Wow. I love Elder Oaks. His words speak to my soul.
The first line that stood out to me is, "...faith comes by hearing the word of God." THAT's why it's so important to go to Church, even if you feel like it's not doing any good. You need to hear the word of God through talks, lessons, and hymns. It nourishes your spirit, even if your mind wasn't all there. That's also why reading the Ensign everyday is a good idea for me. I need my faith to be strengthened on a regular basis, and hearing the word of God is the way to do it. I know we talk about "going through the motions" in church a lot, like it's a bad thing, and you need to do more than that, but my mom says that it's good to go through the motions. If you're doing those classic Sunday School answers, you're strengthening your faith and creating opportunities for the Holy Ghost to speak to you. It's not wasted effort.
Also, I love the analogy of the tree. You can't just wash off the dirty leaves and call it good, you have to strengthen the tree so it doesn't get dirty anymore. I couldn't help thinking about my housekeeping skills. (I'm sure I'll move on from this idea eventually, but for now, it's such a new and exciting concept for me.) There have been many times in my short married life when Matt will wake up on a Saturday morning and clean the house top to bottom and it will be clean for a week or so. That's like cleaning the leaves. And it is much easier to keep a house clean once it's clean. But we weren't strengthening our tree. Now, I have a system that's working for me. My threshold for clutter is much lower. I look around me more often before I leave a room or go to bed to see if I can take five minutes and make it look better. I have learned that it takes five minutes to unload the dishwasher. It takes five minutes to pick up Scott's toys and fold the blankets in the living room. And I've learned that just because something is a mess, doesn't mean I should just throw in the towel--it's fixable. This works for our spirits as well. I can take a look around my mind and heart and see if there's a figurative dish to wash or counter to clean or toy to pick up. If I do it everyday, I won't get so bogged down spiritually. I can ask for a little help here and there instead of falling apart because my spiritual house needs an extreme makeover. I think that's what it means to repent--do what you need to do to keep your spirit clean.
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