Divine Nature: A Final Note

Whew! When I started out on this, I thought it would take an hour or two to type up, arrange, and post. That was a vast underestimate. Thank you to anyone who actually stuck with me and read along as I shared some of my thoughts about principles that are, to me precious. I hope you got a little something out of it too. (And I’d love to hear if something struck you in particular or if you really want to add something!)

I have learned a great deal from this experience. First, the reading with a focus—it changed the way I read, and “focus” is indeed the perfect descriptor for it. I thought more and paid more attention as I read with one single question in mind. Second, the compilation. Typing it all up was a reminder of what I’d read and how much I’d gotten out of the reading.

And finally, the organization and sharing of thoughts. It was surprisingly difficult to decide how to arrange things, how it all made sense in my brain. But as I did it, I felt like I gleaned more understanding. I saw themes and threads running through the stories, repetitions and points I hadn’t really thought about much before. I saw relationships between aspects and stories that I hadn’t noticed previously.

One thing that struck me as well, that I haven’t mentioned yet, is that God gave us these traits—but we decide what we will choose to develop and how we will use them. There are several stories in the scriptures where people have used wonderful, divine traits to evil ends (see Alma 48:5 and Eth. 10:11, for example). As humans, we are a weird mix of qualities and often contrary uses of our divine natures.

Still, I’m grateful to know that we are children of Heavenly Parents, that they love us. And, because I truly do believe that we are their literal spiritual children, I know we can grow up to be like Them. We are far away from that—we’re toddlers, really—but each day can be a step in Their direction. I believe that. I hope you do too.

Part 6: Joyful Living

Hooray! We come to the end of my categories of divine nature with one of my favorites! Finding joy in life. I think there is so much emphasis these days (and maybe always, but I’ve only lived through the last almost 40 years, so I can’t speak to more than that) on negative things. I absolutely love that we have amazing examples of joy and enthusiasm and happiness, even in the midst of terrible circumstances. I am grateful that we can develop divine aspects of living with joy.

This year I’m working on that a lot. Maybe I’ll share some details on that later, but the short version is that all of my vision and goal statement for the year involve joy and delight. It’s something that I’m finding I actively have to cultivate more and more as responsibilities weigh heavily, as my body gets older, as our children’s struggles gets harder, as life gets more complicated. I actively have to return to this place of joy in every circumstance.

I’m grateful that I now have a small list of beautiful examples to remind me of how to get there.

·         Enthusiasm (3 Ne. 19:2).

·         Sincerity—“fools mock”; the wise do not need to mock to feel strong, they can be sincere (Eth. 12:26).

·         Delight/Joy in the gospel, in Christ, in life: “my soul delighteth in [Isaiah’s] words” (2 Ne. 11:2; see also Alma 4:13–14). (Related: 1 Ne. 16:32, Alma 55:19).

·         Sense of wonder, appreciation of amazing things (3 Ne. 11:1).

·         Capacity for grief—over your own and others’ sins, over the sorrows of others, etc. Nephi mourns for the wickedness of the people, even as he continues to try to help them (Hel. 7:11; see also Mos. 5:15).

·         Willingness to suffer for Christ (Alma 4:13–14).

·         Joy and fortitude in the face of sadness—“my heart has been filled with sorrow because of their wickedness, all my days; nevertheless, I know that I shall be lifted up at the last day” (Morm. 2:19). What is more like God than living joyfully despite sorrow at seeing the terrible choices that people sometimes make?

·         Finding and receiving blessings in any circumstances—“blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute...for my sake” (3 Ne. 12:11).

·         Submitting cheerfully to difficult situations (Mos. 24:15, Alma 1:25).

·         Patience (Alma 38:3).

·         Enduring gratitude—“when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord” (Eth. 6:9; see also Mos. 2:4).

Part 5: Courage and Power

On the other hand, sometimes following God and being like our Heavenly Parents requires boldness and loudness too. It’s not always quiet. And even the quiet goodness sometimes requires great courage and power. So I love these traits because I feel like God has given us the ability to do rockstar things! We can be powerful and brave and strong because we are like our Heavenly Parents.

To me, there are two broad categories here: courage (which most often includes doing things we’re afraid to do but that are right) and power (which involves knowing how and when to use power righteously).

Also, a special shoutout to Moroni’s courage below—refusing to deny his beliefs, even if it would kill him. And a special shoutout to all who have done that throughout history. I mean, wow.

·         Boldness, bravery, daring (Mos. 22:11, Moro. 8:21).

·         Courage, strength to work toward bravery—“they hushed their fears” (Mosiah 23:28). Samuel spoke despite knowing the people didn’t want to hear him (Hel. 13:5). “They put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ. And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ” (Moro. 1:2–3). (See also Alma 53:20–21.)

·         Speaking truth boldly—“know ye not that I speak the truth? Yes, ye know that I speak the truth” (Mos. 12:30).

·         Power in Christ to do “whatsoever thing is expedient” (Mor. 7:33; see also Mos. 5:15).

·         Righteous use of power—“I, Pahoran, do not seek for power, save...to preserve the rights and the liberty of my people” (Alma 61:9).

·         Additional power when fighting for a just cause—they were “inspired by a better cause, for they were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church” (Alma 43:45).

Part 4: Solidness, Quiet Strength

This group of traits holds a special place in my heart. When I write fiction, these are the traits I’m most often drawn to. Lots of people love flashy characters who do big, exciting things, but I really love characters who do the work quietly, who make difficult decisions and stick by them, who take responsibility for their actions and go along being good.

This is one of the reasons I love Gilbert Blythe so much. This is also one of the reasons I love my husband so much. And these are the kind of people I hope my children will grow up to be. I hope they will be reliable and steady in the faith, quietly doing good even though it’s the loud people who often get the most attention. I hope they will realize that approval from people can be fleeting but that approval from our Heavenly Parents is forever.

·         Firmness, steadiness in the faith (Hel. 6:1, Alma 38:2). I love this one. It’s not a flashy trait, and it’s often undervalued in society. But there’s such great comfort in finding people who are steady and reliable in righteousness.

·         Steadfastness, reliability—“be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works” (Mos. 5:15; see also 2 Ne. 26:8, Alma 53:20–21, 3 Ne. 6:14). “The isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust” (2 Ne. 8:5).

·         Exactness in keeping commitments—“he doth remember all my commandments to execute them” (Alma 18:10).

·         Responsibility—“every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins” (Mos. 29:38).

·         Unselfish decision-making—the people voted against Pacumeni, so instead of making it a big ugly deal, “he did unite with the voice of the people” (Hel. 1:6).

·         Resilience, trying again—Shez “began to build up again a broken people” (Eth. 10:1)—this visual! Starting from the rubble and trying again, building again, no matter what.