Spirituality

The development of our spiritual nature should concern us most. Spirituality is the highest acquistion of the soul, the divine in man. - David O. McKay¹

I have had the experience of driving across the United States several times. No matter how often I make the trip, I am amazed at just how empty the country is. Living in residential areas, it is easy to develop the impression that the countryside is outside of the city. In reality, the city is inside of the countryside. Everything that man has built, all his buildings, laws, roads, systems, and conveniences are are built one technology, artificial. They upon another in an endless change of ever-increasing complexity. The wilderness remains. Pure. Untouched. Empty. Open. While if are wise to turn on driving cross-country, you enough your radio, you can’t help but take in the wide, open scenes of blues and whites above, and greens and tans and reds below. The window glass cannot keep the vistas from seeping into your mind. Pretty soon, you begin thinking about the principle ideas in life. You consider the nothingness of man, the wonder of creation, the glory of God.

What is it about modern life that deflects this inflection?

When in nature, man cannot help but think outside of himself. It is a passive act. In the metropolis, it takes a special focus, a great deal of meditation to quiet the outside influence of the world that drowns out the subtle but prolifically important things in life. Spirituality is a gift that will not come by default in today’s temporally-focused world.

President McKay said “Man’s earthly existence is but a test as to whether he will concentrate his evorts, his mind, his soul, upon things which contribute to the comfort and gratification of his physical nature, or whether he will make of his life’s pursuit the acquisition of spiritual qualities.”² On another occasion he said, “The development of our spiritual nature should concern us most. Spirituality is the highest acquisition of the soul, the divine in man.”³

Why are we so quick to marginalize spirituality? Even when we do consider it, it is almost always as a piece of life. The full, abundant life is one that is centered on the gospel and building the kingdom—not as a suspension of “real life,” which would be a sacrifice, but as an elevated manner of living, each piece of life being raised up to the spiritual level, thus being made holy. This is consecration.

A few years ago, an Elder’s Quorum President assigned me to arrange brethren weekly for the sacrament. With this assignment came instruction from a Stake High Counselor to assign brethren, rather than ask for volunteers. I was amazed at the number of brethren who reliably said no. I wondered if perhaps there were worthiness issues, but the Bishop told me that such was not the case. They simply did not want to bless or pass the sacrament. The same people said yes every week, and everyone else said no.

I have wondered what those brethren would think if one day they showed up to church and there was no sacrament. Clearly they always expected it to be there, even though they had no desire in helping out. These people were consumers, not producers. They expected the sacrament, but were not willing to prepare it. They expected to be home taught, but would not home teach others. A priesthood holder with this attitude is like a ward organist expecting music at church without them playing the organ.

Spiritual consecration begins with spiritual self-suHciency. When you are spiritually self-sufficient, you are a producer, and not a consumer in the Church.⁴ The idea of spiritual selfsuH ciency is to give more than you receive.

And how can you give more than you receive? You can go to church prepared to inspire and uplift others, instead of going to be inspired and uplifted by others. To do this, you make sure Sunday is spiritually uplifting whether the lessons of church are or not. Then, you obtain an extra measure of spirituality so that of of or even your sharing insights, answering questions, your smile and positive attitude can help uplift others. You go to church to uplift, not to be uplifted.

Note that what we are talking about here is not mere lesson reading, which seems difficult enough for some. We are talking about each member having their own spiritual experiences (yes, more than one experience), and bringing those to bear in church settings and also in settings outside of church to uplift others. Without spiritual self-suHciency in most ward members, our meetings, our wards, and our quorums will be living far beneath

their intended blessings.

You become spiritually self-sufficient when you perform your duties without supervision. You do not need to be told to do your home teaching. You know that your leaders need to know the result of visits wait for them to ask? your monthly, why You can read your scriptures daily, personally and with your family. You can hold family home evening weekly, attend the temple as frequently as circumstances permit, and pray daily individually and with your family. You can live by the guidance of the modern prophets, including what is written in “For the Strength of Youth.” What does it matter if these things aren’t referenced in the temple recommend interview? You can do all the things that the Lord expects of you instead of doing just enough to keep your leaders from chastising us. The consecrated do what they do out of love for God, not fear of man. Besides, can you really believe that all that is required to achieve celestial glory is passing the temple recommend interview?

