Active Learners

Recently, I read these verses at the end of 2 Nephi Chapter 28:

29 Wo be unto him that shall say: We have received the word of God, and we ^aneed ^bno more of the word of God, for we have enough!
30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon ^aprecept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn ^bwisdom; for unto him that ^creceiveth I will give ^dmore; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. {emphasis added}

I really like these verses because it reminds me to never stop learning. It is not enough to say, "okay, I think I've learned enough about the gospel or I think I've learned all about Chemistry." When we start thinking that, we are in trouble because we won't have the capacity to learn and grow more.

If we are to become eternal beings, we need to recognize the importance of knowledge. Learning and gaining knowledge is a process. If we don't use our agency to choose to learn and grow, we won't continue on the path towards greater knowledge. Knowledge isn't going to be forced upon us; just like everything else, we have the right to choose, to act.

I've always loved this thought; being a teacher and all. We need to be active learners and seekers, so--- I say to us all--- go and seek out the best books and gain some knowledge!

Alma & Korihor

How did your scripture challenge go? Honestly, I missed one day---but that's a big step for me---so keep chugging!

Yesterday I was reading in Alma 30 about the encounters with Korihor and two things really stuck out to me:

1. Even though Korihor's beliefs were contrary to the ways of God, there was no law in the land to forbid him to believe so---and Mormon points this out in verse 7-11. Why would Mormon make sure to point this out? Because, in a God-fearing land, there should and will not be laws against agency---making sure not to force beliefs on others. Now, this can get complicated in the world today, but if you use the Spirit to recognize when your beliefs, and others' beliefs, are in jeopardy, then all will be good.
2. Korihor would not let up about Alma needing to show him a sign of God's existence. Finally Alma says this to him (verse 44):

   Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of ^aall these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the ^bearth, and ^call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its ^dmotion, yea, and also all the ^eplanets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.

   In simple terms Alma was trying to tell him that ALL THINGS on this earth point to the existence of our Heavenly Father. We do not need to see Him to know he's there; we just need to look around. We just need to reach out and recognize the good within ourselves and the world around us.

Korihor ended up being struck dumb for his lack of faith and dying in an accident. Once he noticed his wicked ways, Satan abandoned him; he didn't care about the fate of Korihor. But, we should. Since we have his example in the scriptures we are able to be reminded of the blessing it is to have agency and EVERYTHING else around us to show us just how much our Heavenly Father loves us. Even though what happened to Korihor stinks for him, his example can make sure it won't stink for us---or anyone else around us.

Winning the War

Today my thoughts have significantly turned to winning the war against Satan. In my Sunday School class today I taught about Jesus Christ, our Chosen Leader and Savior. In this lesson it asks "how is the war in heaven still continuing today?" My answer is we are still battling over agency. Satan is still trying to take away our agency by tempting us to sin and become addicted to things that will limit our choices. The real question now is: How can we win the war? Well here is a list of tools that we have on our side to help us defeat Satan (keep in mind that Satan does not have full access to these things):

Scriptures
Prayer
Commandments
Temples
Sacrament Meeting
Sunday School
Relief Society
Other Church Members
Family Members
Friends
Seminary
Institute
Missionary Work
Jesus Christ
The Atonement
Repentance

This is just the beginning of a very long list of tools we have to help us win the war. What stood out to me is that these things are manageable, even easy things to do daily. And they immediately bring us strength. When we follow any commandment we are immediately blessed. Someone in my class also made the comment that the war is entirely uneven to our advantage. We have a one up on Satan because we have a body and he does not. We also have the Spirit of God to guide us and he does not. Plus we have this long list of "weapons" that he does not. So how hard should it really be for us to win the war? Not very hard at all! Go out and kick Satan's butt! I sure feel confident enough to do it! I hope you do too!

I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents...

