Study Recap: The Power of the Word of God by Elder Michael John U. Teh

Title: The Power of the Word of God
Author: Elder Michael John U. Teh of the Seventy
Source: March 2013 Ensign
Link: https://www.lds.org/liahona/2013/03/the-power-of-the-word-of-god?lang=eng
Summary: Few other activities will bring us greater spiritual benefit than the daily, consistent study of the scriptures.
Rating: 3.5/5
Favorite Parts

• I later concluded that perhaps for most of them, hopelessness allowed them to believe they were consigned to this fate.
• I believe that few other activities will bring us greater spiritual benefit than the daily, consistent study of the scriptures.
• The Book of Mormon tells us, “The preaching of the word … had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them” (Alma 31:5).
• President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has taught: “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.”
• President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) said: “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”
• ...we live in an age when access to the scriptures is unprecedented. Never in the history of the world have God’s children had the opportunity to enjoy these sacred materials as they do now. Written copies of the scriptures can be readily purchased in bookstores or online. Electronic copies can be accessed instantaneously through the World Wide Web and downloaded to numerous devices. Preparing talks, writing articles, and searching for information has never been easier.
• I believe that neglecting to study the scriptures on a regular basis is a form of hardening our hearts. I fear that if we persist in that course, we will be given a lesser portion of the word and eventually know nothing of God’s mysteries. Drinking daily from the scriptures, on the other hand, will help us build spiritual strength and knowledge, unmask the deceptions of the devil, and discover the snares he has laid to catch us.
• As you ask yourselves the following questions, I invite you to allow the Holy Ghost to speak to your mind and heart: 
  Do I take time to study the scriptures every day?
  If not, what excuse do I have for not doing so?
  Will my excuse be acceptable to the Lord?
• God has given us this new technology for a wise purpose. The adversary, however, has stepped up his offensive and uses technological advancements—intended by God to help us—to further his purpose of making us “miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27). Hence, we have a responsibility to learn to use what our Heavenly Father has given us in an effective, consistent, and proper manner
  
  
   

Study Recap: Raising Resilient Children by Lyle J. Burrup

Title: Raising Resilient Children
Author: Lyle J. Burrup, LDS Family Services
Source: March 2013 Ensign
Link: https://www.lds.org/liahona/2013/03/raising-resilient-children?lang=eng
Summary: How well children respond to setbacks depends largely on how well their parents helped them develop the attitudes and the skills of resilience.
Rating: 4.5/5


Favorite Points

• The original definition of the word resilience had to do with a material’s ability to resume its shape or position after being bent, stretched, or compressed. Today we commonly use the word to describe our ability to bounce back from adversity.
• We know two things about adversity and resilience: First, there is “an opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11). Second, obtaining anything of great worth often requires great sacrifice.
• As children become resilient, they understand and accept these two facts. They see life as challenging and ever changing, but they believe they can cope with those challenges and changes. They view mistakes and weaknesses as opportunities to learn, and they accept that losing may precede winning.
• As children develop resilience, they believe they can influence and even control outcomes in their lives through effort, imagination, knowledge, and skill. With this attitude, they focus on what they can do rather than on what is outside their control.
• Another mark of resilience is to see great purpose and meaning in life and people. A sense of purpose will help our children avoid giving up, in spite of setbacks and pressure to do so.  
• One thing that hinders the development of resilience is a misunderstanding of the commandment to be perfect (see Matthew 5:48). This misunderstanding is the most common factor I’ve seen undermining resilience in new missionaries. They want to be perfect in everything because they love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and do not want to disappoint Them. But they do not understand that the Lord works through weak, simple servants (see D&C 1:19–23) and that striving to be perfect does not mean we never make mistakes but rather that we become fully developed or complete through the Atonement of Christ as we strive to follow Him (see Matthew 5:48, footnote b).
• So how do we help our children develop resilience? Our Father in Heaven provides the model. He treats us with great love and respect, even when we make mistakes. He reminds us of our potential (see Moses 1:39) and our great worth (see D&C 18:10), which are based on our identity as His sons and daughters. He gives us laws so we know what He expects (see D&C 107:84), allows us to make choices (see 2 Nephi 2:15–16), and honors our choices (see D&C 130:20). He allows for learning and instruction to correct mistakes (see D&C 1:25–26) and for repentance and restitution to correct sin (see D&C 1:27–28).
• Allow natural, logical consequences to serve as the disciplinarian.
• Respect children’s decisions, even if their poor choices lead to lost privileges.

Scripture Insight: Mosiah 15:5

Mosiah 15: 5

5 And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people.

Discussion
I'm interested in particular with the highlighted portion above. I was listening to a podcast from the Mormon Channel where the above scripture was quoted. It struck me in that moment that here we have the Savior of all mankind, the one and only person who went through this entire life without sin, yet he still suffered temptations.

This gave a reassurance to me after reflecting on it because how often do we beat ourselves up for being tempted by something? We shouldn't though! Even Jesus Christ suffered temptations, so there is nothing inherently wrong with it. Indeed, one could say we are specifically to suffer these temptations as the trial of our faith before (hopefully) returning to live with our Heavenly Father.

