Don’t Surrender to Base Human Tendencies

In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” the Mr. Potter character is petty, selfish, greedy, materialistic, and just plain mean. It’s a great sketch of how someone that indulges in natural or base human tendencies is miserable and unhappy.

We have the God given ability to decide what we do and choose how we feel. If someone offends us we can choose to hurt them or forgive them. If we see an opportunity in a business transaction to take advantage of someone for our own benefit we can choose to be greedy or honest.

In 124 B.C. King Benjamin said “the natural man is an enemy to God”. Be disciplined. Control our passions and appetites. Overcome our natural tendencies toward base behavior.

Overcoming the natural man leads to happiness and contentment.

- Mosiah 3:19

Learn From Those Who Have Gone Before

Learning from the experience of people who have already lived and died is smart.

Smart because it advances our own knowledge and wisdom much quicker than can be done if each new generation had to start from scratch learning what works and what doesn’t.

Imagine if heart surgeons were unable to learn from their predecessors. What if military commanders were not able to learn the strategies that succeeded and failed in the past? Innovation is dependent on our ability to learn from those who have gone before.

In 124 B.C. King Benjamin had three sons whom he taught the language of their ancestors so they “could be men of understanding”. Then he counseled them to “search them diligently that that ye may profit thereby”.

And profit they did. Benjamin’s son Mosiah instituted a representative form of government, something that was very rare up to that point in the history of the world but which he was able to envision because of the learning he had from those who had gone before.

I asked my class, “Who have you learned from and what have you learned from someone who has already lived and died?”

Gavin referred to Abraham Lincoln. He has studied many of his speeches and writings and found in them the importance of keeping a laser focus on staying true to our principles.

If you want to leap-frog your life experience, study and learn from those who have gone before.

- Mosiah 1:2, 7

Selfish and Satisfied Don’t Jive

An irony of life is that the less self-centered you are the more content and satisfied your life is.

Imagine going to an amusement park every day for years to ride the most awesome roller coaster. The thrill you get the first few times would quickly dissipate and you would have no lasting satisfaction. Years down the road you would look back and consider it a waste, nothing gained.

Now consider the opposite, helping and serving other people in ways that better their lives. While it may not be adrenaline inducing you feel a long lasting satisfaction. You can look back years later and still feel content about the good you’ve done.

Helping and serving other people brings lasting pleasure and satisfaction.

Enos spent his life teaching and encouraging people to stay close to God. At the end of his life he said he “rejoiced in it above that of the world.”

What are you doing today to help and serve others?

- Enos 1:26

Learn the Hard Way or Easy Way

Learn the hard way by making mistakes others have made. Or, learn the easy way by avoiding the mistakes others have made.

In almost all the sciences each successive generation learns from those who have gone before. Math, physics, and computer science (my favorite!) have all benefited this way.

However when it comes to human behavior many rebellious generations think they know more than their predecessors so they throw out the old and bring in what they think is new. Funny though, it’s not new. It’s been tried so many times before and failed each time.

If you want to learn the easy way just take Sherem’s experience of challenging God’s word and avoid the mistake he made.

- Jacob 7:1-23

You’re Trying Too Hard, Lighten Up

It’s actually possible to try too hard at something.

When a new pilot in training is learning to fly they have a tendency to hold the flight yoke (the plane’s steering wheel, kind-of) tightly as if they need to control the plane.

It turns out that gripping too tightly causes the pilot to have less control by overcorrecting the plane’s movement. A light and soft touch on the controls allows the plane to fly naturally and safely while the pilot makes small corrections to stay on course.

When it comes to the Gospel trying too hard is equivalent to making the simple complex and thereby, as Jacob described it, “looking beyond the mark.” The Gospel is plain and simple and someone who despises the Gospel because of it’s simplicity will overlook the blessings it brings.

- Jacob 4:13-14

News Alert – You Aren’t the Only Person With Feelings

Others will listen to you if you listen to them first. Others will understand you better if you first try to understand them.

