Desire

by Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Examples of how we sometimes override our desires with other desires that we consider more important:

1. We have a basic need for food, but for a time that desire can be overridden by a stronger desire to fast.

2. A boyscout can resist a desire for shelter in order to fulfill a requirement to spend the night in the woods.

3. A commander can resist a need for sleep in order to keep his guards awake all night.

We are tempted to desire that worldly quartet of property, prominence, pride, and power. We might desire these, but we should not fix them as our highest priorities.

• Those whose highest desire is to acquire possessions fall into the trap of materialism.
• Those who desire prominence or power should follow the example of Captain Moroni, whose service was not "for power" or for the "honor of the world" (Alma 60:36).

If our righteous desires are sufficiently intense, they will motivate us to cut and carve ourselves free from addictions and other sinful pressures and priorities that prevent our eternal progress.

Righteous desires cannot be superficial, impulsive, or temporary. They must be heartfelt, unwavering, and permanent.

Elder Maxwell said: "When people are described as 'having lost their desire for sin,' it is they, and they only, who deliberately decided to lose those wrong desires by being willing to 'give away all [their] sins' in order to know God. Therefore, what we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity."

Also important, to forgive all who have wronged us. Put the welfare of others ahead of ourselves. Love all of God's children. Begin with a desire for such qualities and call upon our loving Heavenly Father for help with our feelings. (Moroni 7:48)

All should desire and seriously work to secure a marriage for eternity. Those who already have a temple marriage should do all they can to preserve it. Those who are single should desire a temple marriage and exert priority efforts to obtain it. Youth and young singles should resist the politically correct but eternally false concept that discredits the importance of marrying and having children.

Let us remember that desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming. ...it is our actions and our desires that cause us to become something, whether a true friend, a gifted teacher, or one who has qualified for eternal life.

For the complete talk, go here.