The earthly affections in the heart which render religion unfruitful in the life are enumerated under two heads,—“The care of this world,” and “the deceitfulness of riches;” the term riches includes also, as we may gather from Luke’s narrative, the pleasures which riches procure. Both from our own experience in the world and the specific terms employed by the Lord in the interpretation of the parable, we learn that all classes and all ranks are on this side exposed to danger. This is not a rich man’s business, or a poor man’s; it is every man’s business. The words point to the two extremes of worldly condition, and include all that lies between them. “The care of the world” becomes the snare of those who have little, and “the deceitfulness of riches,” the snare of those who have much. Thus the world wars against the soul, alike when it smiles and when it frowns. Rich and poor have in this matter no room and no right to cast stones at each other. Pinching want and luxurious profusion are, indeed, two widely diverse species of thorns; but when favoured by circumstances they are equally rank in their growth and equally effective in destroying the precious seed.
...
It was where the seed and the thorns grew together that the mischief was done. If the grain is permitted to occupy alone the heart of the field, the thorns that grow outside and around it may constitute a hedge of defence, not only harmless but useful. There is a place for cares, and for riches too,—a place in which they help and do not hinder the kingdom of God. Kept in its own sphere, the lawful business of life becomes a protecting fence round the tender plant of grace in a Christian’s heart. Permit not the thorns to occupy the position which is due to the good seed. Not as rivals within the field, but as guards around it, earthly affairs are innocent and safe. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
-William Arnot, The Parables of Our Lord.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Educating Our Desires
Last month our bishop sent out an email inviting the ward members to study one of the talks from April General Conference each day until the October sessions began, as we had as many days left as talks at that point. I took up the challenge, but find as I go I am getting ahead, because once I actually sit down and read or listen, I just want to soak up more! I can see how I am being prepared to receive more in the coming weeks, and I am thankful for that inspired counsel. Today I studied President Ridd's talk entitled, "The Choice Generation," and I loved this quote from Elder Maxwell that he shared:
What we insistently desire, over time, is eventually what we will become and what we will receive in eternity...
Only by educating and training our desires can they become allies instead of our enemies!
-Neal A. Maxwell, "According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts," October 1996 General Conference.
I then had to read that Maxwell talk because he is my favorite (well, I don't really have favorites I suppose, but I love him!), and it is one for the books.
I love the idea of educating our desires. I feel like I have worked on doing this with my choices in food and how my tastes have changed. A comment from Reed Nibley that I heard during a documentary on his life and career always sticks with me--that when he found he couldn't continue living on the kind of diet he had been accustomed to, he had to "refine his tastes" in order to enjoy healthy foods.
Looking back at my young adult life (now officially over according to the Church Handbook, since I am 31), I can see how experiences, changes, and acts of repentance have educated and refined my desires so that I am not as drawn to the damaging substances or empty calories of life. I more naturally crave and desire the deep and fulfilling spiritual nourishment that comes from study, communion, and obedience. And yet still I know that my desires need yet to be educated and refined, and so many things in my daily diet of choices could be done away with in favor of more healthy options. I hope that being more conscious about that process will enable me to more effectively move forward, to feel comfortable that the desires of my heart are in tune with the desires of my Father for me.
What we insistently desire, over time, is eventually what we will become and what we will receive in eternity...
Only by educating and training our desires can they become allies instead of our enemies!
-Neal A. Maxwell, "According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts," October 1996 General Conference.
I then had to read that Maxwell talk because he is my favorite (well, I don't really have favorites I suppose, but I love him!), and it is one for the books.
I love the idea of educating our desires. I feel like I have worked on doing this with my choices in food and how my tastes have changed. A comment from Reed Nibley that I heard during a documentary on his life and career always sticks with me--that when he found he couldn't continue living on the kind of diet he had been accustomed to, he had to "refine his tastes" in order to enjoy healthy foods.
