Same Old, Same Old

Sometimes people complain that they always hear the same thing in church, or they don't want to watch General Conference because "they always say the same stuff". I've known people who didn't see the need to read scripture more than once.

Well, yes, we do hear the same thing over and over again. I know of five reasons why:

1. Each time we receive a particular message, we may learn more if we invite the Holy Ghost's influence and have readied ourselves by practicing more basic principles. Many people have had the experience of learning something new from a passage of scripture they've read multiple times before. We hear things repeated because there is deeper knowledge to gain.

2. Simply hearing the truth from the prophets will bring us the Holy Ghost and ready us for personal revelation on any topic. Many people have listened to a witness of Christ and received personal revelation for something that is important but unrelated to what is being spoken.

3. We haven't really listened yet. So often we hear the standard answers: pray, read your scriptures, go to church. Are we doing these things? I tend to think I'm a good person, but I know that I have often forgotten to pray in the morning and I sometimes struggle to read my scriptures. (It's been pretty bad recently. I wake up early and go to work, leaving the house at 6:00 am at the latest. I haven't made it a habit recently to read my scriptures in the morning, and then I don't get to them later. Then, in my Gospel Doctrine class, I know I don't have as much to contribute because I haven't done enough studying.) Anyway, we hear things repeated because we often haven't obeyed yet.

4. There are other people listening who haven't heard it yet. So many people are only hearing the restored Gospel for the first time. We can be patient as they are enlightened by glorious truth, particularly since it's still good for us.

5. Repetition reinforces ideas. Truth ought to be reinforced in our lives (especially to counteract the falsehoods that come to us over and over again).

Beyond that, we actually do hear some new things in General Conference sometimes, and it can be thrilling. I should give a list of my favorite conference talks some time.

Last thoughts for now:
It's okay to hear a good thing again. Heavenly Father knows what He's doing.