Take Time to be Holy

Sister Gayle Randall

October 01, 2024 11:15 AM

"I testify that your efforts to “Take Time to be Holy” by being one percent better each day will bear sweet and precious fruit. Your Heavenly Father sees every “small and simple” thing you do to return to Him one day, and He will help you in every way He possibly can."

You are a beautiful sight! I have been praying to know what Heavenly Father wants you to hear today. I hope the Holy Ghost will give you your personalized message as you listen. Years ago, I heard the Tabernacle Choir sing an old Methodist hymn that encouraged and guided me.
It is called Take Time to Be Holy. I would like to speak to you today about Taking Time to Be Holy. ¹
First, Take Time:
I know many of you are just now realizing how difficult it is to satisfy all the demands of your time as a student. I see you commuting on the early morning trains, studying in whatever space you can find to set up your laptop, and working hard at your student jobs. I know you are saying in your hearts, “Oh, Sister Randall, I don’t think I have time for one more thing.” I completely understand that but let me share what I have learned.
A few years ago, I read a book by James Clear entitled Atomic Habits.² Many of you have read it. I was enthralled with the story he told about the transformation of the British cycling team.
The story goes that for over a century, British cycling teams were considered failures, winning only a few gold medals in the Olympics and never succeeding in the Tour de France. Their reputation was so poor that some bike manufacturers refused to sell to them. Despite investing in advanced technology and training, nothing improved until 2003. That year, Sir Dave Brailsford was hired. Instead of attempting dramatic changes, Brailsford introduced a strategy called "the aggregation of marginal gains." This approach focused on making small, one percent improvements in every aspect of cycling performance. Said Brailsford, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”³

Not long after reading this book, I listened as Elder Michael Dunn referenced James Clear’s book and the cycling team in his General Conference address “One Percent Better.”⁴ After retelling this story, Elder Dunn said: “. . .what if we applied that same principle to the very sweet and savory second principle of the gospel, repentance?”

The story of the British cycling team and Elder Dunn’s message, both of which referenced improving by one percent made me wonder how I could do it, and could I measure it? My next thought was: How much time is one percent of a day? I subtracted time for sleep and calculated what one percent of our waking hours are, and it turns out that it is 9.6 minutes. I rounded it up to 10.

This made it appear doable and measurable to me. I thought I might try an experiment. I wanted to get in the habit of spending some daily time on family history. One Tuesday, on the way back from devotional, I decided that I would stop at FamilySearch and spend ten minutes there. I wondered if ten minutes would make a difference. I opened my family tree, as requested by my father, to my paternal grandfather’s line and noticed that my grandfather had yellow temples on all his ordinances. I wondered why since his temple ordinances were complete and he had even served as a temple worker. Then I noticed a baby girl listed as the firstborn, of which I knew nothing. I assumed someone had made a mistake. A missionary encouraged me to check the sources, which showed that two of my cousins had attached a death certificate to her record. At that moment, I realized that I had another aunt. I was stunned to think that my ten minutes of family history might yield temple work for a relative only one generation away. This baby was born and died on the same day before my grandparents were sealed in the temple, but her sealing ordinance work showed a yellow temple, not a green one. I asked my father later that evening if he knew he had another older sister. He looked at me in surprise. He had never heard of her. The next day, during my lunch hour, I found a FamilySearch missionary who showed me in less than ten minutes how to correctly enter the information for her, changing her temple from yellow to green, and, in doing so, causing all my grandfather’s ordinance work to show up properly. A short time later, I went to the Bountiful Temple with my octogenarian father and his two octogenarian sisters to serve as proxies to seal this baby girl to her family.

Do you think a one percent improvement in your day could make a difference? It did to my father and his newly discovered sister. I testify with Alma, that “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. . .” ⁵

Now that you have an example of how successful it can be, I ask you, “How will you seek to be one percent better as you “take time to be holy”? The hymn gives us some ideas. The first lines read:

“Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord,
Abide in Him always, and feed on his word.”

Praying is the very first holy habit we learn as children. It should be our best holy habit. But Satan does not want us to pray because he knows there is real power there. He will tell us that we don’t have time or that we need to hurry.