Looking back at my young adult life (now officially over according to the Church Handbook, since I am 31), I can see how experiences, changes, and acts of repentance have educated and refined my desires so that I am not as drawn to the damaging substances or empty calories of life. I more naturally crave and desire the deep and fulfilling spiritual nourishment that comes from study, communion, and obedience. And yet still I know that my desires need yet to be educated and refined, and so many things in my daily diet of choices could be done away with in favor of more healthy options. I hope that being more conscious about that process will enable me to more effectively move forward, to feel comfortable that the desires of my heart are in tune with the desires of my Father for me.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Guardians of the Law
Yesterday I picked up my copy of the Clark Memorandum and read Judge Sheila McCleve's speech at last year's JRCLS Founders Day dinner, entitled "Guardians of the Law." You can read the full text here, and I highly recommend it. There are a very few choice moments that have defined to me why my Heavenly Father wanted me to be a lawyer. One involves the feelings I had when I decided to go to law school. Another came as my Constitutional Law professor spoke to us about the need for us as representatives of our faith to be able to articulate our position to the outside world. And yesterday, reading this speech became another. Here is a pertinent excerpt (excuse all the ellipses, I wanted to just paste the whole address, but settled for trying to keep all the key parts for me):
On that founding day President Romney addressed the question of the reason for the Law School. He didn't explicitly say the reason for the Law School. Instead, he talked about a few things that would prepare us to understand the reason. First, and I think most important, he began to outline gospel "verities," as he termed them. One, we are children of God. Two, this life is about more than mortality. . . Three, God's purposes for this life are our immortality and eternal life. Our Father in Heaven gives us the opportunity to choose to be with Him and helps us get there. Four, the only way back to our Father is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Five, the Church is here to teach and administer to all the world--to all the world. Finally, six, we have been given the ability to choose our own destiny.
These six things in actuality explain the plan of salvation.
. . .
When he gave the dedicatory address and prayer two years later at the dedication of the Law School building, President Romney further explained what Heaven expects of us. He said, "And Father, help the lawyers trained in this law school to remember that they are to be the guardians of the law Isaiah spoke of three thousand years ago, when he said, 'Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'"
. . .
What was the law Isaiah spoke of? . . . A partial fulfillment of the law going forth was the establishment of our constitutional form of government and its influence throughout the world.
. . .
The purpose of the Constitution is, through the law, to allow us to choose our own destinies. That is the law that Isaiah spoke of. In other words, it is the law that enables and protects moral agency.
I don't know to what extent or in what field I will eventually practice law, but I do know that my Father wanted me to understand the purpose and importance of the law, and gave me gifts to be able to articulate those purposes when the world is largely rejecting them. It is something I need to develop even now that I feel so far removed from the legal world.
On that founding day President Romney addressed the question of the reason for the Law School. He didn't explicitly say the reason for the Law School. Instead, he talked about a few things that would prepare us to understand the reason. First, and I think most important, he began to outline gospel "verities," as he termed them. One, we are children of God. Two, this life is about more than mortality. . . Three, God's purposes for this life are our immortality and eternal life. Our Father in Heaven gives us the opportunity to choose to be with Him and helps us get there. Four, the only way back to our Father is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Five, the Church is here to teach and administer to all the world--to all the world. Finally, six, we have been given the ability to choose our own destiny.
These six things in actuality explain the plan of salvation.
. . .
When he gave the dedicatory address and prayer two years later at the dedication of the Law School building, President Romney further explained what Heaven expects of us. He said, "And Father, help the lawyers trained in this law school to remember that they are to be the guardians of the law Isaiah spoke of three thousand years ago, when he said, 'Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'"
. . .
What was the law Isaiah spoke of? . . . A partial fulfillment of the law going forth was the establishment of our constitutional form of government and its influence throughout the world.
. . .
The purpose of the Constitution is, through the law, to allow us to choose our own destinies. That is the law that Isaiah spoke of. In other words, it is the law that enables and protects moral agency.
I don't know to what extent or in what field I will eventually practice law, but I do know that my Father wanted me to understand the purpose and importance of the law, and gave me gifts to be able to articulate those purposes when the world is largely rejecting them. It is something I need to develop even now that I feel so far removed from the legal world.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
The Family Stories that Bind Us
This is a really cool article posted earlier this year in The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&adxnnlx=1384968298-DwqHlAH7D4YIh/JZFGCwrw
Turns out family history is just as important for us to know as it is for us to "do." So true!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&adxnnlx=1384968298-DwqHlAH7D4YIh/JZFGCwrw
Turns out family history is just as important for us to know as it is for us to "do." So true!
