Today our Sunday School teacher ch alleged us to memorize the 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is only 7 verses. Anyone that can recite it next week will get an hour and a half scenic plan ride. Which would just be really cool. I'd love to fly over this area, (actually I'd like to hang glide over all of these mountains and I really love the Zions Cinemax movie for that reason). But even before Brother Elliott offered such a fantastic bribe I thought I would try and memorize it. Especially verse 6 which struck me with an interesting thought. First the verse
D&C 4:6 Remember faith,virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
My first observation was that it reminded me of the Young Women theme, which I can still rattle off pdq. Next I started giving myself a personal review using this checklist. Faith- I've got that one, understand what it is, etc. Virtue, once again check. Knowledge, hmm knowledge is one that I all too easily put on the shelf- just because I'm a mommy now doesn't mean I need to stop learning, I'd like to find ways to keep expanding my knowledge. Temperance ??? Patience, oh yes I've heard of that- you shouldn't actually pray for it because it will be tried(reeeaaallly tried), right? Brotherly Kindness I'm always reminding my kids about this one. Godliness, Charity, Humility,- pretty sure I understand what all of these can entail. And I'm not there yet, have no expectations of being 'done' with any of them. These are a day by day, drop by drop set of standards. Diligence- I guess this is what I use to try and apply all of the previously mentioned ones. Diligence is definitely a necessity if you want any of the others.
But back to Temperance, aren't Temperance and Patience redundant? This is what really made me stop and think, and they are thoughts I'd like to share. Temperance. When glass, chocolate, and other things are tempered heat is applied as part of the process. The end result smooth and even. Tempered. even. smooth. consistent. Aha I GET it. I understand the definition of TEMPER. You know- the one which I have a family and personal history of just losing. Patience is the ability to wait and not worry, which really has very little to do with Temperance. I can be pretty patient and wait for good things. I'm not perfect at it, especially if I'm hungry and it smells good. But Patience I actually have a reasonable amount of. Temperance is another story. To have Temperance I need to be smooth, even, and consistent. That which is truly tempered does not crack and break easily, it can withstand more than the untempered. If I have Temperance I am not going to start taking my personal dissappointments out on others. My voice will remain steady and even, it will not shriek. My actions will reflect forethought and action, not reaction to the moment. My actions will be consistent. My jaw will not tense up along with the rest of me.
From now on instead of praying for Patience I am going to be more honest and ask that I can be more Tempered. I will keep in mind that being Tempered requires HEAT, stirring, and TIME. I'm also going to take Brother Elliott up on that challenge. I'm rather hoping that my whole family will be able to go, I think the kids would like it too.
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3 comments:
I missed it. Sounds like it was a great lesson. I feel the same way. I have room to improve.
Huh. I never thought about it like that. I like your thoughts.
I always think of temperance as being abstinence, like when we talk about alcohol. But I just looked it up and it means both self-restraint, and abstinence. Which do go together quite well, but it fits better into your thoughts.
Great post, Anna!
Coming from a 4 year blogger, I'll take that as a huge compliment. Thanks, Lara! I wonder how different my post would have been if I'd looked up the definition, lol.
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