In Doctrine and Covenants 88:63 we read:

“Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive, knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”⁶

In January 2016, I listened to a Worldwide Youth Devotional, which changed the way I prayed and studied scriptures.
Sister Wendy Nelson said, “Would you be willing to try an experiment for 30 days? Daily kneel and thank your Heavenly Father for the scriptures. Tell Him the one question you most need to have answered that day. Plead to have the Holy Ghost with you as you read. Then open your scriptures anywhere and read until you find the answer. Try it for 30 days and see what happens.” ⁷
I tried what she said, and it changed my relationship with the scriptures. I thought of a question each day that I could take to Heavenly Father in prayer. After listening for an answer, I opened my paper scriptures randomly and began reading. I found answers in scriptures that were less familiar to me. I looked deeper to liken the scriptures to me and my questions. I wrote my questions and the heaven-sent answers in my journal. It was life-changing and exciting. I saw the Lord guiding me to the exact place in my scriptures where an answer could be found. When I can, I use my paper scriptures; when I can’t, I open the scriptures on my phone, close my eyes, and tap on the scriptures in the Gospel Library until I get to the chapter where Heavenly Father wants me to read.

You can do this, too. If you can’t think of a question, try my favorite: “What lack I yet?” I promise you will get an answer. I have.

The next line of the hymn reads:

“Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.”

I see examples of friendship on this campus every day. I see those who are strong helping those who are weak.

A few months ago, as part of my assignment on campus, I was reviewing interactions in Ensign Connect, our alumni and student networking tool. What I found inspired me. It was a chat between Spencer Hansen and Dan Landingin.

I have received permission from Spencer and Dan to quote from their chat:

Spencer wrote:
Hey Dan! What's up?
I've noticed that you are a very faithful and spiritual person, that you seem very optimistic and happy every time I see you, and you seem to balance life's demands well. Are there any tips you might have on balancing life effectively and improving my ability to perform in all aspects?
Thanks,
Spencer

Dan wrote back:
Hey Spencer!
It is so good to hear from you!
And thank you. I really appreciate your comments; it really means a lot to me . . .

And yes, I do have some tips in mind for you! I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I have come to [the] conclusion that what has helped me a lot recently to find balance in life and to improve at the same time is "Planning and Accountability"

I learned about it a lot . . . during my mission and I realized that I . . . am more efficient as an individual as I plan and stay accountable [for] myself. (Dan continues)

Planning - Realistically, we all perform better through organization and system[s] in our lives, and by planning what we can do throughout the day . . . setting goals and creating a task for ourselves. [These] can ease up our burdens and not make us feel lost.

Accountability - I love being accountable [for] myself. If I need to change the way I do things to be efficient and better in life, that's where accountability comes in. It has helped me acknowledge my own faults and motivate[d] me to do better and be better.

I hope this helps! I love and appreciate you, Spencer! Keep being you; you are a great example to me!

Thank you,
Dan Landingin

Spencer reached out to Dan, seeking God’s blessing in the advice of a friend. Dan reached back as a friend to help Spencer. Both were edified, and now, so are you, in an interaction that likely took less than ten minutes.

See how easy it is to take time to be holy by being one percent better?

The next stanza reads:
“Take time to be holy, the world rushes on; Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.”
In the New Testament we read of a time when a woman spent time with Jesus alone at Jacob’s well.
Jesus asks her for a drink of water, and she is surprised because the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.” The woman, not understanding the symbolism of Jesus’ teaching, asks how he can draw water without something with which to draw. Jesus says: “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” She still does not understand the symbolism of Christ’s words. When he discerns that she is living with a man who is not her husband, the woman begins to see that she is speaking with no ordinary man. “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet . . . I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. The woman then went into the city and testified, ‘Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?’”⁸

In this short interaction, possibly even less than ten minutes, the Samaritan woman met, conversed with, and learned from Jesus Christ and gained a testimony that He was who He said He was, the Christ.
Is it possible for you to do the same? Even with your student world rushing on, you can spend one percent of your day in secret with Jesus alone. With consecrated, even holy, effort, your testimony could grow and develop in this short amount of time as hers did.
President Nelson has taught: “I asked the young adults of the Church to consecrate a portion of their time each week to study everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the standard works. I invited them to let the scriptural citations about Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide become their personal core curriculum.”⁹