The self-sufficient live so as to have their own spiritually personal spiritual reservoir daily overflowing with the Lord’s power, fully stocked on virtue, and a ready to-use-surplus for anyone who stands in spiritual need. They know their scriptures well enough to cite the appropriate verses to provide guidance, support, or faith for the many personal trials they may encounter. They realize that our own good deeds, no matter how small, can and do have an effect on those around us.¹²⁵

This sort of constant preparation requires logging much time in quiet communion with the Holy Ghost. In the New Testament, we read that when the Savior lifted the masses spiritually, whether by teaching or healing or striving with men, he used up some of 125Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man. (Job 35:8)

his spiritual vitality, and sought solitary communion with God to recharge his virtue to be able to return to full service. If you are spiritually self-sufficient, you keep your batteries charged, ready to serve whenever needed. We can recharge spiritually via earnest scripture study and purposeful meditation with God. Only when are self-reliant can live a you spiritually you spiritually consecrated life.

After having met your own spiritual needs, you should focus on those of your family. You study the scriptures with real intent, preparing for questions your wife or children may ask you. You stand ready to provide the guidance they seek, or at least are studying enough to merit the guidance of the Holy Ghost which will come in the moment, and give you what to say to them.⁵ You to be able to to situations and doubts prepare respond by directly quoting from the scriptures.

Personal spirituality and righteousness can be leveraged to secure blessings for family members. Consider the examples of the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived righteously and were given the opportunity to make covenants which secured blessings for their posterity, most of whom were less righteous and some of whom were downright wicked.⁶ The righteousness of Alma the elder and those who joined in praying for his

son caused a life-changing paradigm shift in Alma the younger. Shortly after joining the Church, I saw the promised blessings of paying an honest tithe fall upon my entire family, though I was the member. You the to bless only possess ability your family through evorts to become more spiritual.

Spiritual consecration does not end with your family, but extends to your church responsibilities. Your spiritual stewardship includes your Church callings, which may include home teaching. When spiritually consecrated, you pray for the people you home teach, by name, and follow the promptings you receive about them. You see your call as a home teacher as two fold: to see that your families’ needs are met, and also to see that they are doing their duty. You realize that the latter is not a call to judge a member’s worthiness in the Church, but is most certainly a responsibility to ask them specific, appropriate questions about their standards and practices in terms of Church doctrine. You use these answers to formulate lessons that will help them improve, and also to provide feedback to your Elder’s Quorum Presidency, who will exercise extra leverage to help them further. You realize that you cannot teach someone principles that you yourself are not living, and this compels you to live even more righteously.

Home teachers are the first bastion of defense of righteousness when the family has failed to teach the gospel in its fullness. Whenever a church member claims ignorance in breaking the Lord’s standards, it is first the fault of himself, then the parents, and third the fault of the home teacher. How could a Bishop possibly be expected to know the true spiritual posture of every single person in his ward? A home teacher, however, cannot only know his families this well, but must know them this well in order to home teach them as as he He specifically ought.

must keep the families in remembrance of their duty, and that requires knowing them well enough to know where they are struggling. All members are free to live in opposition to the Lord’s standards, but if any ever does so without knowing the error of their ways, surely the home teachers have failed.

If you are spiritually consecrated you realize that your spiritual stewardship does not end with formal assignments like home teaching. Your baptismal covenant “to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in”⁷ is an injunction to faithfully stand for the standards of the Lord, and to be vocal in support for right, and in pronouncement of evil. This is a global injunction. You are to stand for right in all places, in all things. Remember also that your purpose is to help those whom you teach. Speak out when it is expedient for the benefit of the hearer. It is always expedient to teach but sometimes to do so by example, only prudent by precept.

You will realize that all men, including you and I, are capable of coming unto Christ a little more than we have. It is the duty of member of the Church to invite others to come unto every Christ—including other members! To come unto Christ is not just to be baptized, but to do all things that Christ would have us do, and to do none from which he would have us abstain. Thus, all of us can learn one from another, and benefit one from another in invitations to improve—to come unto Christ. You can lift others spiritually everywhere you go. In Sunday school, you can make comments which fight the status quo of spiritual deadness and secularism. If you are invited to do things which you do not think are in line with the gospel, even if invited by members, you may decline, and if appropriate, explain why you

do not want to participate.

Don’t be scared to invite others to improve. Wealthy men have the responsibility to help the starving they see on the side of the road, whether or not they have an assigned responsibility to do so. Why should we wait until we have some flagship calling to do the same spiritually? Just as a poor man may not have the business talent to create wealth, a man may not have faith to obtain wisdom from heaven. You can show the spiritually less fortunate how to be spiritual by doing so yourself and then teaching by example and precept.

