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.
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