So… first blog post ever, this is very exciting, a momentous occasion. Oh and it just happens to be on an amazing talk given by Elder Henry B. Eyring. The talk, entitled A Child of God, focuses mainly on how we can achieve academic success, but also remain humble and not fall into the pitfall of being prideful. Elder Eyring throughout this talk gives great metaphors for life, originally starting out with almost a war theme, not only telling an account, but referring to spiritual bullets and “casualties”. Later, continuing on with a medicine metaphor mentioning antidotes and correct dosages. The body of his talk, however, was in the listing of 5 characteristics or habits among great learners. But wait; hold a minute, before I get into that whole section, I was so happy that he mentioned the talk about pride given by President Benson. Short, true side story: Probably around 6 months ago, or longer, I got to attend a Zone Conference in my stake, and actually participate in all the activities and discussion… seriously, just the most amazing experience ever, being surrounded by all the missionaries, but anyways, they discussed this talk in detail. So… when Elder Eyring mentioned this talk I actually had a copy of it tucked away in my scriptures. I was probably a little overly excited about it, but it was just really cool that I knew exactly what he was talking about. Anyways, he listed the five things:
1) -Welcome correction. Holy cow, Elder Eyring, what are you trying to do to me? Who else loves that he gives us something really hard first? Taking criticism, I know it is something that we must grow to love and it will sincerely help us but… it can be really difficult. I’ll have to take his advice and try to enjoy “jottings in red ink”.
2) - Keep commitments. Getting a little easier, he’s breaking us in. I always really appreciated this attribute because, well, it sucks when you have plans with someone and they cancel, or you’re in a group project and someone isn’t pulling their wait. All I thought about when I read this section was… oxen. Yes, oxen. I thought about oxen bearing a yoke, and the situations that can happen if someone or well, an animal isn’t doing their part.
3) -Work hard. Easier said than done. We almost have to fight of that lazy, carnal man all the time. It’s quite a boxing match on some days. I do love how he stated, “Life at its longest is short. What we do here determines the rest of our condition for eternity.” If you think about that, about life in that context, you realize just how much we do have to work. We are literally building our mansion above, building mansions isn’t easy.
4) -Help other people. Gosh, this is so important, when I think about all the people who’ve helped me whether in school or in life or anytime, it makes so much sense to pay it forward. We all have so much to offer, so much to bring to the table. It wouldn’t be a great meal if everyone brought… let’s say mashed potatoes (although I would be very happy). Everyone needs to bring what they have, and allow everyone else to feast upon it.
5) - Expect resistance and overcome it. Elder Eyring is definitely using the sandwich technique to give us these points, starting difficult, being nice in the middle, and then hitting us once again on the bottom bun. For me in my life, if things come easy usually I don’t appreciate them nearly as much as something I worked really hard for. Oh and I loved his comment about his mom. What do we expect? An answer key? Life really is a test, a place for us to prove ourselves.
This talk although being about education and being humble, had the under lying theme of just how lucky we are to be children of God and… to actually know it. How lucky are we? If we but remember “who God is and what it means to be his child,” we’ll be protected, we’ll have promised blessings, and we’ll be able to accomplish so much not only in the educational field but in all aspects of life. It is our competitive edge, our shield against whatever might try to knock us down. Gosh, just a great talk. More to come on this blog, so keep reading J
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