"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Lowell L. Bennion
- Member of the Youth Correlation Planning Committee
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts a lesson from President McKay about communication, emphasizing the importance of context in understanding words.
One thing he taught me when I first began to teach in the Church has been extremely helpful. He said, "Brother Bennion, remember, words do not convey meanings; they call them forth." I speak out of the context of my experience, and you listen out of the context of yours, and that is why communication is difficult.
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Lowell L. Bennion
- Member of the Youth Correlation Planning Committee
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker uses the story of Joseph Smith's continued search for truth after the First Vision to illustrate the gradual revelation of the gospel.
Joseph's search did not end there. The gospel and Church of Christ were not revealed from heaven in their entirety like the blueprints of an architect's building plans. Rather, Joseph continued to ask questions. He had searching questions that he was asking to find solutions to his problems, and he received "line upon line, precept upon precept; here a little, and there a little."
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Lowell L. Bennion
- Member of the Youth Correlation Planning Committee
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker highlights the importance of education in the early Church, including the School of the Prophets in the Kirtland Temple and Brigham Young's emphasis on learning.
The first temple built by the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, the most sacred of all buildings in the Church, was also used for the School of the Prophets. There they studied not only scripture and theology, but also Hebrew and German; and they were taught to learn by study and also by faith, and to seek wisdom out of the best books.
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Levi Edgar Young
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts the words of President Lowell on wisdom, emphasizing the need for serenity, a judicial mindset, intellectual integrity, and the pursuit of understanding both supporting and contradictory views.
What is "wisdom"? President Lowell says, "We think of wisdom as a part of religion. In its highest strains it involves wisdom as an attribute and emanation of God, such that, if a man take her as a companion and guide, he shall find righteousness and happiness. Such wisdom demands serenity of temper, a judicial attitude of mind, a habit of seeking what good reasons and motives, rather than what bad ones, others may have for differing from us. It demands not only a negative, but a positive intel ... (continued)
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Levi Edgar Young
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker emphasizes the importance of heroes for youth to emulate, using the lives of American historians Prescott and Parkman as examples of seizing opportunities.
Let us be wise in training our children, and remind ourselves often that all young people need heroes to emulate. There is no life of the mind or aspiration of the spirit without emulation of great heroes. Let us remind them too, that opportunity is often made or seized upon by men, rather than thrust upon them. The lives of two of the most eminent American historians"”Prescott and Parkman beautifully teach this great lesson. Our children must feel at times that they are in the company of ... (continued)
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Levi Edgar Young
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker quotes William Ellery Channing, who suggests that boredom can lead to crime, and implies that wisdom in the community could help reduce crime by addressing its causes.
May I pause here to say some words on juvenile delinquency. William Ellery Channing, the great historian, writer, and teacher said, "No state of mind, not even positive suffering, is more painful than the want of interesting objects." In other words, boredom causes crime. If we had wisdom enough in the community one cannot doubt that crimes, which all good men reprobate, would be less prominent . . . we should be so wise as to discover the causes and remove them.
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Levi Edgar Young
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker cites Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell on civil rights being a moral issue, influenced by the attitudes and practices within the community and the workplace.
We read in our newspaper the other morning these words of Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell. They are, I believe, wise words. "Civil rights is not solely a legal problem. Basically it is a moral problem." It will always be a problem in America, as long as children hear parents and neighbors utter derogatory remarks about other races, creeds, and religions. Our hiring practices in labor in the future, he says, will have to be based on ability and qualifications for the job, without regard t ... (continued)
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Lowell L. Bennion
- Member of the Youth Correlation Planning Committee
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker reflects on the role of education in Church history, starting with Joseph Smith's quest for wisdom as a youth, which led to the First Vision.
If we take a look at Church history, we find that education has played an important, proud role. The process of education began even before the Church was organized. We usually think of the beginning of the Latter-day Saint movement as having taken place in the Sacred Grove in that glorious First Vision of the Father and the Son. To me this is not entirely accurate. The initial beginning of our faith took place, I believe, in the mind of a youth. The boy Joseph in his fifteenth year had question ... (continued)
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Lowell L. Bennion
- Member of the Youth Correlation Planning Committee
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker tells a story about young boys who caged robins, leading to their death, to illustrate the idea that humans should not be confined and should seek to fulfill their nature.
Last summer I was in the mountains with some young boys, and one day they found a nest of robins, just ready to leave their mother's nest. The boys wanted to take these robins and put them in a cage. I suggested that the robins would die if they did but let them do it; and sure enough, the boys put these little robins in a cage, gave them water, grain, and grass, and in two or three days they were dead.
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Lowell L. Bennion
- Member of the Youth Correlation Planning Committee
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker discusses the pitfalls of modern life, such as alcohol, drugs, excessive TV watching, and materialism, which can trap people in 'cages' of their own making.
You and I also find ourselves sometimes in cages, cages of our own making, and though we don't always die in these cages, we sometimes die a moral and spiritual death; and we find life shallow and meaningless. I haven't time tonight to do any more than mention the kinds of things that get us in these cages, but in my experience alcohol does (I should have said "in my observation"). In my observation, these mind-expanding drugs do also.
Forgiveness
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Lowell L. Bennion
- Member of the Youth Correlation Planning Committee
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker shares his admiration for human qualities such as imagination, memory, and language, and contrasts these with the limited experience of his pig.
