical ailment will be but a fleeting memory.”

    “A thousand years from now, those who now worry and are anguished because they are unmarried will, if they are faithful, have smiles of satisfaction on their faces in the midst of a vast convocation of their posterity. The seeming deprivation which occurs in the life of a single woman who feels she has no prospects of marriage and motherhood properly endured is but a delayed blessing, the readying of a reservoir into which a generous God will pour all that he hath. Indeed, it will be the Malachi measure: ‘there shall not be room enough to receive it’ (Malachi 3:10).”

    Practice (today, not someday)
    • Choose one root to deepen: scripture before screens; prayer with listening; sacrament with intent.
    • Trade hurry for holy: slow the reply, soften the tone, serve someone nearby.
    • Write one “settled” choice: the commandment I will keep even when the sun is hot.
    • Plant a small habit that outlasts headlines: five minutes of gratitude, one quiet act of mercy, one bridge-building conversation.

    Final reflection
    I can’t cool the world’s weather, but I can deepen my roots. If I will be grounded in Christ, the same sun that scorches shallow soil will ripen real fruit. Ordinary days, kept with covenants, become the very ground where God “stablishes, strengthens, and settles” the soul.

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Deep roots before bright leaves.
    • Perspective over panic.
    • Ordinary days are eternal classrooms.
    • Meekness travels well—now and forever.

    What I hear now
    “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith” (Colossians 2:7).
    “After that ye have suffered a while… stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Peter 5:10).
    “Nourished by your faith with great diligence, and with patience” (Alma 32:41).

    Link to the talk
    BYU Devotional, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, September 15, 1981 (searchable on speeches.byu.edu).

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time – Sep 12, 2025 – “Meek and Lowly” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell)

    Manila woke to a sky of soft fire, and the spires answered. The world often mistakes meekness for weakness, but heaven doesn’t. Meekness is how we hear the ‘still, small voice’ in a loud century, how we keep working without being seen, how we forgive when no one claps. In that quiet courage, the Lord gives what He promised—rest for the soul and light for the road.

    Excerpt

    Meekness isn’t weakness—it’s the enabling power to wear Christ’s yoke, learn of Him, and endure well. It quiets pride, softens intellect, and turns stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

    Intro

    Today I revisited Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s 1986 devotional, “Meek and Lowly.” The world treats meekness as quaint; heaven calls it essential: “For none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart” (Moroni 7:44). Jesus invites, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly” (Matthew 11:29). Meekness is the key that makes discipleship possible—steady work, quiet strength, and “thanksgiving daily” even in stern seasons.

    Straight line

    Wear His yoke, learn of Him. Meekness is how disciples are taught by the Yoke-Master—an education for mortality and eternity.

    Do good—and don’t weary. Maxwell stacks the stretch: do good and don’t faint; endure and endure well; forgive and forgive “seventy times seven.”

    Drop the heavy baggage. Meekness sheds fatiguing insincerity, hunger for praise, and the “strength-sapping quest for recognition.”

    Meekness deepens discipleship. God gives challenges to keep us humble (Ether 12:27). Meekness steadies us when misrepresented or misunderstood.

    One missing virtue matters. Like the rich young ruler, other strengths can’t compensate for missing meekness—it alters decisions and destiny.

    A friend of true education. “Humbleness of mind” opens us to things we “never had supposed” (Moses 1:10); without it we’re “ever learning” yet missing truth (2 Tim. 3:7).

    Pride is in all our sins. Meekness breaks those polished chains—resentment, offense-hunting, murmuring, and small, myopic views of reality.

    Ears to hear. The meek listen long enough to recognize the Shepherd’s voice and turn “rocks of offense” into stepping stones.

    Grace flows to the meek. “His grace is sufficient” (Ether 12:26). Without meekness there is no sustained faith, hope, or charity (Moroni 7:43–44).

    Line upon line. Meekness partners with patience—time to absorb, repent, and be made strong in weak places (Ether 12:27; 2 Nephi 28:30).

    Final reflection

    Meekness is not passivity; it’s power under covenant. It lets Christ carry the kingdom while we do our duty, turns offense into learning, and keeps us rejoicing when no one’s clapping. If I would know the Lord better, I must wear His yoke longer.

