'The Lord requires the heart and a willing mind'

Stand Up Inside And Be All In

'I thought if I didn’t unroll my sleeping bag, I wouldn’t have to roll it up again.”

image of Elder Sabin

The Lord requires the heart and a willing mind. Our whole heart! When we are baptized, we are fully immersed as a symbol of our promise to fully follow the Savior, not half-heartedly. When we are fully committed and “all in,” heaven shakes for our good.4 When we are lukewarm or only partially committed, we lose out on some of heaven’s choicest blessings.5

Many years ago, I took the Scouts on a campout in the desert. The boys slept by a large fire they had made, and like every good Scout leader, I slept in the back of my truck. In the morning when I sat up and looked at the campsite, I saw one Scout, whom I will call Paul, who looked particularly rough around the edges. I asked how he had slept, and he replied, “Not very well.”

When I asked why, he said, “I was cold; the fire went out.”

I answered, “Well, fires do that. Wasn’t your sleeping bag warm enough?”

No answer.

Then one of the other Scouts loudly volunteered, “He didn’t use his sleeping bag.”

I asked in disbelief, “Why not, Paul?”

Silence—then finally the sheepish reply: “Well, I thought if I didn’t unroll my sleeping bag, I wouldn’t have to roll it up again.”

image of scout camp

True story: he froze for hours because he was trying to save five minutes of work. We may think, “How foolish! Who would ever do that?” Well, we do it all the time in much more dangerous ways. We are, in effect, refusing to unroll our spiritual sleeping bags when we don’t take the time to sincerely pray, study, and earnestly live the gospel each day; not only will the fire go out, but we will be unprotected and grow spiritually cold.

When we are complacent with our covenants, we are complicit with the consequences. The Lord has counseled us “to beware concerning yourselves, to give diligent heed to the words of eternal life. And He further declared, “My blood shall not cleanse them if they hear me not.

Brothers and sisters, no one has sinned tomorrow. May we recalculate our route if need be and look forward with great hope and faith. May we “stand up inside” by being valiant and “all in.” May we be pure and courageous in defending our Heavenly Father’s plan and the mission of His Son, our Savior. 

Read or watch Elder Sabin's full talk.