This kind of study can easily be done in ten-minute increments of time.
The next lines of the hymn read:
“By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be; Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.”
Our mission here at Ensign College is to become capable and trusted disciples of Jesus Christ. Through our conduct, others will see the likeness of our Savior in us and will be inspired to take time to be holy and make changes in their own lives.
Verse three says:
“Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide; And run not before Him, whatever betide.”
Taking time to be holy qualifies us for the blessing to be led by the promptings of the Holy Ghost.
President Henry B. Eyring has said: “It is important to remember the sure promise we receive each week as we repent and partake of the sacrament: ‘That they may always have his Spirit to be with them.’ If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost today, you may take it as a sweet evidence that the Atonement is working in your life.”¹⁰

In the Come, Follow Me manual, we read, “We should seek after whatever invites the influence of the Spirit and reject whatever drives that influence away—for we know that if we can be worthy of the presence of the Holy Ghost, we can also be worthy to live in the presence of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.”¹¹ [Close quote] That is what taking time to be holy can do for you.
The hymn continues:
“In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord, And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.”
President Russell M. Nelson has said, “My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him.”¹²

Will these small steps matter? I believe they will.
In Doctrine and Covenants 64:33, we read: “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”¹³
https://magazine.byu.edu/article/brick-upon-brick-byu-lego-exhibit/
[Recreation of the painting Light of the World by Brent Borup done by Jennifer Raine Smart]¹⁴

This mosaic of the Savior was created exclusively with tiny Lego blocks, with which I am sure you are all familiar. They are definitely small things, but in the aggregate, they make a beautiful, inspiring representation of Jesus Christ. Could our lives be like this mosaic, made up of thousands of “small things”—holy habits developed one day at a time through our lifetime? I believe they can.

I have found in my own life that these improvements created powerful spiritual momentum that led me to progress in other areas of my life. Our prophet has told us the difference it will make.
He said, “Momentum is a powerful concept . . . We have never needed positive spiritual momentum more than we do now . . .”¹⁵

Having the faith to take time to be holy for ten minutes a day is like planting the seed of which Alma spoke:
“Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.”¹⁶

Listen carefully because I want to be sure you understand this. Once your new habit becomes delicious to you, I hope you will be able to find even more than one percent of your time to savor it, nurture it, and let it become part of you. Your “desire to believe” that you can improve and be holy will have borne fruit. You will experience a joy that only those who seek to be holy can know. You will enjoy a sweet covenant connection with your Heavenly Father, who will be “well pleased” with you and your efforts, even the small ones with which you began.

I testify that taking time to be holy matters very much to our Heavenly Father.
Elder Patrick Kearon taught, “God is in relentless pursuit of you. He “wants all of His children to choose to return to Him, and He employs every possible measure to bring you back.”¹⁷

I have learned in a personal way that what matters to me matters to my Heavenly Father.

In October 1999, I had the precious opportunity to be the choir manager for a Primary children’s choir that sang at General Conference.
This was an overwhelming and humbling assignment, but I felt loved and trusted by my Heavenly Father. The children were taught the songs well; they were taught not to look directly into any cameras and told what to wear and how to behave during the Conference. We prepared them in every possible way.

The children sang their songs perfectly in the first half of the Saturday afternoon session. During the second half some of them began to get restless. I noticed a little boy playing with his tie, waving it up and down. The lights were down so only the audience could see, but I was worried. Midway through the second half of the session, the children sang “Come Follow Me” beautifully, but now, instead of listening to the Spirit of the singing, I was conscious of every child who was not behaving correctly. Then I saw that same little boy flipping his tie again right during the singing. I was disappointed, embarrassed and frustrated. I had to work hard to feel the Spirit again before the final song, “I Feel My Savior’s Love.”

