What If You Really Just Suck at the Assigned Topic?

Many of you know that speaking in Sacrament Meeting is my all-time favorite thing to do. Honestly, it's the most fun thing we get to do in our church. I'd speak every week if they'd let me, and I'm not even kidding. So this past Sunday, when a bishopric member pulled me aside and asked me if I'd speak the last Sunday of this month, I was understandably delighted. That is, until he told me the topic.

What do you do if you really just suck at the assigned topic?

Because that's the case here.

When I came home, I told my family that I get to speak later this month, and they were super happy because they know how much I love to speak, and they like me to be happy. Then I asked them to guess the topic. I told them it's something I'm really, really bad at. Then they started listing things, so I guess I must suck at lots of Gospel topics, but eventually they guessed right:

Fasting.

Yeah, I really struggle with this one. I think it's partly cultural. As adults converts, Gerald and I did not grow up fasting. It was a foreign concept to us, and now, all these years later, it sort of still is. Perhaps it's just that I really like food a lot, and I don't like to be hungry? But for whatever reason, I've never fully embraced this principle or incorporated into my life, at least not regularly.

And now I have to speak about it in Sacrament Meeting.

Okay, nothing, absolutely nothing, would take away from my joy in getting to speak. I'm thrilled. But I needed to figure out a way to proceed. I want to teach the principle, but I don't want to be a hypocrite. So I asked for help from people I trust: first, an LDS Facebook group I belong to; and second, my family. One person from the FB group had this suggestion: "You should fast until you gain a testimony of fasting. That way, you'll either be ready to give the talk, or you won't have to." Ha!

Then my son and recently returned missionary, Eli, has this to say: "Hahaha, that's hilarious. So what are you going to do? Say 'I don't fast, but it's a good idea. Amen.'"

Ah, no. I think maybe I WON'T use either of those two suggestions. Instead, I was reminded of a conversation I once had with a friend and member of our Stake Presidency in Washington. For some reason, we were discussing this exact issue: how to teach a principle when you know you don't live it very well yourself. His opinion was that it doesn't matter. In our church, we teach principles; we teach the ideal. We know full well that none of us is perfect and that none of us lives all Gospel principles perfectly all the time. If that were true, we probably wouldn't need to be here, yet here we are! Here we are on this beautiful earth, blessed with families, friends, Gospel principles to guide us, and most importantly, a Savior to rescue us when we need rescuing. We are here to grow, to learn, to practice living the Gospel, and to improve ourselves day by day. And knowing we all fall short here, there, and everywhere, we still teach true principles. We still teach the ideal.

That is what I will seek to do in this talk. Those of you in the Union Park 6th Ward can see how that all goes a week from Sunday. The rest of you....wish me luck.