Lord, is it I?

Yesterday in devotional the speaker was Robert Wahlquist.  I had 2 classes from him when I was a student at BYU-Idaho and he served on our High Council in 3rd Stake.  I love the way he teaches and I was very excited about the opportunity to hear from him.  He began by having us turn to Matthew 26:22 to see what the apostles responded when Jesus said that one of them would betray Him.  They did not point their fingers at each other, but rather asked, "Lord, is it I?"

The rest of his talk was with that in mind.  When I hear from the Brethren, do I point my fingers at others, or do I ask, "Do I need to hear this message?  Is there something I should be doing to improve myself?  Lord, have I delayed making changes in the small things I do often?"

He said that he was observing a seminary teacher once and noticed that the teacher asked a very good question that Robert felt would begin a good discussion.  One student raised his hand and said, "Praying."  Another said, "Reading the scriptures," while another said, "Going to church."  With that the teacher put up his hands and said, "I don't want primary and seminary answers.  I want REAL answers!"  Robert said as he sat in the back and watched he said to himself that these "primary" and "seminary" answers were the correct answers.  He taught us to make small changes in the things we do often to make huge improvements in how we worship the Savior.

He quoted from President Uchtdorf's talk from April, 2008 Conference:

"Suppose you were to take off from an airport at the equator, intending to circumnavigate the globe, but your course was off by just one degree. By the time you returned to the same longitude, how far off course would you be? A few miles? A hundred miles? The answer might surprise you. An error of only one degree would put you almost 500 miles (800 km) off course, or one hour of flight for a jet.

No one wants his life to end in tragedy. But all too often, like the pilots and passengers of the sightseeing flight, we set out on what we hope will be an exciting journey only to realize too late that an error of a few degrees has set us on a course for spiritual disaster.

Small errors and minor drifts away from the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring sorrowful consequences into our lives. It is therefore of critical importance that we become self-disciplined enough to make early and decisive corrections to get back on the right track and not wait or hope that errors will somehow correct themselves

The longer we delay corrective action, the larger the needed changes become, and the longer it takes to get back on the correct course—even to the point where a disaster might be looming

It was such a good lesson for me to be reminded of and I am looking at the areas of my life I need to improve - the things I do often.  I do realize that small change yield great consequences, good or bad.