Mormon Musings

The education then of our desires is one of the far-reaching importance to our happiness in life...God's ways of educating our desires are, of course, the most perfect...And what is God's way?  Everywhere in nature we are taught the lessons of patience and waiting.  We want things a long time before we get them, and the fact that we wanted them a long time makes them all the more precious when they come. Joseph F. Smith

“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”  Brigham Young

The Prophet Joseph Smith, in speaking of revelation, said: A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon.  [ TPJS, 151]... To receive spiritual truths, one must be obedient as well as diligent (see D&C 130:19). Spiritual light is received when one follows the doctrine of Christ--that is, the first principles and ordinances of the restored gospel. I challenge you to increase your faith by living gospel principles more precisely, by repenting when you fall short, by taking an active role in your ward, by rendering service to others, and by making prayer and scripture study a part of your everyday life. In this manner you will find true joy. In closing I turn to the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who wrote about the connection between heaven and our intell...

No one knows anything about Christ’s work simply by being born a member of the Church, and often he knows little about it after years of unmotivated exposure in meetings or classes. He must learn. And learning involves self-investment and effort. The Gospel should be studied ‘as carefully as any science.’ The ‘literature of the Church’ must be ‘acquired and read.’ Our learning should be increased in our spare time ‘day by day.’ Then as we put the gospel truth to work in daily life, we will never find it wanting. We will be literate in the most important field of knowledge in the universe, knowledge for lack of which men and nations perish, in the light of which men and nations may be saved. —Elder Marion D. Hanks, First Council of the Seventy, “Theological Illiterates”,  Improvement Era  (September 1969): 42