Part 3: Thoughtfulness, Thinking Aspects

The Liahona, which worked to guide the Nephites
according to their faith. I imagine it required active thought
and effort to make decisions based on this guidance.

Next up are traits that I associate with the intellect. This whole category was, to me, a huge blessing to consider. As someone who has often felt lacking in all the empathy and compassionate traits of the previous category (traits that are often emphasized for women), I loved looking through these and realizing, “Hey, I’ve got some of that!” I’ve always felt more at home in intellectual pursuits than social ones, but I have often felt them to be of less “value.”

Here we are, though, with a whole wonderful list of beautiful aspects of the divine nature in us.

I’ve put them into two separate groups, and I’ve tried in my head to explain why I separated them into these two categories, but I can’t (so much for intelligent thinking, huh?). The first set is, to me, more globally about decision-making in general and our capacity to choose, while the other traits are about specific decisions and qualities that should guide us as we make decisions.

I appreciate that our Heavenly Parents care about our thinking as well as about our feeling and acting. I appreciate knowing that making intelligent, wise decisions can lead us closer to Them. I also feel so strongly about the creation of beauty and about how creativity fits into God’s plan for us, and I feel like that fits here too.

·         Discernment—“he hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil” (Hel. 14:31).

·         Agency—“he hath given unto you that ye might choose” (Hel. 14:31; see also Moro. 7:19). I’m extremely grateful for this gift.

·         Living by a higher law, not just parsing out the exact letter and doing no more than is explicitly required (3 Ne. 12:47).

·         Wisdom—in decision making (3 Ne. 3:19); in choosing when and what to speak—“as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth” (Mos. 14:7). (See also Mos. 5:15.)

·         Purpose—“the Lord hath called me from the womb” (1 Ne. 21:1).

·         Pondering and thinking (3 Ne. 17:3). We are created as thinking beings.

·         Long-term vision—Mormon compiles the scriptures believing that “perhaps some day it may profit” his son and others (WoM 1:2).

·         Preparation, strategic thinking—"I caused that there should be weapons of war made” to prepare to defend themselves (Mos. 10:1; see also Alma 43:19).

·         Industry, creativity—“we labored diligently” (Jac. 1:7; see also 2 Ne. 5:11).

·         Diligence/hard work—“the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me” (2 Ne. 29:4). “They began to bear their journeyings without murmurings” (1 Ne. 17:2). (See also Mos. 27:5, Alma 38:3.)

·         Ability to receive and follow instruction (Eth. 2:18).

·         Sense of timing—it’s okay to not do everything at the same time; “yea, then will he remember the isles of the sea” (1 Ne. 19:16).

·         Planning to defend against evil—Moroni prepares his people to defend themselves (Alma 43:19).

·         Problem-solving (Eth. 3:4)

·         Persistence and inventiveness (Jac. 5:54).