Those who are endowed with talents spiritually have the duty to dedicate themselves to learning and share it will all who will listen. The Savior told the Twelve, “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in the light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.”⁸ Do we not have a duty to share with others the doctrines that our Apostles and Prophets have taught us?

A friend of mine once took it upon herself to share with me what a prophet had taught. Despite my own evorts to search out guidance on the topic, and though the teachings were from a published sermon, I had never seen them. I was seeking to know whether or not I should serve a mission. I had prayed and fasted. I had read everything I could get my hands on. I had talked to my bishop. I just couldn’t figure out what God wanted me to do. Finally, my friend sent me the talk by President Kimball which stated that God’s will is that all worthy young men should serve a mission. I served a mission. Had she felt it wasn’t her place to send me that talk because she wasn’t my home teacher or Bishop or Stake President, then I would not have served a mission. My testimony would be weaker, my life

would be devoid of its richness, and tens of thousands of Chileans would not have had the chance to receive the gospel. Are you beginning to catch the vision of the difference you can make in other peoples lives? What you regard as common knowledge could be the gem another person has prayed and fasted to hear. Do not hide your spiritual talent in the earth.⁹

Spiritual gifts are meant not only to be used, but sought. Paul told the Corinthians to “covet earnestly the best [spiritual] not for but “that excel to the gifts,”¹⁰ personal gain, ye may edifying of the church.”¹¹ There is no man on this earth who has spiritual knowledge without having searched for it. Joseph Smith, perhaps the most spiritually enlightened person the earth has seen in hundreds of years, received nothing until after he had spent much time in searching. Subsequent knowledge was only vort. received after subsequent e

We must fight the tendency to reduce scripture study to scripture reading. It is doubtful that anyone has ever succeeded in a secular class without taking notes or doing any assignments. Yet, how many of us expect to pass the difficult spiritual tests in this life without having anything more than a textbook that we occasionally skim over? As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all of us are expected to be scholars of the gospel. Keep a record of the things you have learned. Strive to put the gospel into your own words. It is easier for the Lord to write the gospel on the fleshy tables of your heart if you are writing it in the paper tables of our scriptural study journals. Find a system which works for you, and use it. Deep gems are only available to those who dig deep.

Your applications of even the most basic doctrines is limited to your depth of understanding. Consider your teeth. The part we see is only a small portion of each tooth. What would happen if there were no root below the gum line? Your teeth might look like everyone else’s, but they could not be used for anything but show. So is the knowledge of members who opt not to deepen their understanding of basic gospel principles. With each study session, you work on the root. The difference will not be in the visible portion of your understanding, but in the deepness of the roots in your mind and in your heart. Your deepened intellectual will allow to be better to answer understanding you equipped the questions of others and teach the gospel with simplicity and comprehensiveness. Your deepened gospel roots in the heart will allow you to teach with power and conviction. You will know the truthfulness of the gospel because of what the Spirit has told you, not because of what others have told you. Your testimony will stand filled out and independent of others’.

Spiritual gifts are to be sought to bless others. A home teacher may enjoy a heightened amount of spiritual guidance in preparing a lesson compared to his personal scripture study. The extra guidance is intended for those he serves, but he is worthy of his hire, and can apply that guidance to himself and his family. I have had many significant spiritual learning experiences only to realize a short while later that it was given me to give to someone else for a specific need that they had at the time. These nuggets intended for others have always been a joy to pass on, but each time I also retain what was given for the benefit of others to apply to my own life.

The numerous blessings for spirituality make it no surprise that the consecrated individual carries a few spirit-building activities in the back of his mind at all times to fill any unforeseen

down time. Such simple things like carrying a pocket version of the scriptures, an mp3 player with sermons, a spiritually uplifting book, or a notepad with you can turn idle time into spiritually productive time. Carrying your home teaching families’ phone numbers in your cell phone is another way to make the most of unforeseen down time. A call can mean a lot to quick phone those you home teach. Little changes like this can bless the lives of many people in the long run.

Paul said, “strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who reason of use have their senses exercised to by discern both good and evil.”¹² The gift of spirituality is acquired and cultivated by reason of use. It is a gift whose fruits run over into all aspects of life. Seek to obtain it by becoming spiritually self-sufficient, then seek further spiritual knowledge to better equip yourself to serve others.