By Elder Ricardo P. Giménez
Of the Seventy

Have you ever noticed that our dear prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, continuously extends invitations to us? Not surprisingly, he has invited us to study and ponder the messages shared at the last two conferences. In April 2024, he said, “I hope you will repeatedly study the messages of this conference throughout the coming months.” Then, in October 2024, he said: “I urge you to study [the speakers’] messages. Use them as a litmus test of what is true and what is not during the next six months.”

These invitations can be added to prophetic invitations we have received throughout our lifetimes, including and especially those we have received in recent years. We may feel or think these invitations are another thing we need to add to our to-do lists, simply because we were invited or asked to do it. But could there be more to it?

Pondering over this and all the invitations we had received, I recalled something that I learned and decided long ago. I am trying to do these things which are essential to me because I love Him; I love our Savior. This is the real and most powerful reason why I do what I do, and then connected with this is my love for you, my fellow brothers and sisters.

As your brother, I hope you will consider my words as a sincere invitation to seek to understand the opportunity to link everything we do with our love for the Savior.

Doing this will help us understand the real “why” behind everything we do as disciples of the Savior. This will help us strengthen our covenantal connection with God, understanding His divine and eternal truths—His eternal and absolute truths that will never change. Eternal truths like “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

It is interesting that sometimes because we have consistently done things to the point that they have turned into traditions, we allow these traditions or activities to dictate our efforts to build faith in Jesus Christ. It seems that we do these things because we have done them for many years, without considering their impact on our covenantal connection with the Savior.

In our world, we usually focus on what we do and on consistently accomplishing tasks and goals. In a spiritual sphere, we have the opportunity to go beyond just doing things or achieving goals by understanding why we are doing them. If we can understand and connect that the reason behind our actions relates to our love for the Savior and our Heavenly Father, by taking advantage of these opportunities we will understand that even though doing righteous things like having Church activities or traditions and appropriately doing them is a good thing, when we connect them with the “why,” we will be blessed to understand the reason. It won’t be just doing good things or doing them right; we will also get them right.

For example, when you set a goal to read the scriptures, offer sincere prayers, or prepare an activity for your family or ward, is the real goal simply to accomplish these tasks? Or are these actions the means, the tools at your disposal, to achieve the true goal? Is the purpose merely to hold an activity because we have done it for many years and then check the box that we have completed it? Or, once again, are these the means we use to learn, to feel, and to connect with the Savior?

Please don’t misunderstand my point about having activities and traditions or setting goals and working hard to achieve them; there is nothing wrong with this. However, I invite you to open your hearts and minds to the opportunity and blessing of understanding why we do these things and how we practice our religion.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/04/17gimenez?lang=eng

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