President Hinckley On The Greatest Service That Any Woman Will Ever Perform

In my reading this morning I came across this remarkable statement by Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, about the supreme importance of motherhood as the greatest service any woman will ever perform. It is not a message the world welcomes and unfortunately even some in the Church do not welcome it. I attribute that to not understanding correctly the plan of salvation and the doctrine of the gospel related to it. My witness is that he was a Prophet of God and his words should be given great consideration, thought, and prayer regardless of our personal preferences on the subject. The President gave these remarks to a regional conference in May 1995:

In this age when more and more women are turning to daily work, how tremendous it is, once in a while, to stop and recognize that the greatest service that any woman will ever perform will be in nurturing, teaching, lifting, encouraging, and rearing her children in righteousness and truth. There is no other thing that will compare with that regardless of what she does. 

I hope that the women of the Church will not slight their greatest responsibility in favor of a lesser responsibility. To the mothers of this church, every mother who is here this day, I want to say that, as the years pass, you will become increasingly grateful for that which you did in molding the lives of your children in the direction of righteousness and goodness and integrity and faith. 

I think I can share this with you. As I sat in the Tabernacle at the last conference and was sustained by the people of this church, there came before me in my mind’s eye, the picture of my mother when I was a little boy. And I’m sure she must have thought then that I wouldn’t amount to much because I was not an easy little boy to deal with. I am grateful that I have the opportunity in my old age to bring honor to her name.... 

It’s been the mothers who have been the great carriers and purveyors of faith through the history of this Church. I believe that with all my heart.*

Lets think together again, soon.

*Gordon B. Hinckley, address at the Heber City/Springville, Utah, regional conference, 14 May 1995, in “Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley,” Ensign (December 1995), p. 67.

Discovering A Great Mormon Author Of The Past, Part 1

One of the dangers of modern society is that we have been duped a bit by modern technology–that it will do the work for us. We don’t have to learn to read, concentrate, or study with all the grinding work because we can get what we want much quicker if we can watch it or hear somebody else tell us about it or read it to us. If we need information, the thinking goes, we can simply Google it. But that philosophy rests upon several erroneous assumptions. First, information may give us knowledge, but not necessarily understanding or wisdom–two forms of learning which are higher than knowing facts alone. It is much harder to Google for understanding and almost impossible to Google wisdom. Those things come at a greater price of time, desire, effort, dedication, and sweat.  It is a simple fact that not all the best things can be viewed on YouTube or be listened to from I-Tunes or in a TED talk or an audio book. Some of the best things richest in understanding and wisdom are the oldest, or at least older than this modern technology. They must be sought out and actually read, because they are not videotaped or recorded. Many may be found in the Internet Archive or the Gutenberg Project or Google Books and are floating around somewhere in the cloud. In this sense technology gives access to the understanding and wisdom of the ages, but one must still search them out and read and study them by one’s own effort.

The above tirade is a lead-in to something worth sharing. The older I grow the more I realize two things. Because some of the greatest wisdom comes out of the past, I have to be more aggressive to identify authors and sources of such understanding and wisdom about things that are important to me, but also about things which I have never contemplated before. The second insight is that in our modern world which values the “sound bite” the slogan, and all things “new” there are few if any who are calling our attention to the wisdom of the past.  Sad to say that much of academia now not only ignore this accumulated knowledge and wisdom, but intentionally inveigh against it. Consequently, the thin gruel of modernism has replaced the deep richness given to us by thoughtful and inspired men and women in the past. The passing and forgetting of great minds and spirits of the ages comes at great loss to us individually and collectively. 

So, in one single Mormon example today (there may be more in the future), I am urging a reclamation and restoration of earlier thought. For some time I have developed a growing interest in one Latter-day Saint author who though dead less than 50 years seems all but forgotten. Yesterday while engaging in a favorite pastime of browsing in a used bookstore, I ran across several small volumes of his writings which I quickly snapped up to add to what I have already collected. His name is Richard L. Evans. He was a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was also the voice of the “Music and the Spoken Word” weekly broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Each week he gave a two-minute sermonette. These talks or parts of them were collected and published in small volumes.

As I have immersed myself in the writings of Elder Evans I have found him to be one of the great Mormon thinkers of the mid-Twentieth Century, and perhaps in the history of the Church all together. He was thoughtful, moderate, wise, and eloquent–a wonderful combination of skills to bring to this task of inspiring a radio audience weekly for decades.  He was a wordsmith par excellence.  So, I am making a plea, especially among young LDS readers to discover the writing of some of our great thinkers of the past, in this case of Richard L. Evans. He needs to be reclaimed and restored as one of Mormonism’s most thoughtful and eloquent spokesman. He will challenge, edify, and inspire you.  

