Wendy Watson Nelson - Becoming the Person You Were Born to Be

From the World Wide Devotional in 2016

Read or Watch the Talk HERE

EXCERPTS

Sister Nelson said desperation is a great motivator

Would you like this to be the very best year of your life? The year when you follow through—better than you ever have before—on resolutions that mean the most to you? ...They were desperate! ... They were desperate for Jesus Christ to help them do things they could never do on their own. ... Desperation can actually be a great motivator.
When we’re desperate to be guided by heaven, we work harder than ever to tune in to heaven. When we’re desperate to be physically healthy, we eat and exercise accordingly. No excuses! When we’re desperate to have more money, we eagerly follow the Lord’s law of finances—which is, of course, tithing!

Paying tithing on the amount you want to make rather than the amount you make

Consider President George Q. Cannon’s approach to tithing when he was an impoverished young man. When his bishop commented on the large amount of tithing poor young George was paying, George said something like: “Oh bishop, I’m not paying tithing on what I make. I’m paying tithing on what I want to make.” And the very next year George earned exactly the amount of money he had paid tithing on the year before!6

Desperation to become what we're born to be changes our vision and view of entertainment

When we’re desperate to become the people we were born to be, our vision changes. We wake up from the spiritual amnesia the adversary so cleverly administers, and suddenly we see things about ourselves, others, and our lives we’ve never seen before. The world’s “fun” and “entertainment” start to look almost ridiculous, perhaps even spiritually dangerous. We begin to see the adversary’s tricks and traps for what they really are—temptations to make us forget our true identity and our destination.
We begin to spend our time differently. Time on Facebook doesn’t seem half as compelling as time in the temple. ... We become much more interested in eternal truths the Lord will teach us in His holy house than in the latest sensational comments on social media, which can be so glib and brain-numbing.
One bright BYU coed told me she discovered a reverse correlation between how confident and happy she felt and the amount of time she spent on social media.
When we’re desperate to be our true selves, we use technology righteously.
When we’re desperate to be the true disciples of Jesus Christ we were born to be, we suddenly find the courage and determination to remove anything and everything from our lives that is unholy and impure. ... The scriptures become our “go-to source” for answers and for the comfort we may realize we’ve often been seeking online.

Wendy gives awesome experiment invitations. Here is one.

Would you be willing to try an experiment for 30 days? Daily kneel and thank your Heavenly Father for the scriptures. Tell Him the one question you most need to have answered that day. Plead to have the Holy Ghost with you as you read. Then open your scriptures anywhere, and read until you find the answer.8 Try it for 30 days and see what happens.

Pray to know what spiritual gifts to ask for, then ask for them

It’s up to us to prayerfully discover which gifts we need. We may need the gift of self-discipline or of cheerfulness. Perhaps we need the gift of patience, or the gift to be healed, or the gift to forgive. Perhaps we need the gift to have our sexual feelings be in harmony with eternal laws. Perhaps we realize that we cannot live one more minute without the gift of unshakable faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. When we’re desperate for any gift of the Spirit, that is when we will finally pray with all the energy of heart for that gift.12 And the great news is that each spiritual gift we receive takes us one more step forward into our true selves.

Imagine that the Savior has already come -- what would you make time to do now?

What if you learned that the Savior had already returned to this earth—that He, as part of His Second Coming, had already met with some of His true followers in several marvelous, large gatherings13—gatherings about which the world, including CNN and the blogosphere, knew nothing. If you found out that the Savior was already on the earth, what would you desperately want to do today, and what would you be willing and ready to do tomorrow?
I pray that this year you will have some moments of anguishing desperation that will propel you further along the path to becoming the man or woman you were born to be. Your true self is spectacular! Never settle for less.

Remember This . . .