David Butler - Almighty: How the Most Powerful Being in the Universe Is Also Your Heavenly Father

2018 David Butler

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

(CIP on file)

ISBN 978-1-62972-451-5

eISBN 978-1-62973-762-1

Printed in the United States of America

LSC Communications, Harrisonburg, VA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Dad who loves me so liberallylike
a good, good father would.

I think I turned some heads when I yelled out in the crowded restaurant. It just jumped out of my moutha tiny, little yelp.

Strangers are not supposed to grab you. But thats what he didthe man in the crooked black hat. I had just finished paying. One hand was clutching 900 bags of to-go food for my clan, the other was trying to wrangle my wallet back into my pocket, and my eyes were hastily searching for my car keys when he reached across the counter and grabbed my wrist. Like I was a criminal. Fight or flight did not have a chance to kick in before he asked me the question:

What?! I was completely stupefied. This was so bizarre. Why would he be asking me that? Such a random question! Such a personal question.

He must have sensed my confusion. He then tapped my thick white silicone bracelet in response to my puzzled look. The bracelet had been a take-home favor from youth conference. Engraved in big black letters across the band was the phrase I believe.

He asked again, So... what do you believe?

Oh, I stuttered as I searched my mind frantically for the right answer.

You see, the theme of our youth conference had been the thirteenth article of faith, which was clearly too long to fit on the bracelet, so we had settled on an adaptation of the first two words, We believe. Thats what the bracelet referenced, but that wasnt the answer to his question.

I was still so thrown off by the surprise of it all that I fumbled over where to start. My thoughts were a mess. I believe so many things. What should I say? The whole thirteenth article of faith? Or something else? Where do I begin? What do I pick? Is one truth more important than all the rest? How much does he really want to know? Why is he still holding my wrist? And, for real, where are my car keys?

The silence wasnt too awkward. My mouth kept stuttering while my mind ran wild, and he just waited patiently with a curious look.

There I was. The stage was set. I was up to bat. This was the opportunity I had been trained for, right? The made-up scenario from seminary was now actually happening. My missionary moment.

I recited the question to myself once more.

What do I believe?

What do you think you would say if you were me? If you had ten seconds to say just one statement about what you believe, what would it be?

There is not a wrong answer to that question. You believe whatever you choose to believe. There are, however, some truths that are more important than other truths. Wouldnt you agree?

My son Christian is the king of random trivia. If you need a fact that no one on earth needs to know, come talk to him. He knows how fast giraffes run, the number of people that have survived going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and how many hot dogs Americans eat on average per year. (Its seventy, by the way. That is more than one a week! Lay off the dogs, folks!)

Not all truths are created equalclearly.

I think there is.

During the first general conference of the newly organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there was a revelation that was read to those who came, which was known as the Constitution of the Church. You can find it today in section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

The verses in the beginning of the section list some of the amazing miracles that happened in the beginning days of the Church, starting with a fourteen-year-old boy speaking with God in the woods near his home. Then there was a visit from an angel in his bedroom. It talks about the coming forth of the Book of Mormona wildly amazing story!

Think of it. An ancient record written on golden tablets in an unknown language that Joseph found buried in a hill just a few short miles from his house. It was translated into English on scraps of paper in borrowed bedrooms at the rapid rate of about six or seven pages per day. This was done by the son of a Vermont farmer and his newfound friends who believed his story and risked everything, in some cases, to help him. And each of them had his or her own marvelous experiences too. Some of them heard the voice of God and visited with angels and saw miraculous, marvelous things. Those were the beginning days of a frontier church that now fills the world.

Can you picture the people who were there at that first general conference as the story was retold for everyone? Some of them with tears in their eyes and sacred memories replaying in their minds; others nodding to each other as they heard mentions of the spectacular experiences that had occurred since the First Vision. What a day! What a beginning!

And then in the revelation, the Lord said this:

What things? The marvelous and wonderful events surrounding the Restoration of Christs Church on the earth. The angels. The visits. The revelations. The miracles. All of these things.

So many good things have dominoed from Joseph Smiths visit to the Sacred Grove. But above all else, the miracles of the Restoration prove, first and foremost, that there is a God in heaven.

That seems to be number one. A golden truth.