Below I have reproduced several excerpts from his writings specifically about youth and aging that exemplify what I mean and which I hope you will be wise enough to ponder and implement you your life. (1)  I intend to.

Why The Wisdom Of Age May Rightfully Counsel The Ambition Of Youth

The equation of youth and age still plays its part, as it always has in the past.  To youth looking forward, life seems abundantly long for limitless achievement.  To age looking back, the life we know seems all too short for the realization of things hoped for, for the accomplishment of things desired.  And that is why the wisdom of age may rightfully counsel the ambition of youth. No one knows better than they who are nearing the end of the journey how precious are the moments that pass; how utterly lost are the wasted hours, how relentlessly beyond recall are those things which we sometimes do, which, being looked back upon, are a source of regret.  

Living Lives In And Out Of Season

The relentless passing of the seasons finds men quickly growing older. While age holds no remorse for those who have lived their lives in season, many of the disappointed men we see around us are they who have lived unseansoable lives. They have let spring pass by without using the season for its intended purpose, and then, realizing too late the error of neglect, they have tried to do spring’s work in summer, and summer’s work in autumn, and winter has found them with no harvest. By youth, may it be remembered that there are none so hopelessly handicapped as they who have let pass by the time of preparation, and who go forth to live their lives out of season.

The Realization That The World Is No Longer Waiting For You To Prepare

May we say a word to youth?  In every life there comes an awakening, and with it the fading of many dreams. There comes a day when we realize that the world is no longer waiting for us to prepare for life. It is waiting for us to live it–to face its realities, to solve its problems, to improve its conditions, and to do for the next generation what has been done for us.  So comes the awakening that forces us to face realities, and most happy is he who faces them with full purpose. The job is not easy! Who but a weakling would wish that it were? The problems have not all been solved! Who but a dullard would want them to be? The future is unpredictable!  Read your histories! When wasn’t it? The world is so greatly changing! Be thankful for that, so long as principles and ideals and ultimate destination do not change. And so we envy rather than pity youth, for theirs is the future and all that belongs thereto.

Nobody Has Ever Brought Forth A Substitute For A Good Home

But you moderns–with all your creative ingenuity–have never brought forth a substitute for a good home or a virtuous mother.  So long as children are taught truth and honor and reverence by the family fireside, this world we know and love, despite its weaknesses, is safe.  But take from us the integrity of home and none there is who would care to say toward what end our ways would lead. 

In the future I will provide more examples on other topics because this man is so important to me and I hope he will become important to you too.

Lets think together again, soon.

1. All of the quotations are from, Richard L. Evans, Unto The Hills, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940), pp. 105-108.

The Evils Of Ignorance, Part 3: Willful Ignorance Despite the Ever-present Sources of Wisdom that Lie Constantly Before Us

In two previous columns we have considered the “evils of ignorance.”  Today’s column is part three of that consideration. The title is take from some of the writings of Richard L. Evens, long-time spokesman for “The Spoken Word” weekly broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  I came across these thought-provoking and yet sobering words in today’s early morning reading.  My first thought was that I should have included them in one of the earlier blogs, but upon reflection I concluded they are important enough to be included in their entirety in a separate column.  They are essentially an argument against ignorance, telling us there are abundant resources to gain knowledge and wisdom, including the free practice of prayer.  So if we are willfully ignorant in the face of so many opportunities, we shall one day be called upon to answer for that. I have highlighted several parts which were important to me, but I could have highlighted the entire passage it is so powerful!

There is a widely accepted legal maxim to the effect that ignorance of the law is no defense. And yet, as most of us go through life, we ask to be excused for many things by reason of our ignorance, and we are prone to say to ourselves: “We would do better if we knew better but how may we acquire wisdom and how may we surely know the right from the wrong.”  Let it be assumed that most of us have a sincere desire to do the right thing and that our tragedies and failures come not so much from lack of willingness as from lack of wisdom.  Even making allowance for this, the very fact of our permitting ourselves to remain in ignorance while we are within constant reach of the source of all wisdom, is something to be accounted for.  It was Robert Browning who said: “Ignorance is not innocence, but sin.”  And from another source: “Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent.”  To state the proposition in another way, we have for our guidance the accumulated record of human experience: the spoken and written thoughts of the great and the wise; the sacred and inspired words of our various scriptures; an active voice of conscience, which is reliable if we have not tampered with it; and an approach through prayer to the God and Father of us all, in response to which we may receive the promptings of the “still, small voice.”  And by all of these, the fundamentals of life are indelibly and unmistakably defined.  They do not change from generation to generation even though our regard for them may change.  With all this before us, why should we ask or expect to be excused for our ignorance or our lack of wisdom.  And if we still insist that our ignorance should be allowed as an excuse for our misdeeds, we shall surely be called upon to answer for that greater guilt by which we permitted ourselves willfully to remain ignorant in spite of all the ever-present sources of wisdom that lie constantly before us.  The real answer lies not in a scarcity of wisdom, but in our own lack of will and determination to acquire and apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Lets think together again, soon.

