Notable quotes:
“To press toward the mark is to faithfully continue on ‘the straight and narrow path which leads to eternal life’ with our Savior and our Father in Heaven.”
“While the challenges of mortality will come to all of us in one way or another, let us focus on the goal of our ‘pressing toward the mark,’ which is the prize of the high calling of God.”
“While the challenges of mortality will come to all of us in one way or another, let us focus on the goal of our ‘pressing toward the mark,’ which is the prize of the high calling of God.”
Summary points:
- Serving the Lord with love and gratitude in spite of great sufferings is “pressing toward the mark.”
- Pressing toward the mark includes focusing energy and efforts on the sacred and joyful work of bringing souls to Christ.
- As God’s voice takes precedence over any other ambition, Jesus Christ will offer help and comfort.
Talk summary:
The Apostle Paul was able to serve with love and gratitude despite his great sufferings because he “pressed toward the mark.”
When Elder Dube attended his first general conference leadership meeting, he felt overwhelmed and inadequate. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland showed him love and kindness and helped him overcome the feelings of inadequacy.
Pressing toward the mark also means forgetting past fears, past focus, past failures and past sadness.
His mother provided him an example of pressing forward and accepting God’s will in her painful battle with cancer. As she endured intense pain, she said, “It is not up to you or anyone else, but it is up to God whether this pain will go away or not.”
Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Golgotha to “do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.”
A bishop in South Africa who recently buried his wife and daughter after their lives were claimed by the coronavirus pandemic found hope and comfort in knowing that the Savior has taken upon Himself the pains of His people, “that He may know how to succor us.”
“My humble invitation to all of us is to never give up!”
About the speaker:
- Elder Edward Dube was sustained as a General Authority Seventy in April 2013. Prior to his call, he worked for the Church Educational System for 17 years, establishing seminaries and institutes in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.
- He was baptized a member of the Church as a 22-year-old, and served a full-time mission in the Zimbabwe Harare Mission two years later.
- He married Naume Keresia Salazani on Dec. 9, 1989, in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe; they were sealed May 15, 1992, in the Johannesburg South Africa Temple. Together they have four children.
