In President Dallin H. Oaks’s first address as the prophet of the restored Church, he counsels us to come closer to the Savior by being teachable.
“Humility is a master virtue, given to help us learn other virtues necessary for us to become what our Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son created us to become,” President Dallin H. Oaks teaches in his first address as the prophet.
In that address, “Coming Closer to Jesus Christ,” President Oaks further describes humility by quoting the words of President Spencer W. Kimball: “Humility is teachableness.” In other words, humility is the ability to recognize that we don’t know it all and we can’t do it alone.
The prophet’s take on humility inspires me to look outside of myself for guidance. Friends and leaders can provide inspired advice that might be easy to miss when we’re wrapped up in our own thoughts, ideas, and ambitions. Perhaps even easier to miss is the “still voice of perfect mildness” (Helaman 5:30) that speaks to us when we take time to connect with God and seek his counsel.
I often find myself living at such a frantic pace that I forget to slow down and contemplate what God may be teaching me, through his Spirit or the people around me. However, when I do take time to be teachable, I frequently find that God has been trying to get through to me and that his wisdom is exactly what I need.
“We are all a work in progress,” our prophet reminds us. We may not be perfect at listening or acting on the guidance we recognize, but one way we can draw nearer to our Savior Jesus Christ is by choosing to be teachable—to humbly recognize that we may have something to learn and to be open to words of wisdom that can help us become more like him.
Read more of President Dallin H. Oaks’s counsel in his devotional, “Coming Closer to Jesus Christ.”
Source: BYU Speeches
—June Cazier, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY KYLE JOHNSON
Find more insights
Check out Elder Ulisses Soares’s general conference talk “Aligning Our Will with His” to learn more about humility.
Read more about progressing to become more like the Savior in Elder Clark G. Gilbert’s general conference talk “Becoming More in Christ: The Parable of the Slope.”