Visit with President Bradley

It was a privilege to visit Matt's sweet mission president, a few weeks ago, President Ralph Bradley. Visiting him was a bit like visiting with a celestial being in Heaven for a few moments.  He is now 94 years old I believe and has been blind and widowed for the past eight years.  His spirits are bright and positive and his faith and mind are crystal clear.  If I could look to someone I would like to emulate and be most like when I pass from this earth it would be someone just like President Bradley.  As we visited with him, he shared with 3 of his missionaries and their wives some of his most sacred experiences.  I shall never forget that moment and what a spirit I felt that night from him.  What a blessing for us all.  Weekly President Bradley sends an email of his testimony to his children, grandchildren and a few of his beloved missionaries.  We were honored that he would include us.  Here is one of his weekly letters.  Matt now feels inspired to do the same for our family.  So that his posterity will have no doubt about his strong faith and testimony of Jesus Christ and his restored gospel now on the earth!

Dear Family,

I think about you and pray for you often.  Sometimes we feel a great deal of pressure from those around us to look a certain way and act a certain way, especially in church on Sundays.  I am hopeful that we can look past this outward pressure and truly focus on how we are doing on the inside, for we know that the spiritual condition of our heart and soul is far more important than the condition of our wardrobe, haircut, or handbag.  May we focus on what is really crucial this week and turn to God as we do so.

With Love,

Grandpa

Christ is not just working on us but with us and through us.

WITHOUT WAX

When I was first learning Spanish, my teacher taught our class the word for sincere. In Spanish the word is made up of two smaller words: sin, which means “without,” and cera, which means “wax.” Sincere: “without wax.” That certainly seemed like an odd combination of words. When I asked my teacher about it, he explained that the word sincere comes from the Latin sincerus, meaning “clean, pure, and sound.” He then shared an often-repeated folk explanation about the word’s beginnings. He said that long ago, dishonest sculptors who made items out of marble would cover any flaws or mistakes with wax. Then they would take their work to the market and sell it. The new owners would feel good about their purchases until they took them home and the hot sun melted the wax and exposed the flawed items for what they really were. Buyers got smart and began to ask, “Is this made without wax?” They wanted to know what they were getting. They didn’t want something that looked wonderful on the outside but would not hold up in the heat of the sun, so the question became “Is this sincere?”

Those who claim to be Christians must live lives that are sincere—clean, pure, sound—the same on the inside as they appear on the outside. People should be able to trust that they will see Christ’s image in our countenances and His teachings in our lives—not just on Sunday, but throughout the heat and pressure of a 7-day week. Living sincerely is difficult, but it is doable when we remember our sculptor is not a dishonest artisan but the perfect Creator. Christ is not just working on us but with us and through us. He condemned hypocrisy when He said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess” (Matthew 23:25). Christ helps us move beyond external appearances by going beyond self-acceptance, beyond relying on our own power, beyond preoccupation with ourselves. As we do, we are able to influence others in ways that go far beyond our wildest expectations.

The 7-day Christian by Brad Wilcox