More trusted, more freedom

The more you are trusted the more freedom you have.

You are trusted according to how much integrity you have.

As Aisha said this morning, “Come home 5 minutes before your curfew.” Profound. That builds trust with your parents and they are going to give you more freedom.

My business partners trust me because I’ve always delivered on what I say I will do. My actions back my words. So they don’t micromanage me or watch over my shoulder. They trust me to pull my weight and the result is I have more freedom.

Have integrity and you will accomplish great things.

- JSH 1:46

Know where you stand

Try out for a team and you want to know if you are on the team.

Audition for a play and you want to know if you get a part.

Take a test and you want to know your score.

We need to know where we stand. We want to know where we stand.

So where do you stand with God? You are living your life imperfectly but trying to do right. So where do you stand?

Pray to God and ask him where you stand. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised with the answer.

- JSH 1:29

The greater of knowledge and wisdom

Knowledge is knowing stuff. Data, facts, figures. Wisdom is applying knowledge, acting on it in a way that’s beneficial.

Two centuries ago a 14 year boy did not know how to act. Instead of asking for knowledge he asked for wisdom. Wisely he sought the wisdom from the source of all truth, God.

I believe wisdom is greater than knowledge.

In our age with all the knowledge available to us at our fingertips and at the speed of electrons, where is the wisdom?

- JSH 1:12

The 2010-2011 seminary class

6:00 AM and here they are!

Left to right: Kayli, Eric, Christian, Colleen, Spencer, Kassandra.

Scott (middle) came in late so had to get another picture.

Left to right: Kassandra, Leanne, Brittney, Maryann, Aisha, Markus, Taylor, Wendel.

Left to right: Taylor, Wendel, Ryan, Megan, Eoin, Pablo, Matthew, and John.

I asked everyone what they care about and this is what they said:

As we dug deeper into why they cared about these things they realized it was because they want to be happy. And then we realized that God wants us to be happy (2 Nephi 2:25).

So it all comes together. Everything in the scriptures is to help us be happy. Which means the scriptures are all about what we care about. Our study of the scriptures is therefore really about our happiness.

Don’t manage people. Lead people and manage systems.

And so begins the 2010-2011 seminary year. It actually started 8 days ago but I’ve been on vacation with my family and at the Restoring Honor rally in Washington D.C. so my first teaching day is tomorrow.

Teaching seminary is a consecration of time, energy, and heart in the service of the youth in my class, about 20 hours a week. Totally voluntary. It’s an act of service that feels great!

It’s so awesome to be able to do this again. This is my fourth year teaching and it’s been amazing.

What informs how I teach and conduct myself in the class?

We are free to act and not to be acted upon (Alma 2:26-27).

Manage systems not people. Lead people. I’m a leader not a manager.

Be humble, submissive, gentle, easy to be entreated, patient, long-suffering, temperate in all things, have faith, hope, and charity (Alma 7:23-24).

I don’t assign seats, don’t force anyone to do anything, and put the learning responsibility directly on the shoulders of the youth. From what I can tell after doing this for 3 years, they like being treated like responsible people and they respond positively to it.

Focus Changes Everything

Heather wrote a profound post about the importance of choosing your focus. And she uses her photography skills to bring it alive. Wow, you’ve got to read it!

http://athermusic.blogspot.com/2010/08/focus-illustrated.html

How Do You Know?

We are faced each day with the need to figure out what is good and what is evil.

If we judge incorrectly our lives can get messed up. If we judge correctly everything goes better. Given the importance of getting it right, it’s helpful to understand how.

Moroni said it’s very clear and straightforward to judge correctly between good and evil. “The way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.”

And here is how to do it: “every thing which inviteth to good and persuadeth to believe in Christ” is good. “Whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God” is of the devil and evil.

I asked my seminary class what specific areas in their life would it be helpful to apply what Moroni is teaching. They all strongly agreed that they should apply it to their friends. And the other was school.

- Moroni 7:14-17

Determined to be Bad

If you’ve ever wanted to be bad, really bad, think about what happened to these two guys, Coriantumr and Shiz.

They fought literally to the death and caused the death of millions of people in wars just because they chose to be bad and wouldn’t stop being bad.

Coriantumr actually tried a couple times to fix things up but he just went right back to his bad ways.

“He saw that there had been slain by the sword already nearly two millions of his people, and he began to sorrow in his heart… and [he] repented not of [his] iniquity.”

Being determined to be bad, is bad.

- Ether 15:1-34

Faith Gets Results

To get something you desire you first need faith. Faith first, results second.

There is no cost in choosing to believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior. If you first choose to have faith that he is then you will receive witnesses that bear it out and confirm it.

Some examples of faith as articulated by Moroni:

• Law of Moses given after faith.
• By faith Alma and Amulek caused the prison to fall.
• By faith Nephi and Lehi converted the Lamanites.
• By faith Ammon and his brothers changed the hearts of the Lamanites.
• By faith the brother of Jared saw the Lord.

What great thing do you desire, what result are you looking for? First have faith.

- Ether 12:7-20

Use Your Intelligence, Think!

Use your intelligence. As long as we have it, we ought to use it.

Suppose you are asked by God to accomplish something difficult, like take a group of 50 people across the ocean in small boats that are sealed shut so the water can’t come in during huge storms.

You recognize two major problems. First, you’ll run out of air and suffocate and second, you can’t see anything in the pitch black.

So you ask God to help you solve those problems. He gives you the solution to the first problem but doesn’t even address the second one.

You ask again. He agrees with you that having no light is a problem, and expounds on why, and then asks you what you want him to do about it.

Have you ever asked God for help and it seemed like you weren’t getting an answer, he wasn’t telling you what to do? Sometimes he wants us to use our reasoning and intelligence to figure it out.

This is exactly what happened to ‘the brother of Jared’. And figure it out he did!

- Ether 2:19-25; 3:1-5