I think the key thing to take out of this scripture apart from the comfort it can provide, is the second part of the phrase, "and yieldeth not to the temptation." When faced with these temptations, we cannot give in to them and should not let them have space in mind for even one moment longer than necessary. I was reminded via another podcast of the classic psychological experiment with children and marshmallows which illustrates this concept nicely:

Basically, a small child was left in a room by themselves with a large marshmallow. They were instructed that if they were able to wait until the researcher returned (~5mins) without eating the marshmallow, they would be given another of the same size. Now some children ate the marshmallow right away, before the researcher even reached the door. They yielded to temptations.

What's interesting are the two types of children who did not eat the marshmallow right away. One group of them remained fixated on the marshmallow the entire time. They picked it up. Examined it. Smelled it. Some placed it tentatively on their lips. Some of these kids eventually succumbed and their wonderfully delicious treat. They did not remove the temptation from their path and while strong at first, the persistent reminder was too much.

The other group of kids, though, actively engaged in some activity to avoid even thinking about the marshmallow, let alone touch it. They turned away from it. They hummed a song. They played a game with themselves. These kids successfully gained their well-earned reward. They suffered temptation, but did not yield to it.

Interesting side-note: follow-up studies were conducted with these children through the years and what they noted was that those children who did not eat the marshmallow (did not yield to temptation), on average had higher GPA's in high school, had fewer difficulties with emotional adjustment, and fewer problem behaviors at home or school. Very telling.

Study Recap: Revelation by Dallin H. Oaks

Title: Revelation
Author: Dallin H. Oaks
Source: devotional address given at BYU on 29 September 1981
Link: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=568&tid=7
Rating: 4/5

Favorite Points

• I can identify eight different purposes served by communication from God: (1) to testify; (2) to prophesy; (3) to comfort; (4) to uplift; (5) to inform; (6) to restrain; (7) to confirm; and (8) to impel.
• Elder McConkie summarized his counsel on the balance between agency and inspiration in these sentences:
  
  We’re expected to use the gifts and talents and abilities, the sense and judgment and agency with which we are endowed [p. 108]. . . . Implicit in asking in faith is the precedent requirement that we do everything in our power to accomplish the goal that we seek [p. 110]. . . . We’re expected to do everything in our power that we can, and then to seek an answer from the Lord, a confirming seal that we’ve reached the right conclusion [p. 113].
• The eighth purpose or type of revelation consists of those instances when the Spirit impels a person to action. This is not a case where a person proposes to take a particular action and the Spirit either restrains or confirms. This is a case where revelation comes when it is not being sought and impels some action not proposed. This type of revelation is obviously less common than other types, but its rarity makes it all the more significant.
• What about those times when we seek revelation and do not receive it? We do not always receive inspiration or revelation when we request it. Sometimes we are delayed in the receipt of revelation, and sometimes we are left to our own judgment. We cannot force spiritual things. It must be so. Our life’s purpose to obtain experience and to develop faith would be frustrated if our Heavenly Father directed us in every act, even in every important act. We must make decisions and experience the consequences in order to develop self-reliance and faith.
• Even in decisions we think very important, we sometimes receive no answers to our prayers. This does not mean that our prayers have not been heard. It only means that we have prayed about a decision which, for one reason or another, we should make without guidance by revelation.
• Perhaps we have asked for guidance in choosing between alternatives that are equally acceptable or equally unacceptable. I suggest that there is not a right and wrong to every question.
• I once heard a young woman in testimony meeting praise the spirituality of her husband, indicating that he submitted every question to the Lord. She told how he accompanied her shopping and would not even choose between different brands of canned vegetables without making his selection a matter of prayer. That strikes me as improper.
•  

Study Recap: But for a Small Moment by Neal A. Maxwell

Title: But for a Small Moment
Author: Neal A. Maxwell
Source: Fireside address was given at BYU on 1 September 1974
Link: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1022&tid=7
Rating: 4/5