One of my favorite non-gospel books is one called Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt. It's all about an economists perspective of the world and added mathematical value to things that aren't normally viewed as quantifiable. I wouldn't recommend it if you don't have interest in random economic trivia, but there is one chapter that I wanted to share a little bit about today.

The chapter is called What Makes a Perfect Parent? It's mostly about a study that the U.S. Department of Education conducted in the late 1990's that measured academic progress of 20,000+ children K-5 from across the country. This study is referred to as the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study or ECLS. They measured 16 different factors that might affect a child's ability to test well and interviewed their parents to see whet they did to affect those factors. I thought the conclusion that the author came to was extremely interesting. He states, "[B]y the time most people pick up a parenting book, it is far too late. Most of the things that matter were decided long ago--who you are, whom you married, what kind of life you lead...[I]t isn't so much a matter of what you do as a parent; it's who you are."

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so great at making us (almost) "perfect parents" because it teaches us this concept to us from the beginning. It's never about making us act a certain way, even though many people see our church as such, but it's about making us into good people through exercising our free will righteously and helping others (especially in our families) to do so also.

"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior."
-Boyd K. Packer

"The most important of the Lord's work you will ever do will be within the walls of you own homes."
-Harold B. Lee

So, there it is. It's not about fancy schools or the newest toys, the greatest factor in who your children will become is who you are. It's about being the best you and passing that "bestness" on to your children. And who would be a better example of this than our own Father in Heaven. He is constantly teaching us to be perfect like Him and His Begotten Son, and even though we are not there yet, He gets to rejoice in our little triumphs and our willingness to try.

True Freedom & Enjoyment

Right now, Gweg and I are in the midst of building, and buying, our first home. It's very exciting and very easy to make little decisions into large ones.

When we first realized we wanted to build our home, we only had two choices (to fit the requirement of staying in our ward). One, at the time, seemed like the house of our dreams. It had everything we needed and wanted---there was one problem---it was a little above our price range. We thought we could handle it because it was what we wanted. Our second choice, seemed like the lesser of the two. It had more of what we needed for our family now and not what we thought we would want 5, 10, 15 years down the road---plus it was within our budget.

In our story, we chose number 2. I know the Lord was with us in this choice. Many of things we worried about in the beginning have already resolved themselves. This was the choice we were supposed to make, and I can't help wonder what would have happened if we chose the first option.

It's no wonder that so many people are struggling in the economy right now because of the real estate and monetary decisions they made. A lot of people make finanical decisions based on what the world tells them they need and forget to think about what their family actually needs; we covet way more than we should. In April, Elder Robert D. Hales said:

“Being provident providers, we must keep that most basic commandment, ‘Thou shalt not covet’ (Exodus 20:17). Our world is fraught with feelings of entitlement. Some of us feel embarrassed, ashamed, less worthwhile if our family does not have everything the neighbors have. As a result, we go into debt to buy things we can’t afford—and things we do not really need. Whenever we do this, we become poor temporally and spiritually. We give away some of our precious, priceless agency and put ourselves in self-imposed servitude. Money we could have used to care for ourselves and others must now be used to pay our debts.”

“Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually,” Ensign, May 2009, 8

What hit me the most about this quote is that when we go into unnecessary debt, we are giving away part of our free agency. The only thing we have that is truly ours to give and we auction it off to the highest bidder. True freedom and enjoyment does not come from trying to keep up with our neighbors or fellow ward members; it comes from making the best with what the Lord has given us---and this will be all we need to provide for our family's true happiness.

Moral Agency

While I was visiting my family in Utah, I read through the Ensigns at night to help me settle my mind down so I could sleep. Nick wasn't there anymore, so I was a little lonely. And I hadn't brought any books that I felt like reading, so it was just me and the Ensign.

This talk, from the June Ensign of this year stood out to me. I had to read and reread it a few times before I felt like I got the message correct in my mind. And once I did I thought, "What an amazing article!" I'm not just going to post the article here, but highlight what stood out to me and then if you have time to read the entire thing, go for it!