Richard L. Evans, Unto the Hills, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940), pp. 67-68, emphasis added.

Seven Lessons On Leadership From Dallin H. Oaks

Following are seven important leadership principles I have learned from my life’s experiences:

• Love is the first principle.  Its effect magnifies the effects of every other principle. Leaders who are loved and who love those they lead enhance the impact of their leadership and the duration of their influence.  

• Good leaders are not overly concerned with popularity, knowing that popularity follows good leadership–it does not produce it. 

• Good leaders make decisions that can be relied upon because they stick with them. 

• Good leaders are positive.  Optimism is infectious. People have confidence in and work best for leaders who view adversity as a challenging opportunity and who are positively and thoughtfully confident in the assigned task and the desire outcome.  

• Good leaders are clear in defining what is expected, able to express it in simple terms, and effective in communicating with those they lead. These three qualities are so interrelated that I cannot give examples that do not, in some measure, include all of them. 

• Good leaders will be calm and unflappable under the pressure that leaders cannot escape. Such poise steadies followers, whereas a leader’s panic or anxiety scatters and disable s them.  Sports fans see this poise in the demeanor of most successful coaches of team sports.  

• Finally, no single principle of leadership is more powerful in its effect on followers than a leader’s setting the right example.  It pervades all the foregoing principles.

Lets think together again, soon.

Dallin H. Oaks, Life’s Lessons Learned, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), pp. 86-88.

Why I Believe: Evidence Thirteen: Joseph Smith And The Principle Of Empathy

101 Reasons Why I Believe Joseph Smith Was A Prophet

Evidence Thirteen: 

Joseph Smith And The Principle Of Empathy© 

I enjoyed a wonderful early morning today.  I awoke before 4:00 a.m. and began reading as I often do. Today I encountered a phrase in a passage from the Doctrine and Covenants I have never noticed before.(1) It set me on the task of writing this the thirteenth evidence of why I believe Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. Actually two related passages from scriptures produced by Joseph Smith came with considerable force into my mind as both intensely interesting and vitally important principles of human relationships.  

In September of 1830 Joseph Smith was approaching his twenty-fifth birthday. In Fayette, New York, following a three-day conference he received a revelation calling Peter Whitmer, Junior to accompany Oliver Cowdery as a missionary companion on a mission to the Lamanites. Among other things the Lord said to him, 

And be you afflicted in all his afflictions, ever lifting up your heart unto me in prayer and faith, for his and your deliverance; for I have given unto him power to build up my church among the Lamanites.(2)

I have highlighted the portion of this passage which was emphasized in my reading and which impressed itself upon me as profound–very profound for a twenty-four-year-old young man. Profound because it encourages a principle of human relationships–empathy-that is subtle, poorly understood and seldom discussed, yet is profoundly and vitally important. This is a scriptural injunction for missionary companions to practice empathy toward each other that I wish I had known and understood when I served as a mission president in northern California when I was between the ages of 59 and 62.  It would have been a great principle to teach those missionaries who so frequently encountered “companionship problems.” It could have moved them from being “me” centered to “others” centered, and that was often the problem–both companions concerned more about themselves than their companion. How did Joseph Smith know about this at his age, experience and educational level?  I should add that this principle also applies to our relationships in marriage and family, and indeed, as we shall see below to the covenant people of the Lord.(3)

What is empathy? Coincidentally, I recently read two definitions of empathy which explained the difference between it and sympathy which I liked enough to copy into my “Commonplace Book.” Sydney J. Harris, a thoughtful newspaper columnist said,

What is empathy? It is, basically, the ability to get inside another person and see the world through his eyes. Sympathy is feeling “for” someone else; empathy is feeling “with” him. (4)  

 H. A. Overstreet, wrote,

Psychologists are giving currency to a word that is useful in this connection: empathy, which signifies the imaginative projection of one’s own consciousness into an object or person outside oneself. We sympathize with another being when we suffer with him; when we feel with him. But an empathic relationship is closer: we then enter imaginatively into his life and feel it as if it were our own. Though our bodily separateness remains, we effect a psychic identification.  We stop being an outsider and become and insider.(5)