Favorite Parts

• I'm not sure we can always understand the implications of his love, because his love will call us at times to do things we may wonder about, and we may be confronted with circumstances we would rather not face
• I believe with all my heart that because God loves us there are some particularized challenges that he will deliver to each of us. He will customize the curriculum for each of us in order to teach us the things we most need to know. He will set before us in life what we need, not always what we like.
• God knows even now what the future holds for each of us. In one of his revelations these startling words appear, as with so many revelations that are too big, I suppose, for us to manage fully: “In the presence of God, . . . all things . . . are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord” (D&C 130:7).
• The future “you” is before him now. He knows what it is he wishes to bring to pass in your life. He knows the kind of remodeling in your life and in mine that he wishes to achieve.
• Christ on the cross gave out the cry “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” That cry on the cross is an indication that the very best of our Father's children found the trials so real, the tests so exquisite and so severe, that he cried out—not in doubt of his Father's reality, but wondering “why” at that moment of agony—for Jesus felt so alone. James Talmage advises us that in ways you and I cannot understand, God somehow withdrew his immediate presence from the Son so that Jesus Christ's triumph might be truly complete.
• From Gethsemane and Calvary there are many lessons we need to apply to our own lives. We, too, at times may wonder if we have been forgotten and forsaken. Hopefully, we will do as the Master did and acknowledge that God is still there and never doubt that sublime reality–even though we may wonder and might desire to avoid some of life's experiences. We may at times, if we are not careful, try to pray away pain or what seems like an impending tragedy, but which is, in reality, an opportunity. We must do as Jesus did in that respect—also preface our prayers by saying, “If it be possible,” let the trial pass from us—by saying, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt,” and bowing in a sense of serenity to our Father in heaven's wisdom, because at times God will not be able to let us pass by a trial or a challenge.
• In the eternal ecology of things we must pray, therefore, not that things be taken from us, but that God's will be accomplished through us.
• What, therefore, may seem now to be mere unconnected pieces of tile will someday, when we look back, take form and pattern, and we will realize that God was making a mosaic. For there is in each of our lives this kind of divine design, this pattern, this purpose that is in the process of becoming, which is continually before the Lord but which for us, looking forward, is sometimes perplexing.
• A second trap into which we can fall is the naïveté that grows out of our not realizing that the adversary will press particularly in the areas of our vulnerabilities. It ought not to surprise us that this will be so. The things that we would most like to avoid, therefore, will often be the things that confront us most directly and most sharply.
• I don't think God's too interested in real estate. He owns it all anyway.
• A seventh trap, brothers and sisters, is that some of us neglect to develop multiple forces of satisfaction. When one of the wells upon which we draw dries up through death, loss or status, disaffection, or physical ailment, we then find ourselves very thirsty because, instead of having multiple sources of satisfaction in our lives, we have become too dependent upon this or upon that.
• An eighth trap to be avoided, brothers and sisters, is the tendency we have—rather humanly, rather understandably—to get ourselves caught in peering through the prism of the present and then distorting our perspective about things. Time is of this world; it is not of eternity. We can, if we are not careful, feel the pressures of time and see things in a distorted way. How important it is that we see things as much as possible through the lens of the gospel with its eternal perspectives.
• I am surprised (I would be amused if the cost were not so great) that people think they can remove the foundations of our social structure—things like work, chastity, and family and then wonder why other things crumble. You can't remove the foundation of a building while standing inside and not be hit with falling plaster.

Study Recap: Our Search for Happiness by James E. Faust

Title: Our Search for Happiness
Author: James E. Faust
Source: devotional address was given at BYU on 14 September 1999
Link: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=347&tid=7 
Rating:  3/5

Favorite Points

• The more faithfully we keep the commandments of God, the happier we will be. 
• Pleasure is often confused with happiness but is by no means synonymous with it.
• Pleasure, unlike happiness, is that which pleases us or gives us gratification. Usually it endures for only a short time. As President McKay once said, “You may get that transitory pleasure, yes, but you cannot find joy, you cannot find happiness. Happiness is found only along that well beaten track, narrow as it is, though straight, which leads to life eternal” (CR, October 1919, 180).
• The Savior of the world taught us to seek that inner peace which taps the innate happiness in our souls. He said, “My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27)
• That inner peace spoken of by the Savior seems elusive when we are preoccupied with things we have or things we wish we had. 
• I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. [Mosiah 2:41]
• Henrik Ibsen reminded us, “Money may buy the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings food, but not the appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not faithfulness; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.

Scripture Insight: Alma 7: 11-13

Alma 7: 11-13
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.


Here are the notes I made for the highlighted section:
What's interesting here is that this particular passage is talking about the purpose of the atonement which I have previously understood to have 3 main purposes:
1. Atone for our sins
2. Know our suffering in order to succor
3. Overcome death.

This particular portion though indicates that #2 could have been done without the atonement; the following phrase which is a connected thought with the word "nevertheless" puts forth that the Savior suffered to take upon our sins, or #1. There is no mention again of knowing how to succor us.

But I will also put forth this: does the spirit knoweth these things BECAUSE OF the atonement?

Study Recap: You Are Free by Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Title: You Are Free
Author: Elder D. Todd Christofferson
Source: From a devotional address given at BYU on 19 October 1999
Overview: What God requires is the devotion portrayed by Jesus.
Link: https://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/03/you-are-free?lang=eng
Rating: 3.5/5

Below are the points that most stood out to me:

• But for your freedom to be complete, you must be willing to give away all your sins (see Alma 22:18), your willfulness, your cherished but unsound habits, perhaps even some good things that interfere with what God sees is essential for you.
• In the words of President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see.”
• Our choice in this life is not whether we will or will not be subject to any power. Our choice is to which authority we will yield obedience: God’s or Satan’s. As Lehi stated, it is a choice between liberty and captivity (see2 Nephi 2:27). If it is not one, it is necessarily the other.
• “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. …
  
  “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:5, 7).