We had an opportunity as a family to spend some time with our married son, Bryan and his wife in San Luis Obispo where they are living while he is finishing school. We spent one day exploring around the coast near San Luis Obispo. As you know, the farther north you go along the California coastline, the more dramatic the coast becomes with a lot of cliffs and rocks. It’s very beautiful. Well, this day as we were out exploring, Bryan asked me - knowing that I love to collect shells - if I would like to go to a beach where not very many people go and where there are a lot of shells to collect. Of course I answered “Yes” immediately without even stopping to think why not very many people go to this beach. I was about to find out. We drove for a while and then he pointed to a place at the side of the road where we could pull over and park. When we got out of the car we couldn’t see or hear any ocean. I don’t even think we could smell any ocean nearby. Then he said: “Over here. We just take this path”. And so we set off on that path.

We wound back and forth through thick soft sand for over an hour. Sand so soft and deep, our feet sank completely in and the sand filled our shoes. We tried taking off our shoes, but there were stickers in the sand from the scrub bushes growing along side the trail, so back on our feet went the shoes. It was a really long, tiring and hot walk, but eventually we reached a bluff and before us stretched beautiful turquoise water and an actual white sandy beach. Down we raced and spent a great time exploring completely alone on this beautiful beach. Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the car and go home. All of a sudden I became discouraged as I realized that I had to make that hike all over again, and now I was even more tired than I was on the hike down. As everyone began to hike on up the cliff and get back on the trail, I fell in line last of all. In front of me was my husband carrying a child on his shoulders. I just kept my head down starring at the ground trying not to think about the hour or more hike back through the soft sand and the heat.

I noticed as I was starring at the ground that when my husband took a step, his foot pressed the sand down and that if I placed my foot in the imprint he left, the sand was already packed down and my step was made easier. So I began to carefully place my footsteps in his footsteps. After a time, I began to grow tired of this because he didn’t always walk straight. Trying to balance a child on his shoulders sometimes he would veer to the right or over to the left and I would have to also go to the right or to the left. Also, sometimes he would slow up and take smaller steps and I would also have to slow my pace. Or his steps would be longer than mine and I would have to lengthen my stride. So I decided to stop following in his footsteps and just to at my own pace. Well, it didn’t take me long to realize how much harder that was and so I quickly caught up to him and began to place my feet once more firmly in his footsteps. It didn’t seem very long at all before I heard shouts from up ahead: “We see the car!” I couldn’t believe how easy that had been.

Some things occurred to me on that hike home. That is what it is like to walk through this life here on the earth. We have a Savior – Jesus Christ – who has walked the path ahead of us and when we place our feet in the footprints he has trod, how much easier and happier our lives are. When we choose to go our own way, how discouraging and even depressing life can be. Just like my husbands footprints that sometimes went left or right or closer or farther apart, so too does following our Savior require us to move in different directions than we might choose or cause us to lengthen our stride to keep up with Him.

Our eternal progression on the path following our Savior is a journey made up of many steps. The success on this journey is determined by keeping an eternal perspective and by setting priorities. It is the Lord’s plan to get each of us all the way home to our Father in Heaven. This I know: each of us can get there from here. Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said: “There are no separate paths back to the heavenly home. Just one straight and narrow way, at the end of which, though we arrive trailing tears, we shall at once be drenched in joy.”

The path is not soft green grass. It is not without hardship or heartache. Sometimes it is uphill, and strewn with rocks.

When the Lord says “Come Follow Me” He is asking us to become more spiritual by being obedient to His word. Our number one priority on this path is to develop spirituality. Developing spirituality is:

1) To rid our hearts of pride.
2) To read the Book of Mormon.
3) To attend Church meetings.
4) To work hard in callings.
5) To be worthy to enter the Temple.
6) To care for one another.

I learned it takes more than just going through the motions. It takes having our heart in the right place. The prophet Alma asked: “Have you been spiritually born of God? Have ye received His image in your countenance? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?” Alma 5:14

Spirituality is all about feeling the spirit of God, wanting it with us, sharing the spirit with others and heeding its prompting.

As we develop spirituality then the Lord’s work becomes our work. We begin to feel joy, peace, love, hope and greater trust in the Lord and a desire to place our footsteps in His, and follow where He may lead us. It is on this path that we have opportunities daily to testify of our love for the Lord, His church, His teachings, and of His blessings.

It is on this path that we show by our good works who we really are, as we take one step at a time following our Savior.

Jesus, our Savior has “Marked the path and led the way.” His footprints are clear and easy to see. We know the path. The prophet Nephi promised “If ye shall press forward feasting upon the words of Christ and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.” 2 Nephi 32:20

I’ll walk with God from this day on
His helping hand I’ll lean upon
This is my prayer, my jumble plea
May the Lord be ever with me.

There is no death tho eyes grow dim
There is no fear when I’m near to him
I’ll lean on Him forever and He’ll forsake me never.

And I’ll never walk alone, when I walk with God.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.