By Brooke Hathaway
Elder H. Burke Peterson counseled students during Tuesday''s Devotional to decipher what is most important in their lives and focus on its growth.
'When the most important things are attended to first, then all else that is really important in life will appropriately fall into place,' said Elder Peterson, a General Authority Emeritus of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
'I have found the greatest challenge in life, regardless of the season you''re in, is to find those things that really matter most and put them on center stage in our lives.'
To demonstrate this point Elder Peterson shared an incident when he and his wife were in England.
Along the hills in the Lake District in northern England there are miles and miles of stone walls made up of slate rock of all sizes and shapes held together without mortar, he said.
'Some of us build a similar rock wall, as it were, between ourselves and Heaven. This wall is usually made up of our uncorrected mistakes or un-repented sins.'
This symbolic wall that some people build between themselves and the Lord is difficult to obliterate, he said.
'One of our greatest challenges in life is to destroy this wall stone by stone, or if you please, to cleanse ourselves, to purify this inner vessel so that we can be in tune and receive his answers to our petitions.'
Elder Peterson directed students on how to remove the so-called stones in the wall by sharing a personal experience.
He said he had a problem forgiving a man that he felt took advantage of him.
'I did not want to be around him. I wouldn''t talk to him unless I absolutely had to.'
After discussion with his wife he resolved to 'really pray' about it, and his prayers led to pleading.
'I have found that pleading raises prayer to another level,' he said. 'It happens when you really open up your heart to the Lord and let him see the real intent and purpose of your petition to him.'
Elder Peterson also discussed the plague of pornography.
'None of us here today can look at, read about, or listen to such explicit vulgarity, even in its mildest form, without bringing sorrow to a loving God and a terrible injury to one''s own spirit,' he said.
Elder Peterson advised students to rid their spirits of these stones and allow 'heaven-sent messages' to penetrate.
'Stopping the activity and cleansing the spirit of the impurities of which we''ve been speaking will not be easy, and it will not be quick, but it can be sure.'