    Pocket I’m keeping

    • Wear His yoke → learn of Him
    • Do good and don’t weary
    • Shed praise-hunger; drop old grievances
    • Listen longer; recognize His voice
    • Ask “rightly,” wait “line upon line”
    • Let grace make weak things strong

    What I hear now

    “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me… and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)

    Link to the talk

    BYU Devotional — “Meek and Lowly” (Neal A. Maxwell, Oct 21, 1986)

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time Sep 9, 2025 – Repent of Our Selfishness

    Waning gibbous, waiting: I timed the moon to rest behind the Angel Moroni atop the Oquirrh Mountain Temple—quiet light on a higher call.

    Excerpt
    Selfishness is not just a flaw—it’s self-destruction in slow motion. Elder Neal A. Maxwell teaches that meekness is the real cure, for it doesn’t just mask selfishness but dissolves it.

    Intro
    Joseph Smith urged that selfishness be “not only buried, but annihilated.” Elder Maxwell builds on that: selfishness shrinks the soul, corrodes society, and detonates commandments. Like Copernicus reminding the world it wasn’t the center of the universe, we too must learn—we are not the center. Meekness and unselfish discipleship are the only antidotes.

    Straight line (what he’s saying)
    • Selfishness = self-destruction in slow motion. It narrows life until others no longer matter.
    • Appetite and ego can never fill emptiness; zero multiplied by anything is still zero.
    • Selfishness masks itself as swagger but is as provincial as goldfish in a bowl.
    • Joseph Smith: selfish feelings must be annihilated, not moderated.
    • Common forms: puffing credit, resenting others’ success, withholding kindness, rudeness, and abuse.
    • Cultural consequence: when selfishness spreads, societies decline—without mercy, without love, past feeling.
    • Selfishness detonates the Ten Commandments: it fuels envy, adultery, dishonesty, even murder.
    • Cain’s “I am free” after slaying Abel = ultimate selfish blindness.
    • Today: people strain at gnats (small issues) while swallowing camels (grave sins like abortion).
    • Followers share accountability with leaders in cultural decline; excuses won’t save.
    • True freedom comes from unselfishness—serving, forgiving, and lifting others.
    • Christ Himself is the supreme contrast: He did not look out for “number one.”

    Final reflection
    Selfishness corrodes both heart and culture. The cure is meekness—choosing to notice, to yield, to bless. When I dissolve selfish wants, space opens for Christlike love. The world says “look out for number one”; Jesus says, “lose yourself and you’ll find life.”

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Before big actions: quietly ask, “Whose needs am I meeting?”
    • Practice daily meekness: count to 10 before speaking, let the Spirit filter words.
    • Replace envy with gratitude; bless the success of others.
    • Sow unselfishness in family life—ordinary duties cultivate extraordinary love.
    • Remember: selfishness shrinks, meekness expands.

    What I hear now
    Unselfishness frees me under a “freer sky,” as Chesterton said. Meekness is not weakness—it’s strength without selfishness. When I choose it, selfishness dissolves and discipleship deepens.

    Link to the talk
    “Repent of [Our] Selfishness” — Elder Neal A. Maxwell

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time — “Consecrate Thy Performance” (Neal A. Maxwell)

    “Heart, soul, and mind.” When we offer all, He consecrates our performanc. Saratoga Springs Temple · waxing gibbous moon

    Excerpt
    Consecration isn’t giving things as much as yielding self. When heart, soul, and mind align with God, He consecrates our efforts for lasting good.

    Intro
    Elder Neal A. Maxwell teaches that ultimate consecration is our will swallowed up in the Father’s. Step by step, His grace is sufficient, and our performances are consecrated “for the lasting welfare of [our] souls.”

    Straight line (what he’s saying)
    • Consecration = yielding will to the Father—one stepping-stone at a time.
    • We often “keep back part” (skills, status, habits); partial surrender still diverts.
    • Worth is fixed; assignments change—He must increase, we decrease.
    • Good things can crowd out the first commandment; beware lesser gods.
    • Acknowledge His hand; avoid the “my power, my hand” trap.
    • Discipleship polishes us (rough stone rolling): contact, friction, meekness.
    • Surrendering the mind is victory; God teaches higher ways.
    • Jesus is the pattern—never lost focus; Gethsemane above all other miracles.

    Final reflection
    My hardest “part” isn’t money—it’s control. God wants a consecrated person more than a perfect portfolio. Yielded work beats impressive work.