Getting “inside another person,” seeing “the world through his eyes,” and “feeling ‘with’ him” is the essence of empathy and I believe it is accurate to the intent of the Lord’s instructions to Peter Whitmer, Junior. Elder Bruce C. Hafen, commenting on this passage wrote:

In other words, let his afflictions be your own, no matter what they are or where they come from. Absorb them. Accept them. They are yours because they are his. Then your prayers will be not only for him but for “his and your” deliverance.”(6)

Elder Hafen also points out that there is a positive side to empathy which should not be ignored. That is the ability to divest ourselves of envy, competitiveness, and perhaps even personal insecurities and develop the capacity to be happy and rejoice in the happiness, joy, and success of others.

Why is empathy so important in human relations? Smarter and more analytical minds than mine can doubtless give lengthy philosophical explanations for the importance of empathy in society, but for me one important answer comes from the second passage which I mentioned above. It is from the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, and refers to the obligations one assumes at the time of baptism.  The passage reads:

...and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; 9) Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort....(7)

Those who come into the fold of God and are “his people,” should have deep empathy toward other covenant people of God. Perhaps this is a cloaked meaning of becoming “of one heart” which is the essence of being a Zion people. Empathy is “feeling” with the other person.  In the scriptures feelings are centered in the heart, so if we feel “with” the other person, we are of one heart with them. Empathy is critical to the oneness God desires between him and his people and which his people have with each other. It is the essence of emotional and spiritual unity which allows us to move the cause of Zion forward together without ego, envy, self-centeredness, selfishness, and contention. It both smooths the way between people and paves the way for positive action.

In addition and very importantly, empathy is an attribute of Christ. Isaiah said in language similar to D&C 30:6, 

8) For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.  9) In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.(8) 

And again, Alma reports:

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind... and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy ... that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.(9)

The Atonement was the greatest act of empathy in the universe. When we not only experience sympathy for someone but let it become empathy “with” him to the degree that we are afflicted in all his afflictions we are moving in the direction of becoming Christlike ourselves and that is not small or insignificant for either ourselves, our family, our community, or our society. Such empathy filled Christ with mercy and knowledge of how to succor his people. “Succor” is to render assistance and support in times of hardship and distress. If it was important for the Savior to learn how to do that and we aspire to become like him, it follows that we must learn how to succor people as well and the beginning of that process is to learn to empathize with people.

When it is boiled down, empathy is a profound element of or manifestation of Godlike love. It is Atoning love.  It is merciful love. It is heartfelt love. It is a love intended to transform individuals and societies. It is the love that prevails in the Celestial Kingdom.  

I love Joseph Smith for producing these scriptures that have caused me to engage in this kind of thinking and analysis, which have moved my soul and begun an important transition within.  

Thank God for Joseph Smith.

Lets think together again, soon.

Notes: 

1. I acknowledge my debt for the idea for this blog to Bruce C. Hafen's brief discussion of several of these passages in his, Covenant Hearts: Why Marriage Matters and How to Make It Last, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), pp. 96-98, and I heartily recommend this book on marriage.

2. D&C 30:6.

3. Elder Hafen does not dwell on the missionary companion relationship, but straightway applies this principle to marriage.  He does not mention the baptismal covenant in this portion of his treatment of the subject.

4. Sydney J. Harris, The Best of Sydney J. Harris, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), p. 33.

5. H. A. Overstreet, The Mature Mind, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1949), pp. 64-65, emphasis in original.

6. Bruce C. Hafen, Covenant Hearts, p. 96.

7. Mosiah 18:8-9, emphasis added.

8.   Isaiah 63:8-9.

9. Alma 7:11-12.

Why I Believe: Evidence Twelve: Joseph Smith And The "Treasury Of Light"

101 Reasons Why I Believe Joseph Smith Was A Prophet

Evidence Twelve: 

Joseph Smith and the “Treasury of Light”© 

Today’s evidence is only one example, but the point of comparison used can be repeated almost ad infinitum. The scriptural translations Joseph Smith made and the revelations he received excel in what I call “doctrinal profundity.”  Immense spiritual power and influence attends the profoundness and clarity of his revelations. Often they also soar literarily and we find ourselves captivated by not only their power but their beauty as well. Yet the bulk of these writings which Mormonism has canonized as scripture were produced before Joseph Smith was thirty years old. This from a young man who by his own statement had only the rudiments of formal education due to the indigent, transitory, and agrarian circumstances of his young life.