Brethren, how often do you contemplate the wonderful qualities and aspects of your mind? Imagination is one of the qualities of a human mind that I cherish deeply; it is the ability to take single images and to put them into a new image that has never existed before. Only a human being can reorganize life around him after his own image. Only the human mind, so far as we know, enjoys memory and can transcend time and space.
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"Seek Ye Wisdom"
Elder Lowell L. Bennion
- Member of the Youth Correlation Planning Committee
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker tells the story of a nearly 94-year-old woman practicing the organ and her independence during a power outage, to illustrate lifelong learning and self-reliance.
Not all education is found in textbooks or in university halls. I have time to mention only one illustration in closing. I know a little lady listening in tonight who is nearly 94 years of age. When she was approximately ninety, she began to practice the organ. Last year the power went off in her home, in her apartment where she lives alone, and her daughter phoned and said, "Mother, is the power off?" "Yes." "I will come and bring you home to dinner." And her mother said, "No, thank you." "What ... (continued)
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"Seek, and Ye Shall Find"
President Elaine L. Jack
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
A sister in New Mexico gains a spiritual confirmation of being a child of God through studying a conference message.
A sister in New Mexico described trying to gain an understanding of a conference message: “I read and reread the talk, prayed often, and pondered upon its meaning. … The results were astonishing to me. I had always believed I was a child of God, but somewhere in this study process I gained a spiritual confirmation that this was true.â€
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"Seek, and Ye Shall Find"
President Elaine L. Jack
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
Relief Society leaders in Argentina encourage sisters to save food, even just a spoonful at a time, due to financial constraints.
In Argentina, Relief Society leaders are trying to teach the importance of food storage. They wrote: “Unfortunately, most of the sisters [here] cannot afford to buy an extra kilo of sugar, or flour, or an extra liter of oil. However, they have been encouraged to save, even just a spoonful at a time.â€
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"Seek, and Ye Shall Find"
President Elaine L. Jack
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
Relief Society sisters in Tonga bond through a communal service project cleaning a local school.
In Tonga, Relief Society sisters came together to clean the local school. “It was a wonderful sight watching the sisters as they worked with their hoes and bush knives, … [hearing] the sweet sound of coconut-frond brooms as they gathered debris. The joy of working together has bonded the … sisters in the spirit of compassionate service.â€
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"Seek, and Ye Shall Find"
President Elaine L. Jack
- Relief Society General President
📅 0
📖 general conference
A South African sister expresses unity with Relief Society sisters worldwide, striving to emulate the Savior.
A sister in South Africa wrote: “Our stake is one of the farthest from the headquarters of the Church, but even though we are continents apart, our hearts beat as one; and as Relief Society sisters, we are striving to emulate the Savior who gave His life in service to others.â€
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"Seek, and Ye Shall Find"
President Elaine L. Jack
- Relief Society General President
📅 0
📖 general conference
A woman from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, shares her learning experiences in Relief Society, including knitting and understanding her child.
I received a similar letter from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, from a woman who said: “At the age of 19, I sat next to a sweet grandmother in Relief Society and learned to knit. She also was learning to knit. Over the years, I learned of bread making, of strength and perseverance. I learned that my toddler was just being a normal two-year-old, and I learned of a Heavenly Father who loves me. I learned to teach, to hug, to lead, and to follow.â€
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"Seek, and Ye Shall Find"
President Elaine L. Jack
- Relief Society General President
📅 0
📖 general conference
A Relief Society leader in Georgia writes about the service given by sisters after a devastating flood, showing their commitment to charity.
A Relief Society leader in Georgia wrote of the magnanimous service given after a devastating flood in the region. She said: “The sisters here are living the teachings of the Savior. Please tell Sister Jack not to worry about us. The sisters here are a mobilized unit of charity. We won’t fail.†Thank you! I take heart in the conviction that “we won’t fail.†All around this church, women are doing their part.
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"Seek, and Ye Shall Find"
President Elaine L. Jack
- Relief Society General President
📅 0
📖 general conference
During a bus ride that broke down three times, Relief Society sisters shared their testimonies, turning a potentially miserable experience into a spiritually fulfilling one.
Not long ago I was speaking to Relief Society women in North Dakota. After our Saturday morning meeting, we boarded a chartered bus with some of the sisters who had attended the leadership meeting to return for a women’s fireside in South Dakota. We expected the bus ride to take four hours. It took the rest of the day and part of the evening.
The bus broke down three times.
We spent half the afternoon at a rest stop, but after a tedious wait, the bus driver finally got the motor going.
Th ... (continued)
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"Seek, and Ye Shall Find"
President Elaine L. Jack
- Relief Society General President
📅 0
📖 general conference
A sister from Spain shares how joining the Church has awakened their minds and spurred a desire to learn and cultivate their intellect.
Relief Society is a modern forum where sisters learn spiritual truths together. We can learn in an accepting atmosphere of trust and friendship. In Relief Society we stretch our minds and we fill up our reservoir of faith. A sister from Spain wrote of this process: “Since we have become members of this church, our vision has changed. Our minds have been awakened, and we want to learn. We have a great desire to cultivate our intellect as we are taught through the manuals of our beloved orga ... (continued)
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