Human nature is to naturally think of self first. We think our feelings are the most valid, the most real, and the most important.

We live on an earth with about 6 billion people, all of whom are equally important as our self. Their feelings are just as real, just as valid, just as important. With so many people we are bound to cross paths with others who offend us, irritate us, or otherwise rub us the wrong way.

Jacob had a difficult message to share with his people. Before he delivered the message he spent a lot of time expressing to them his understanding of how they felt and that he was sensitive to it. When he delivered the message it was consequently received well.

This principle of understanding others and being sensitive to their feelings can be applied to every aspect of our lives and in every relationship. The next time someone offends you or ‘makes you mad’ try it out – reach out to understand them and their feelings first, before you try to get them to understand yours, and you will find a softening of heart as artificial barriers are removed.

- Jacob 2:6-9

Treasured Artifact of Julia’s Youth

Julia drew this today to help the class memorize 2 Nephi 28:7-9. When she is well-known and famous this will be a treasured artifact of her youth.

- 2 Nephi 28:7-9

Search Knowledge or be Ignorant

Try to encourage someone to understand or learn something that would be helpful to them when they just don’t care or won’t listen. Pretty frustrating, right?

One of my students shared a story of her cousin who was very unhappy with his life because he was making decisions that led to negative consequences. She encouraged him to read the scriptures and pray so he could find answers  on how to resolve his unhappiness. He refused to do it, wouldn’t make any effort, and consequently his unhappiness continued and deepened.

“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.” The original quote from 1546 by John Heywood is “A man maie well bring a horse to the water, But he can not make him drinke without he will.” Human nature hasn’t changed even after all these years.

Nephi taught his people “in plainness, even as plain as word can be” and some still refused to understand, or even try.

If you want knowledge then search for it. Seek to understand. Make the effort. Or be ignorant.

- 2 Nephi 32:7

Do Not Go Silent When Intimidated

We studied the second half of Dallin H. Oaks talk about religious freedom (link here) today.

In his words…

“Such forces — atheists and others — would intimidate persons with religious-based points of view from influencing or making the laws of their state or nation.”

“Aside from the obvious fact that this objection would deny free speech as well as religious freedom to members of our Church and its coalition partners, there are other reasons why the public square must be open to religious ideas and religious persons. As Richard John Neuhaus said many years ago, ‘In a democracy that is free and robust, an opinion is no more disqualified for being ‘religious’ than for being atheistic, or psychoanalytic, or Marxist, or just plain dumb.’”

“…we must not be deterred or coerced into silence by the kinds of intimidation I have described. We must insist on our constitutional right and duty to exercise our religion, to vote our consciences on public issues and to participate in elections and debates in the public square and the halls of justice.”

God Source of Power, Not Government

Our seminary class is studying a talk that Dallin H. Oaks gave a week ago at BYU-Idaho entitled “Religious Freedom” (link here).

In his words…

“Along with many other religious people, we affirm that God is the ultimate source of power and that, under Him, it is the people’s inherent right to decide their form of government. Sovereign power is not inherent in a state or nation just because its leaders have the power that comes from force of arms. And sovereign power does not come from the divine right of a king, who grants his subjects such power as he pleases or is forced to concede, as in Magna Carta. As the preamble to our constitution states: ‘We the People of the United States . . . do ordain and establish this Constitution.’”

“Religious freedom has always been at risk.”

“One of the great fundamentals of our inspired constitution, relied on by Oyun of Mongolia and countless others struggling for freedom in many countries in the world, is the principle that the people are the source of government power.”

“The greatest infringements of religious freedom occur when the exercise of religion collides with other powerful forces in society. Among the most threatening collisions in the United States today are (1) the rising strength of those who seek to silence religious voices in public debates, and (2) perceived conflicts between religious freedom and the popular appeal of newly alleged civil rights.”