This profundity and power can easily be seen by a comparison of passages from Joseph Smith with other writings which have come down to us through the ages which make some claim as revelation, but which few if any have adopted as scripture. Today’s example will compare a small portion of a revelation Joseph received in the last days of 1832, and 3 January 1833, with a document which came to light about 1785. It is called the Pistis Sophia.  It is a lengthy document and purports to be instructions which Jesus gave to his disciples during the eleven years following his resurrection. In other words it falls into the category which scholars call the “Forty-day Literature.” The subject of this passage is the nature of those teachings which come out of the “Treasury of Light.”

“It came to pass, when Jesus had risen from the dead, that he passed eleven years discoursing with his disciples, and instructing them only up to the regions of the First Commandment and up to the regions of the First Mystery, that within the Veil, within the First Commandment, which is the for-and-twentieth mystery without and below–those [four-and-twenty] which are in the second space of the First Mystery which is before all mysteries,–the Father in the form of a dove.

And Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I am come forth out of that First Mystery, which is the last mystery, that is the four-and-twentieth mystery.’ And his disciples have not known nor understood that anything existeth within that mystery; but they thought of that mystery, that it is the head of the universe and the head of all existence; and they thought it is the completion of all completions, because Jesus had said to them concerning that mystery, that it surroundeth the First Commandment and the five Impressions and the great Light / and the five Helpers and the whole Treasury of Light.(1)

Well, I don’t know about you, but the best I can say about this is “so much for ‘doctrinal profundity,’ or clarity, enlightenment, and spiritual power." It is so caught up with jargon and mystery as to be quite unintelligible. Its purpose seems to be to impress the reader by its highfalutin abstractness.  Compare this with D&C 88:6-13, one of the more challenging of Joseph Smith’s revelations.

He that ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in and through all things, the light of truth; Which truth shineth.  This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made; As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made; And the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you stand.  And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space– The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.

Joseph Smith’s revelation exalts Jesus Christ and the power of the light of Christ as the power of creation and illumination in the sun, moon, and stars. He is the source of light which gives life to all things. He also gives enlightenment to the eyes and understanding of man.  This light is the power of God and is the law by which all things are governed. Thus the light of Christ infuses the energy, life, and power into the universe necessary to offset the disintegration, entropy, and stasis which would follow without it according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  

I have no doubt which passage really came from the Treasury of Light.

Thank God for Joseph Smith.

Lets think together again, soon.

1.  G. R. S. Mead, trans., Pistis Sophia: The Gnostic Tradition of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and His Disciples, (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2005), p. 1.  I will have more positive things to say about this amazing work in the future.

Emerson's Description of the New England Spring Of 1820

Recently I began reading the journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson.  At age sixteen he began his journal, which his dedicatory entry described as a "Common Place book," because he was not only recording his own thoughts, but gathering quotations and ideas and reflecting on them.  The following entry is from 2  April 1820, only a few days from the time Joseph Smith went into the grove near Palmyra, New York, on what he called a "beautiful, clear day in the Spring of 1820."  Here is Emerson's reaction to the same Spring.  Keep in mind he was sixteen when he wrote this; Joseph Smith was fourteen. There must have been something special in the air for these young adolescent titans that Spring which brought out the best in them!

Emerson on the Spring of 1820 in Cambridge, Mass.

April 2.  "Spring has returned and has begun to unfold her beautiful array, to throw herself  on wildflower couches, to walk abroad on the hills and summon her songsters to do her sweet homage.  The Muses have issued from the library and costly winter dwelling of their votaries, and are gone to build their bowers on Parnassus, and to melt their ice-bound fountains.  Castalia is flowing rapturously and lifting her foam on high. The hunter and the shepherd are aboard on the rock and the vallies echo to the merry, merry horn. The Poet, of course, is wandering, while Nature’s thousand melodies are warbling to him. This soft bewitching luxury of vernal gales and accompanying beauty overwhelms. It produces a lassitude which is full of mental enjoyment and which we would not exchange for more vigorous pleasure.  Although so long as the spell endures, little or nothing is accomplished, nevertheless, I believe it operates to divest the mind of old and worn-out contemplations and bestows new freshness upon life, and leaves behind it imaginations of enchantment for the mind to mould into splendid forms and gorgeous fancies which shall long continue to fascinate, after the physical phenomena which woke them have ceased to create delight."

Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes, eds., Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909), vol. 1, pp. 19-20, entry of 2 April 1820, at Cambridge, Mass, age 16!