Earlier this year I started a personal challenge to share one of the 21 principles as covered in the book by Richard G. Scott. This book has really touched my heart and I have felt impressed to share it with you and my own feelings about each of the principles. You can read about the other principles I have covered here. If you would like your own copy of this book, you can purchase it here. This is NOT an affiliate link, even though I do have an affiliate account with Amazon. I have chosen NOT to use an affiliate link as I don’t feel right about it in this circumstance.
“As you seek spiritual knowledge, search for principles,” counsels Elder Richard G. Scott. “Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances.”
“A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and challenging circumstances.”
There is a saying I have heard many times about being the kind of person that when you get up each morning, the devil says, “Oh no! She’s awake!” That is the kind of person I want to be.
When I was in the MTC (Missionary Training Center), at the beginning of my church mission, I was in a class with a group of other missionaries and we were having difficulty learning our Spanish. We were getting discouraged and began to believe that we would never get it and be able to teach the gospel in the language we had been assigned. I will never forget the story that one of our teachers told us one afternoon. I’d like to share that story with you.
There was once a Jr. Devil in training. He wanted to be the best devil that he could and was being tutored by a Sr. Devil on how to best corrupt man. The Sr. Devil told the Jr. Devil that the best way was to use the tool of discouragement. It was easy to do and worked really well and very quickly. He demonstrated this for him and upon choosing a man, he whispered in his ear, “Be discouraged. Be discouraged.” Soon the man’s face fell and he became frustrated and filled with discouragement with the task he was trying to do and then with all of life. The two devils laughed with glee.
The Jr. Devil began to whisper “Be discouraged. Be discouraged” into any ear that would listen. He was filled with great success.
One day, he came upon a woman who was attempting to do a somewhat difficult task. He just knew he could discourage her and she would fail. He quickly went over and whispered into her ear, “Be discouraged. Be discouraged.” The woman ignored him and kept working at her task cheerfully. He decided he just needed to be more persistent and make her listen to him. He again went to her ear and more loudly this time said, “Be discouraged. Be discouraged.” She shook her head and again smiled and worked even harder at her task. Finally, the little devil went to her ear once more and yelled, “BE DISCOURAGED! BE DISCOURAGED!” The woman just laughed and said, “NO. I will NOT be discouraged. I can do this.” The little devil went away and was heartbroken saying, “Now I’M discouraged!”
The moral of the story is to be the kind of person who discourages the devil. That’s what I want and hope I can do. It’s a process, but I am always learning.
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