First, I like that an apostle finally cleared things up: "Moral Agency" is a better term for us to use than "Free Agency". The latter term there is kind of a repetitious word- kind of putting "freedom" and "agency" in the same term. But I like that since people today are becoming more and more politically correct, we can come up with better terms to better describe what we are saying. Also, the term "moral agency" gives us a sense of responsibility for the choices we make- rather than the "I can choose whatever I want, so there" attitude that sometimes gets tied up with "free agency". (Just from my experience, not to say everyone meant that.)

Next we learn that there are three things that must be present in order for us to exercise our agency. I will list them, you can read more about them in the article. They are: alternatives from which to choose, knowledge of what the alternatives are, and the freedom to make choices.

I like that the next thing he says is that our agency is not taken away with the lack of ability to remove the consequences of our actions. If agency worked otherwise, then we would not learn from our mistakes. We would not progress because we would have no regrets. So I feel that responsibility for our actions is a crucial part of agency that God, in His wisdom, cannot remove for any purpose.

He then describes the differences between Christ's view of agency and that of Satan's. Elder Christofferson describes it better than I can paraphrase:

"Satan has not ceased his efforts “to destroy the agency of man.” He promotes conduct and choices that limit our freedom to choose by replacing the influence of the Holy Spirit with his own domination (see D&C 29:40; 93:38–39). Yielding to his temptations leads to a narrower and narrower range of choices until none remains and to addictions that leave us powerless to resist. While Satan cannot actually destroy law and truth, he accomplishes the same result in the lives of those who heed him by convincing them that whatever they think is right is right and that there is no ultimate truth—every man is his own god, and there is no sin."

Thus we can tell by the end result of our choices if it led us to less agency- then perhaps it was a bad choice. If it led us to more agency, then it was a good choice. (Generally speaking)

"To the secular world it seems a paradox that greater submission to God yields greater freedom. The world looks at things through Korihor’s lens, considering obedience to God’s laws and ordinances to be “bondage” (Alma 30:24, 27).
"But the Lord’s statement that the truth will make us free has broader significance. “Truth,” He tells us, “is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (D&C 93:24). Possession of this knowledge of things past, present, and future is a critical element of God’s glory: “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth” (D&C 93:36). Does anyone doubt that, as a consequence of possessing all light and truth, God possesses ultimate freedom to be and to do?
"Likewise, as our understanding of gospel doctrine and principles grows, our agency expands. First, we have more choices and can achieve more and receive greater blessings because we have more laws that we can obey. Think of a ladder—each new law or commandment we learn is like one more rung on the ladder that enables us to climb higher. Second, with added understanding we can make more intelligent choices because we see more clearly not only the alternatives but also their potential outcomes. As Professor Daniel H. Ludlow once expressed it, “The extent of our individual … agency … is in direct proportion to the number and kind of laws we know and keep.”

What I have learned from this is that my lack of knowledge will then put me in a position where I will be less free than I would have been if I did not lack the knowledge. For example, my car has a flat right now. We can't get the tire off because it has a locking lug nut. So until I figure out how to fix that, I'm stuck here. My agency is limited. But if I try to venture out and obtain the proper knowledge to solve my situation, then I will be free to make that choice to fix it.

"Exercising agency in a setting that sometimes includes opposition and hardship is what makes life more than a simple multiple-choice test. God is interested in what we are becoming as a result of our choices. He is not satisfied if our exercise of moral agency is simply a robotic effort at keeping some rules. Our Savior wants us to become something, not just do some things. He is endeavoring to make us independently strong—more able to act for ourselves than perhaps those of any prior generation. We must be righteous, even when He withdraws His Spirit, or, as President Brigham Young said, even “in the dark.”"

I just want to testify that moral agency is all about what we are "becoming" in the process of making our choices. Life isn't a checklist, or a course we take that ends with a letter grade. It is about how we change throughout our time here on Earth, how we learn to become more like our Father in Heaven.