Every leader from Church Headquarters with whom we worked complimented us and expressed gratitude. However, my disappointed feelings reared their ugly head again. When I got home, my children said it sounded beautiful, but did I see the little boy playing with his tie? In the days that followed others told me that the children were just being children and that it seemed more real that way. But Satan had discovered my weakness and he was relentless. I was still hurt and struggling.

A few weeks after the conference, I went shopping for choir leader thank-you gifts. I walked through Temple Square on my way to shop, and as I walked by the Tabernacle, a spirit of peace came over me, and I felt better than I had for a couple of weeks. I knew that my Heavenly Father was pleased with my service and that He would not want me to feel sad any longer.

A lesson I learned, however, through my choir experience, was how much Heavenly Father knows and loves me. Exactly six months after the conference, I heard Elder Harold Hillam begin his April 2000 General Conference talk by saying, “During the last general conference, a relatively insignificant thing caught my attention. It was a necktie.” As soon as he said the word “necktie,” my heart leaped in my throat, and tears came to my eyes. Tears flowed freely as my old familiar feelings of disappointment came back. He continued: “As a choir of young boys and girls was singing, one of the TV cameras happened upon a young boy in the choir. He thought he saw himself on the television monitor but perhaps wasn’t completely sure. So, this is what he did: (then Elder Hillam wiggled his tie) by wiggling his tie almost unnoticeably, he knew—yes—it was really him!

Elder Hilliam went on to say, “This modest act triggered a flood of thoughts in my mind. Turning to look at those young boys and girls, I thought,
These children represent millions of similar other boys and girls throughout the world. What will this great Church be like when they reach the ages of the leaders here, and what part will they play in its remarkable future? Which children will hold ward or stake positions? Might a future member of the Twelve be listening to the conference or even be seated here today? Which young boy will someday preside as President of the Church when it has many more millions of members?”¹⁸

As I listened, my heart changed. I saw how a servant of God took that same story and related its positive aspects—those I had not seen before. I was reminded again that our children really had been representative of millions of children in the church throughout the world and had also represented our Savior and his Church well. Elder Hillam’s talk felt like a love note from my Heavenly Father, telling me how much I mattered to Him and how pleased He was. I have never forgotten that love and how personal it was at that moment. You are the generation Elder Hillam was looking to in the future. You are the leaders he was seeing. I am sure he would be pleased with who you are today. I know that I am.

You’ll be interested to know that the children in that choir are now around 25 to 26 years old, the same age as many of you. You are the generation Elder Hillam was looking to in the future. You are the leaders he was seeing. I am sure he would be pleased with who you are today. I know that I am.
I see in the final verse of Take Time to Be Holy echoes of our Prophet’s counsel
“Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul…”

Peacemakers Needed
“Each thought and each motive beneath His control…”

Let God Prevail
“Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love…”

Hear Him
“Thou soon shall be fitted for service above.”

Think Celestial

I began with the story of the British Cycling team. Does their “one percent better” approach really work?

Their approach to improvement, focusing on small, continuous changes, has proven effective. Since adopting this strategy, British cyclists have won the Tour de France six times and have been the most successful country in cycling across the last five Olympic Games, winning twelve cycling medals in the recently concluded Paris Olympics.¹⁹

I testify that your efforts to “Take Time to be Holy” by being one percent better each day will bear sweet and precious fruit. Your Heavenly Father sees every “small and simple” thing you do to return to Him one day, and He will help you in every way He possibly can.

We are on this journey together. Let’s face the future with the hope embodied by this scripture:
“Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”²⁰

It means so much to me to be inspired by you as capable and trusted disciples. My life will never again be the same because of my service at Ensign College, and you are the main reason for that. I thank you so much for your friendly smiles. I thank you for your kind conversations with me everywhere, including in the elevators. I thank you for making me feel accepted, loved, and appreciated here.

How grateful I am for the gospel of Jesus Christ which has guided me every minute of my life.How I love my Heavenly Father, my Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. How grateful I am for the divine design they have orchestrated throughout my life that testifies to me that they know me and love me. I testify that they love each one of us and will do everything they can to help us become holy and return to them. I testify that the companion gifts of the atonement of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost are the shining evidence of their love.
Taking time to be holy will help you access those precious gifts now and for eternities to come. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.