Careful what you wish for

I'm short on time once again this week. So this'll be a quick one.
 
We finally got our copies of the conference edition of the Ensign this week. One of the talks I remember hearing was by Dallin H. Oaks about our desires. I remember thinking it was a really good talk, and so I went back and read it this morning. It was a really good talk.
 
I had actually been thinking about how our desires affect what we do. That was the subject of one of our lessons for one of our investigator families. There's a scripture in Alma chapter 29 that talks about how God grants unto men according to their desires, "whether they be for good or whether they be for evil." I think it's interesting how much of an emphasis is placed on our desires.
 
If you think about it, it makes sense though. Everything we do is based off of one or more desires. When we are hungry, we eat. When we are tired, we sleep. Desires are the most basic motivation of every action we take in our lives. So our salvation must definitely be based off of our desires right?
 
How do we make sure our desires qualify us for salvation? First, we need to know what kinds of desires we should have. What is a "good desire"? Luckily, Heavenly Father has given us the scriptures and prophets to tell us.
 
I think the basic purpose of this life is to change our desires from bad to good. King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon tells us that "the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been since the fall of Adam." We have to "put off the natural man" and desire to be better. Desire to do the things which bring us closer to Christ. We know what those things are through the gospel of Jesus Christ. By developing faith, truly repenting, being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost we can obtain our salvation. But we won't do those things unless we really desire it.
 
The most important thing is to make certain that our good desires are always stronger then our bad ones. A desire to sleep can be overcome by a desire to finish a project late into the night. In the same way can a desire to partake in things which cannot help us in an eternal sense, be overcome by a desire to have good works. We build our desire to have good works by learning more of what it means to have good works. The more we learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we will desire the blessing of that in our life. There's no if, ands, or buts about that.
 
Ultimately, everything comes down to desire. Do I desire to work as hard as I can, every day I have here to bring as many people to Christ's church as I can? That's my desire, but maybe I can develop it a little stronger....to overcome a desire to sleep too much =)
 
Have a good week everyone!
 
Elder Sessions