Be Prepared, Not Scared — D&C 29
Come, Follow Me: Doctrine and Covenants 2025
(March 31–April 6)
Three Thoughts from Me:
Flesh eating flies and maggots. Eyes falling from their sockets. The moon turning into blood. Section 29 is filled with dreadful images that could come from a horror movie. I used to skip over these chapters, I didn’t even want to touch the words on the page because they frightened me so much. Then I taught a lesson on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I dreaded the topic and the discussion. But in the middle of my preparation, I realized an important truth that continues to fortify me today, these scriptures are not intended to make us scared, but instead, prepared.
The days of General Conference, in October and April, are the perfect time to measure our preparation efforts, both temporal and spiritual.
Take Elder Bednar’s advice and write down the things that only you can hear during this conference weekend. These personalized notes become your sacred map for the next six months.
2 Thoughts from Others
“…now is the time to for you and for me to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority. In a world with filled with dizzying distractions, how can we do this? Regular worship in the temple will help us” (President Russell M. Nelson, October 2024 General Conference).
“I don’t want to try to tell you how to do this, but I would recommend you don’t try to write down things that any of us say. I would suggest to you that that totally misses the mark. What you should write down are the things that only you hear that are being delivered to you very specifically by the power of the Holy Ghost…The time when this makes me laugh is in General Conference. I sit on the stand and I watch people writing as fast as they can go. And I want to, at some point, just get up and go, ‘Hey, it’s gonna be online in 40 seconds.’ And the reason I would like to get up and do that some time in General Conference is because if you’re so focused and so engaged in writing down what someone is speaking, you likely will miss what the Holy Ghost is trying to deliver to you individually and personally” (Elder David A. Bednar and Sister Susan Bednar-https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/missionary-devotionals-2021/2021-08-0260-elder-david-a-bednar-august-26-2021-1080p).
One Action for You:
Consider these two questions over the weekend: How am I drawing upon my faith in these difficult times? What can I do in the next six months to be more prepared?