Thursday, March 7, 2013
President Eyring on Education
From "Real-Life Education", CR April 2009, (emphasis added):
Our education must never stop. If it ends at the door of the classroom on graduation day, we will fail. And we will need the help of heaven to know which of the myriad things we could study we would most wisely learn. We cannot waste time entertaining ourselves when we have the chance to read or to listen to whatever will help us learn what is true and useful. Insatiable curiosity will be our hallmark.
...
The real life we’re preparing for is eternal life. Secular knowledge has for us eternal significance. Our conviction is that God, our Heavenly Father, wants us to live the life that He does. All we can learn that is true while we are in this life will rise with us in the Resurrection. And all that we can learn will enhance our capacity to serve. That is a destiny reserved not alone for the brilliant, those who learn the most quickly, or those who enter the most respected professions. It will be given to those who are humbly good, who love God, and who serve Him with all their capacities, however limited those capacities are—as are all our capacities, compared with the capacities of God.
Our education must never stop. If it ends at the door of the classroom on graduation day, we will fail. And we will need the help of heaven to know which of the myriad things we could study we would most wisely learn. We cannot waste time entertaining ourselves when we have the chance to read or to listen to whatever will help us learn what is true and useful. Insatiable curiosity will be our hallmark.
...
The real life we’re preparing for is eternal life. Secular knowledge has for us eternal significance. Our conviction is that God, our Heavenly Father, wants us to live the life that He does. All we can learn that is true while we are in this life will rise with us in the Resurrection. And all that we can learn will enhance our capacity to serve. That is a destiny reserved not alone for the brilliant, those who learn the most quickly, or those who enter the most respected professions. It will be given to those who are humbly good, who love God, and who serve Him with all their capacities, however limited those capacities are—as are all our capacities, compared with the capacities of God.
Elder Oaks on Learning
A few faves from "Learning and Latter-day Saints," CR April 2009:
Our efforts to learn must be combined with personal worthiness for us to receive the guidance of the Holy Ghost. We must avoid sexual impurity, pornography, and addictions as well as negative feelings against others or ourselves. Sin drives out the Spirit of the Lord, and when that happens, the special illumination of the Spirit is gone and the lamp of learning flickers.
In modern revelation we have a promise that if our eye be single to the glory of God, which includes personal worthiness, our “whole [body] shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in [us]; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things” (D&C 88:67).
...
We must choose our learning with care because learning has an eternal shelf life, and whatever useful knowledge or wisdom or “principle of intelligence” we acquire in this life “will rise with us in the resurrection” (D&C 130:18).
*I love love love this one! I already have put way to many useless and unworthy things into my brain; I want to replace them with things worth taking with me!
...
Beyond increasing our occupational qualifications, we should desire to learn how to become more emotionally fulfilled, more skilled in our personal relationships, and better parents and citizens. There are few things more fulfilling and fun than learning something new. Great happiness, satisfaction, and financial rewards come from this. An education is not limited to formal study. Lifelong learning can increase our ability to appreciate and relish the workings and beauty of the world around us. This kind of learning goes well beyond books and a selective use of new technology, such as the Internet. It includes artistic endeavors. It also includes experiences with people and places: conversations with friends, visits to museums and concerts, and opportunities for service. We should expand ourselves and enjoy the journey.
Our efforts to learn must be combined with personal worthiness for us to receive the guidance of the Holy Ghost. We must avoid sexual impurity, pornography, and addictions as well as negative feelings against others or ourselves. Sin drives out the Spirit of the Lord, and when that happens, the special illumination of the Spirit is gone and the lamp of learning flickers.
In modern revelation we have a promise that if our eye be single to the glory of God, which includes personal worthiness, our “whole [body] shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in [us]; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things” (D&C 88:67).
...
We must choose our learning with care because learning has an eternal shelf life, and whatever useful knowledge or wisdom or “principle of intelligence” we acquire in this life “will rise with us in the resurrection” (D&C 130:18).