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Ask daily: “Lord, is it this?”—take the next small stone.
    • Worship before work; name His hand first.
    • Hold assignments lightly; hold Jesus tightly.
    • Trade applause for alignment.
    • Measure by love, patience, meekness.

    What I hear now
    I’ll hand Him today’s schedule, camera, and keyboard—and let Him aim them. Consecration is hourly trust; even detours can be consecrated.

    Link to the talk
    “Consecrate Thy Performance” — Neal A. Maxwell.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time — “If Thou Endure Well” (Neal A. Maxwell)

    Saratoga Springs Utah Temple with a rising waxing gibbous moon.

    Excerpt
    None of us is immune from trial. Elder Neal A. Maxwell teaches that if we endure well, today’s struggles are shaped into tomorrow’s blessings. Here’s my mark-in-time takeaway and how I’m applying it.

    Intro
    I listened again to Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s devotional “If Thou Endure Well.” The sentence that stayed with me: None of us can or will be immune from the trials of life. However, if we learn to endure our struggles well, they will be turned into blessings in eternity. That’s both bracing and kind—God doesn’t waste pain when we place it in His hands.

    Straight line (what he’s saying)
    • Mortality guarantees opposition; surprise is optional.
    • Enduring well ≠ grim hanging-on; it’s faithful submission, patience, and continuing to choose light.
    • Timing is part of God’s tutoring—deliverance sometimes tarries so discipleship can deepen.
    • Gratitude and meekness change how trials shape us. They don’t shorten the storm, but they change the sailor.
    • The Lord consecrates affliction to our gain when we refuse cynicism and keep covenant routines (scripture, prayer, sacrament, service).

    Final reflection
    Enduring well is a decision repeated—quietly—over and over. It’s choosing not to narrate my trial as abandonment, but as apprenticeship. It’s trusting that God is doing more with my life than I can see from the shoreline.

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Expect opposition; practice patience on purpose.
    • Pair prayers with small, durable acts (keep the next covenant, serve the next person, take the next right step).
    • Measure “progress” by faithfulness, not by ease.

    What I hear now
    Tonight’s images—reflections, a quiet bench, a waxing gibbous over the spire—feel like a lesson in waiting. I can’t rush the moon to its mark, but I can keep framing, steady my hands, and choose light again. If I endure well, God will finish the alignment.

    Link to the talk
    Full devotional: “If Thou Endure Well” — Neal A. Maxwell (BYU Speeches).

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • “In Him All Things Hold Together” Elder Neal A Maxwell

    Syracuse Utah Temple at blue hour beneath a setting first-quarter moon. I lingered long; the nudge lingered longer. In Him, the night—and I—held together.

    Intro
    I lingered at the Syracuse Utah Temple until the first-quarter moon slid above the spire and the stars came on. The nudge I felt there was the longest I’ve ever carried from any temple—it stayed even while I was shooting. Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s cadence kept pacing me:

    “In Christ all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17)

    And he widened the frame of my night with this:

    “I wish to talk about your unfinished journey. It is the journey of journeys… The trek awaits—whether one is rich or poor… married or single, a prodigal or an ever faithful. Compared to this journey, all other treks are but a brief walk in a mortal park or are merely time on a telestial treadmill.” —Elder Neal A. Maxwell

    The temple path made that “journey of journeys” feel less abstract and more immediate—boots on stone, heart in hand.

    The straight line
    Perishable skills expire; portable virtues don’t. The Lord is shaping “men and women of Christ”—meek, patient, full of love (Mosiah 3:19). When life frays, covenants are the stitching; Christ is the seam that actually holds me together.

    Final Reflection (Maxwell, in his own words)

    “These attributes are eternal and portable… Being portable, to the degree developed, they will go with us through the veil of death.”
    “Since He is risen from the grave, let us not be dead as to the things of the Spirit… In him all things hold together.”

    Standing beside the flower bed and the pale stone, I felt why: if I let Him order my heart, He will also order my steps.

    Another line the night underlined
    Elder Maxwell ties the sky to our discipleship:

    “At Christmastime we celebrate a special star… placed in its precise orbit long before it shone so precisely… ‘All things must come to pass in their time’ (D&C 64:32). His overseeing precision pertains not only to astrophysical orbits but to human orbits as well… our obligation to shine as lights within our own orbits.” —Elder Neal A. Maxwell (see Philippians 2:15)

    Insight: The moon over Syracuse wasn’t an accident; neither is where God has set me. If I stay in my covenant orbit—quiet, steady, on time—He’ll handle the timing and the alignment.

