July 10, 2026

Elder Clark G. Gilbert, in his April 2026 conference talk "Come Home", said that "helping others requires you to stay in your covenants". Most of the time, we hear "keep your covenants", but he chose to say "stay in your covenants". Perhaps this is simply another way to say the same thing, and ultimately it is, but given the deeper understanding I am gaining of covenants, I am grateful for Elder Gilbert's word choice.

When we enter a covenant with the Lord, yes it's a two-way promise, yes we are progressing down the covenant path, but when more importantly, based on ancient Hebrew culture, a covenant is a deep, familial relationship. When we enter into covenants with the Lord, we become the children of Abraham and Jehovah - we enter into a relationship, like marriage, sacred, holy, and empowering. When I used to hear the phrase "draw power from your covenants" it didn't make sense to me. How does one draw power from a contract? By pointing to clause 6.a.iii and leveraging it against our Savior to bless you less you take Him to some intercosmic court for beach of contract? The thing is, while the two-way promise verbiage used to teach children has merit, a contract is a terrible way to look at covenants. In fact, throughout history the children of the covenant frequently break their end of the deal, but Jehovah stays faithful to His end and always allows us to return.

Imagine viewing marriage as a contract. This wouldn't be far-fetched. It is a covenant to care for each other in sickness and health, to be loyal, to be kind to one another. Why don't we teach our children that marriage (a covenantal relationship) is "a two-way promise" (not diving into the fact that marriage is actually a covenant with God, not your spouse - keeping it simple with a standard, worldly marriage viewpoint). We don't teach it that way because the idea of marriage being a contract feels stiff and cold. Entering into a covenant relationship with our Redeemer should feel warm and hopeful. We are entering, or deepening, our relationship with our Brother who loves us enough that He died for us and suffered the eternal pains and infinite sum of sorrows for our imperfection.

This is why I am grateful Elder Gilbert said "stay in your covenants", because it much more resembles staying in a relationship with Christ. Tying it back to his original point, helping others, it is only when we are in a relationship with Christ, when we share His yoke, that we are strong enough to truly help others. We cannot help our sisters and brothers know (yada, covenant, relationship) God, if we aren't there ourselves. Enter The relationship, stay in The relationship, and help others enter The relationship.

Amending this a bit - sealing covenant is with both God and spouse.