Virginia Hinckley Pearce

My mom invited me to her Relief Society Enrichment Night tonight. The featured guest speaker was Sister Virginia Hinckley Pearce, daughter of President Gordon B. Hinckley. She was delightful and so funny. I shouldn't have been surprised given that both her parents had keen senses of humor. The meeting started with a beautiful musical number. It was a soprano solo arrangement of "I Believe in Christ" and was just so gorgeous. Her voice was clear and controlled and so, so lovely. I wish we had musical numbers like that in my ward. All we get are lame 'mormon pop' songs. But I digress.

Sister Pearce talked about why we keep having meetings; conferences, enrichment nights, Sunday meetings, etc. They are to the end that we will learn, change and grow, become new creatures. And the kind of learning that takes place in these meetings is not the same kind of learning that takes place in school where we memorize facts and stuff like that. The kind of learning that takes place in these meetings is all about becoming a different person, more like our Heavenly Father.

But for change to happen, it has to be your idea. No one can force or coerce or entice you to change, really. That is how much God respects our agency. So, what do we do if we don't have the desire to change? How do we increase our appetite for righteous things?

She gave the analogy of physical exercise. We've all been there so we all can relate. When you begin an exercise program, it's really hard to keep going and it's painful and sometimes your desire to keep going is not very strong. But as you keep at it, you suddenly realize you enjoy what you're doing and the results you're getting and you desire more. You're appetite increases.

So she said first, we have to recognize that there is a need to change. We have to be made award somehow that our relationship with our Heavenly Father is not what it needs to be to carry us. And how do we do that? Sometimes it comes in the form of opposition, trials, challenges, etc. We go through something hard or we watch someone else go through something hard and we evaluate ourselves and realize something is missing. We recognize the need for change. Another way she suggested is by praying and studying to know our weaknesses. When they are revealed to us, we will see a need that we never even knew we had.

After recognizing the need for a change, the second thing she said we have to do is show up and do what we're told. By that simple act of what may just be "going through the motions" at first, our appetite will eventually increase and we will desire more.

She also gave a warning about discouragement. First, she said discouragement is the enemy of desire. Then she counseled that very often after we go through a huge burst of spiritual growth, we come away feeling tired and discouraged, and we begin to lose our desire. She wanted us to know this was natural and just part of the deal. I don't really know how to explain why, but knowing this was really helpful to me. I have seen that process more than once before in my life and it's helpful to be able to see that it's cyclical and that just because I may have a tired phase doesn't mean I'm going to stay that way.

She also said one of the worst things (and boy do I know this is true), is to compare ourselves to others around us. This goes for spiritual matters as well. We have to remember we're on an eternal journey and everyone is at a different place. Comparing ourselves only leads to discouragement, which leads to loss of desire, which means we don't change.

Lastly, she said we have to be responsible for our own desire. We can trust in our Heavenly Father, show up and work hard and our desire for righteousness will increase. I can add my own 'Amen' to that. I feel a little like I could have stood up there tonight as her poster child. As we all do, I've gone through some difficult challenges in the past several years and my response has been to look internally at where I was in my relationship to my Heavenly Father. I saw many things that were missing and many things that needed to change. I next took action and found that even though difficult at first, when I increased my actions, my desire and appetite grew along with it. I've come to the point this past year where I could truly say I thirsted after righteousness. I've also endured the periods of discouragement and tired feelings that follow a burst of spiritual growth. I feel like I'm just getting started on becoming a new person spiritually but I'm excited for the journey.

It's difficult to sum up a half hour talk into a little blog post and especially when my delivery is not nearly as charming or funny as hers was but I hope you got the basic idea. She was such a wonderful, charming speaker and it was so good to have another reminder to "keep up the good work" and even to do a little more. I love this church!