    What I hear now

    • Let Christ carry what’s flying apart. Pray first: “Hold this together in Thee.”
    • Choose portable over perishable. Practice a trait before a technique.
    • Shine in your current orbit. Steward the people and places already set around you; heaven runs on precision and timing.
    • Serve quietly. Authority of example > argument.
    • Take the yoke & learn (Matt. 11:29). Small obediences teach His large qualities.
    • Return, then refine. Revisit the same place (and person) until the light matches the message—the nudge at Syracuse taught me that.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • “Meeting The Challenges Today” Neal A. Maxwell

    Last light, first peace. Syracuse Utah Temple. 🌅

    “Meeting the Challenges of Today” — Elder Neal A. Maxwell

    Intro

    Driving to the Syracuse Temple, I queued up Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s 1978 devotional “Meeting the Challenges of Today.” One line kept burning: God’s foreknowledge and foreordination “underline how very long and how perfectly God has loved us and known us with our individual needs and capacities.” That changes how I face pushback—not with heat, but with holy steadiness.

    Listening loop: I’ve listened/read this message 30+ times since Thursday—car to Jordan River, then to Syracuse. Each pass peeled back another layer.

    Selected lines (to read slowly)

    • “In the months and years ahead, events will require of each member that he or she decide whether…to follow the First Presidency.”
    • “A new irreligion seeks to make itself the state religion…using preserved freedoms to shrink freedom.”
    • “Be principled but pleasant…perceptive without being pompous.”
    • “We were measured before and found equal to our tasks…God will not overprogram us.”

    Doctrine Note: Foreordination ≠ Predestination

    Foreordination is a conditional stewardship, not a guarantee. God can foresee outcomes without forcing them; agency remains intact.

    • David: God foresaw David’s fall but did not cause it. David chose Bathsheba; agency—and accountability—were David’s.
    • Martin Harris (116 pages): God foresaw the loss and prepared a remedy centuries earlier (see D&C 10; Words of Mormon).
    • Conclusion: God is never surprised; we are never compelled. Foreordination calls us to faithfulness, not fatalism.

    When minor defeats loom

    “There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, that others will step forward, having been rallied to righteousness by what we do.” — Elder Neal A. Maxwell

    How I’ve seen this: when I was knocked down at work, unexpected help appeared—quiet encouragements, timely messages, and small mercies that kept me moving. God’s compensating provisions are often people.

    Practice today: Who can I quietly rally by how I show up? Act first; announce later.

    My working understanding now

    • God doesn’t live inside my clock. He sees past–present–future at once.
    • Agency is real. He allowed me to choose Utah and walk hard roads; He wasn’t the cause of every sorrow, nor surprised by any of it.
    • Compensating provisions exist. He prepares remedies far ahead of my missteps.
    • **We are not foreordained to fail, but called to succeed—**and to become.

    Becoming, Not Just Describing

    Maxwell doesn’t invite us to argue; he invites us to become. Utah’s quiet—sometimes lonely—became the classroom where I finally studied harder, worshiped more steadily, and let the doctrine soak until it changed my reflexes.

    How I’ll practice becoming (small and daily):

    • Act > announce: do the next right thing before I say the next right thing.
    • Covenant rhythm: weekly temple worship, even when feelings lag.
    • Charity first: measure responses by love, not by likes or score-keeping.
    • Ask once, then release: honor others’ agency as God honors mine.

    Working creed: God foresees; I choose. If I stay on the covenant path, I’m not “stuck”—I’m becoming what my blessing already pointed to.

    Foreordination (Maxwell’s core teaching — extended excerpt)

    “Foreordination is like any other blessing—it is a conditional bestowal subject to our faithfulness… Prophecies foreshadow events without determining the outcomes… God foresaw the fall of David, but was not the cause of it… God foresaw, but did not cause, Martin Harris’s loss… and made plans to cope with that failure over fifteen hundred years before it was to occur.”