*I love love love this one! I already have put way to many useless and unworthy things into my brain; I want to replace them with things worth taking with me!
...
Beyond increasing our occupational qualifications, we should desire to learn how to become more emotionally fulfilled, more skilled in our personal relationships, and better parents and citizens. There are few things more fulfilling and fun than learning something new. Great happiness, satisfaction, and financial rewards come from this. An education is not limited to formal study. Lifelong learning can increase our ability to appreciate and relish the workings and beauty of the world around us. This kind of learning goes well beyond books and a selective use of new technology, such as the Internet. It includes artistic endeavors. It also includes experiences with people and places: conversations with friends, visits to museums and concerts, and opportunities for service. We should expand ourselves and enjoy the journey.
Standards and Literature
Worthy literature has been on my mind a lot lately. In trying to find something to read, I started reading a book that turned out to be less than appropriate (not the first time this has happened). Thankfully, before I got very far into the book a couple of wonderful friends tipped me off that there was some content I may want to avoid, and so I moved on to something else. In the interest of time, I am going to paste what I wrote in an email to my friend Ruth about it:
To be honest, I was having a hard time getting into the book; something about the language, though I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe all characters just seem flat after Tolstoy's never-ending descriptions, or maybe (probably) it was just the Spirit telling me not to get too attached to the book =). I should learn my lesson; the last time I grabbed a book from Costco I thought was interesting, I ended up reading one chapter and then returning it.... why is this considered okay, even artistic? I am so wary of anything written in the last few decades because it almost seems like a rite of passage for authors to delve into sexual things, like it's more "honest" the more detail they provide. Ugh!
Satan uses media to deceive you by making what is wrong and evil look normal, humorous, or exciting. He tries to mislead you into thinking that breaking God’s commandments is acceptable and has no negative consequences for you or others. Do not attend, view, or participate in anything that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way. Do not participate in anything that presents immorality or violence as acceptable. Have the courage to walk out of a movie, change your music, or turn off a computer, television, or mobile device if what you see or hear drives away the Spirit.
To be honest, I was having a hard time getting into the book; something about the language, though I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe all characters just seem flat after Tolstoy's never-ending descriptions, or maybe (probably) it was just the Spirit telling me not to get too attached to the book =). I should learn my lesson; the last time I grabbed a book from Costco I thought was interesting, I ended up reading one chapter and then returning it.... why is this considered okay, even artistic? I am so wary of anything written in the last few decades because it almost seems like a rite of passage for authors to delve into sexual things, like it's more "honest" the more detail they provide. Ugh!
I remember right after high school I read Les Miserables, and though I've forgotten a lot, something that stuck with me is that when Cosette and Marius are married, he sees them off into the bridal chamber, then says that some things/places are too sacred to follow (granted, this is my paraphrase without having looked at it for over a decade). I loved that because it highlighted that, even in literature, people's intimate lives can be private not because they are secret but because they are beautiful and worth protecting. It made me a little sad to see the musical and see what they had done with the parts about prostitution (not tawdry in the book like in the play!) and at the Thernadiers' place.
I realize that my taste in literature is probably considered boring by a lot of people, but I have gotten to the point that I can't stand finishing a book without feeling like I got something out of it beyond pure entertainment. I don't need an adrenaline rush; I need to fill my brain with things I want to keep with me through all of eternity. So I am about to post lots of quotes on literature that I want to save and remember. To kick things off, here is a snippet from For the Strength of Youth:
Satan uses media to deceive you by making what is wrong and evil look normal, humorous, or exciting. He tries to mislead you into thinking that breaking God’s commandments is acceptable and has no negative consequences for you or others. Do not attend, view, or participate in anything that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way. Do not participate in anything that presents immorality or violence as acceptable. Have the courage to walk out of a movie, change your music, or turn off a computer, television, or mobile device if what you see or hear drives away the Spirit.
p.s. I do think it is a little bit sad/funny that they don't even mention books here, but I guess that is the generation that is coming up. I guess their mobile device could include a Kindle or Nook =).
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