July Message from the Bishop

Several months ago, Casey Peterson of the stake high council gave a great sacrament meeting talk in our ward on the significance of the Savior and His atonement in our lives. What I remember most about his talk is the personal experience he used to frame his remarks.

Casey grew up on a ranch and, like all cowboys and cowgirls, enjoyed round-up and branding time more than anything else. When he was younger he looked forward to the day when he wouldn’t be wrestling calves on the ground in all the dirt and the sweat but would be mounted on his horse roping and dragging the calves to the branding fire. In the pecking order of branding, the mounted ropers are the ones on the top.

He spoke of the first time he made it into the saddle for a branding when he was nine or ten years old. He made his first catch just fine, but soon realized that the calf he had in his loop outweighed him and would probably pull him out of the saddle if he didn’t do something. Then, he heard his father, who had seen his predicament, call out to him over the sound of the milling cattle from across the corral, “Dally up, Casey, dally up!”

Immediately, he took a couple wraps of his rope around the saddle horn, which secured the calf on the end of his rope, and, using the strength of his good horse underneath him, Casey dragged that calf over to the fire to be branded—something he couldn’t have done relying on his strength alone. Dallying up linked his relatively meager strength to the tremendous strength of his horse and made the two of them more than a match for any calf (or cow, for that matter) in the corral that day.

Casey compared the action of dallying up to coming unto Christ and using His atonement to increase our individual strength and capacity in dealing with our challenges and trials. He pointed out that the Savior, like his horse, has the power to help him do things that he couldn’t do on his own. Or, as President Weight is fond of quoting, “Two people can do anything if one of them is the Lord.”

Casey’s dally analogy here reminds me of the Savior’s own analogy of the yoke, a carved wooden piece which fits over two oxen, binding them together as a team to pull a cart or plow a field or do other kinds of work.

28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11)

When we are yoked (or dallied up) with the Savior, we unite our meager human strength with the infinite divine strength of God. We need to remember that we’re never working alone if we choose to take upon ourselves Christ’s yoke. Instead, we pull our burdens alongside the Savior.

So whenever we find we’ve lassoed a problem that threatens to pull us out of the saddle, we need to remember the simple command Casey’s father yelled to him when he was a boy: “Dally up!”

It’s our constant prayer that all of us in the 12th Ward will have our burdens lightened by choosing to come unto Christ and be yoked with Him in everything that we do.