    Premortal memory (often called the “council in heaven”) — Joseph F. Smith:

    “In coming here, we forget all, that our agency might be free indeed… by the power of the Spirit… we often catch a spark from the awakened memories of the immortal soul, which lights up our whole being as with the glory of our former home.” (Gospel Doctrine, pp. 13–14)

    Why this belongs here: Foreordination honors agency; mortal forgetting protects it. The Spirit’s “spark” is what turns doctrine into direction—reminding me who I’m to become, not scripting how I’m forced to get there.

    When minor defeats loom (for this week’s online heat)

    “There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, that others will step forward, having been rallied to righteousness by what we do.”

    Application: in the FB pile-on, unexpected help appeared. God’s compensating provisions are often people. Charity begets courage in others.

    Tone to keep (even online):

    “Be principled but pleasant… perceptive without being pompous… have integrity and not write checks with our tongues which our conduct cannot cash.”

    We cannot judge who will come (God’s sight ≠ our verdicts)

    “The Lord… said, ‘Cast the net on the right side’… If he knew beforehand the whereabouts of fishes in the Sea of Tiberias, should it offend us that he knows beforehand which mortals will come into the gospel net?”

    Application: He knows who will soften, when, and how. My job is faith and kindness—not forecasting souls.

    A living (not retired) God

    “One dimension of worshipping a living God is to know that he is alive and seeing and acting. He is not a retired God… He is, at once, in all the dimensions of time—past, present, and future—while we labor within time’s limits.”

    Takeaway: He foresees without forcing, prepares without pampering, and lives to help—now.

    Final Reflection

    If God truly knew us and trusted us with these exact days, then opposition isn’t proof He abandoned us; it’s evidence He appointed us. Foreordination isn’t status—it’s stewardship; not a guarantee—but a charge to be faithful.

    What I hear now

    • Choose loyalty early; live it quietly.
    • Be firm without sharpness—principled but pleasant.
    • Treat foreordination as fuel for service, not status.
    • When weary, remember: we were measured before, and God won’t press more than we can bear.
    • Let pushback refine your discipleship, not redefine it.


    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Called To Serve

    Called to serve.” Elder Mariano’s missionary tag resting on well-used scriptures—belief becoming deeds. 📖

    Intro

    I’ve been looping Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s “Called to Serve.” Two voices keep converging: King Benjamin’s charge, “If you believe all these things, see that ye do them” (Mosiah 4:10), and Elder Maxwell’s reminder that **deeds, not words—and becoming, not describing—**define discipleship. Mere assent without application is like hearing a lecture but skipping the lab. The audit is personal: Am I taking the field trip with the Savior, or just acing the lecture?

    Final Reflection

    “One mistake we can make… is to value knowledge apart from the other qualities to be developed in submissive discipleship… Being knowledgeable, by itself… is not enough… It’s like being briefed on a field trip but never taking the field trip.” And then the piercing question: “Are we steadily becoming what gospel doctrines are designed to help us become? Or are we… rich inheritors… but poor investors…?” —Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Called to Serve (BYU, Mar 27, 1994)

    Elder Maxwell won’t let truth stop at the ears. Doctrine is meant to develop us—into merciful, meek, patient disciples. King Benjamin removes the wiggle room: if we believe, we do (Mosiah 4:10). Knowledge informs; obedience transforms. The treasure we’ve inherited only yields a return when we invest it in daily, quiet, consecrated doing.

    Elder Maxwell says our “defining moments” rarely stand alone; they’re preceded by small, subtle preparatory moments and followed by many smaller moments shaped by them. His Okinawa story (age 18) shows how a single spared moment led to a lifetime pledge—and then came years of quiet confirmations: the Lord’s short, crisp promptings (often “more instructions than explanations”), the urgent nudge to “write the letter now,” and the painter’s metaphor—countless brushstrokes that outsiders may not value, but God is “in the details.” Put beside King Benjamin’s charge, the pattern is clear: belief ripens into decisive, timely doing. Knowledge informs; obedience transforms. Defining moments are built, one obedient brushstroke at a time.

    What I hear now

    • My past can shape me, but it will not script me.
    • Charity tells the truth and sets kind boundaries.
    • Don’t just know the gospel—become it.
    • Belief proves itself by doing (Mosiah 4:10).
    • Trade admiration for application—put today’s light on today’s altar.
    • Measure growth by Christlike traits formed, not facts recalled.
    • Keep taking the “field trips” of faith—show up, serve, endure cheerfully.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

error: Content is protected !!