21 Principles

Last month, 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.”

I love this principle, though it is one of the toughest ones to practice.  Sometimes it is really, really hard to understand when the Lord says “No.”  We wonder what we are doing wrong.  Why is this happening to us?  Why do I have to suffer?

Instead, we should be asking ourselves questions like these:  What do I need to change?  What am I supposed to learn from this experience?  Who do I need to help?

I think it is one of the hardest things that we need to do when we are having tough times.  Instead of being drug down by our challenges, we need to get out of ourselves and try to see the bigger picture.  In order to do this, we need to go back to the first principle, and ASK.  We might not get an answer right away.  But an answer will come.  It might not be what we want or long to hear.  It might be simply to just be still and give it to God to handle.  We need to trust that it is all part of His plan, even when we don’t understand it at the moment.  Eventually, if we are faithful and have faith, we can learn to understand why.  We might not get our answers in this life.  It might be the next life before we gain understanding.  But if we trust the Lord, and give it to Him to handle, we can have peace in this life.  Accepting Him and His will does not mean we won’t have struggles in this life.  Our struggles are for our personal growth.  But we can be at peace about those struggles by learning to trust that the Lord knows what we need when we need it.  We just have to trust.

A few weeks ago, 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.”

I really like this principle.  It is really a very simple principle that a lot of people just don’t really understand.  And that is unfortunate, as no matter how hard we may try to change certain things, truth is eternal.  Let me see if I can explain this a little.

We all are free to make our own choices in this life.  Some of those choices will make us happy and other choices will cause us unhappiness.  If we willfully make a choice that goes against the laws of God, we may justify and rationalize that this choice makes us happy.  But while we have had the freedom to make that choice for ourselves, we cannot choose the consequence for our actions.  From the beginning of time, every action that we choose has a consequence attached to it.  There is not a way around it, and we cannot choose to do whatever we want and not pay the price for our actions.  Some consequences are good.  Some are bad.  Our freedom to choose comes in that we can decide how we will act in any given circumstance.  We cannot choose what will happen because of our actions.  Confused?  How about a very simple example…

Suppose your child has a specific school assignment that they need to complete.  They have the freedom to choose to do the assignment or to not do the assignment.  Choosing to do the assignment means they will be learning and they have the opportunity to get a good grade.  They will be able to understand future assignments more easily because of the work they did on this one.  That is the consequence for making the choice to act and do the assignment.  Now let’s say that instead, they make the choice to NOT do the assignment.  They choose instead to play a computer game or with a friend.  The consequence of that choice and action is that they don’t learn anything new, and they will get a bad grade, most likely a “F”.  They also might not understand future assignments because they didn’t complete this one.  In turn, they get a bad grade for the whole course.   You see, they had the freedom to choose how they would act.  But they did not have the capability to choose the consequence for their actions.  They couldn’t choose to NOT do the assignment and still get an “A” on it and all future assignments.

It’s the same thing for every single choice we make during our lives.  We can choose how we are going to live.  We cannot choose the consequences though.  Just as we make rules  for our children and have consequences for not following the rules, we also have rules and laws from our Heavenly Father.  We can learn about those rules and what happens when we choose NOT to follow them in the scriptures.  We may choose not to listen and obey.  But we cannot choose the ending consequence for the choices we make.

A couple of weeks ago, 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.”

I really love this principle.  How often do we really receive promptings from the Holy Ghost and then just ignore them?  Do we understand how the Holy Ghost really works with us to influence us to the things our Heavenly Father desires of us and for us?

To explore this further, we need to understand that the Holy Ghost works in  many different ways.  It is different for each person.  Sometimes, we can hear an audible voice.  These are usually times when we are in danger and our attention is needed immediately.  Not everyone does or will have this experience.  For most of us, we will feel the Holy Ghost affirm and confirm things to us through our thoughts or gentle impressions in our hearts.  In Galatians 5:22-23 we read about the fruit of the spirit.  These are the ways we can know if we are feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost in our lives.

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance:  against such there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

One of the easiest ways to keep the influence of the spirit with you is to keep a prayer in your heart.  This is essential as we make important decisions and also seek to be a tool in the hands of the Lord.  This is how the Lord communicates with us.  In order to understand what He is trying to tell us, we must exercise that spiritual muscle and our spiritual hearing.  This takes practice.  The more we practice it, the better we get at it.  Let me see if I can explain this a little better…

Often, I am faced with making important decisions in our home , for my business, or even just my personal life.  If I am earnestly listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, I will most often feel at peace and calm.  As long as I am feeling this way, I know that I can proceed along my path, as this is what the Lord has in mind.  If I began to feel anxious, or I experience a stupor of thought–meaning I am just not sure or I forget what I was thinking about–then I know that I should back up to where I was before I started feeling that way. Once I do, then I can try again to listen and try to find the right way to the Lord’s plan.

Sometimes I am stubborn and continue along the wrong path.  I am sure I weary the Lord with my inadequacies at listening to the promptings I get from the Spirit or Holy Ghost.  And I am positive I miss important messages of how I can be of service to someone in need of something I can do or share.  I need to be better about listening for those things so I can bless others.  One of my favorite quotes  talks about how the Lord usually blesses us through the actions of another.

 “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”    ~Spencer W. Kimball

I need to be better at listening for these promptings.  It would be a wonderful thing to be used by the Lord to bless someone else.  This is something I want to work on in my own life, and I hope it is something I can continue to teach my son every single day.  I can’t think of anything more important than teaching him to listen for and to the Lord through the promptings he receives through the Holy Ghost.

A couple of weeks ago, 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.”

I think this principle is rather timely for me at the moment.  This applies to goals that are spiritual in nature and goals that are not perhaps so spiritual, but are worthy goals all the same.  It really depends on your perspective and what is possible and you are limited only by your mind and desire to get there.  I think that when things are hard and it looks like you just can’t attain a goal that seems impossible, that this is where we have to put our faith in God and ask Him to help us.  Which goes right back to Principle #1, where we talked about asking God and inviting Him to help us and guide us.

One of the things I’ve had a hard time remembering is that things are always done in the Lord’s time.  Sometimes our timetables do not match up with His.  Sometimes His timetable may be longer than we want or desire.  We have lessons to learn along the way, and often one of those lessons involves patience.  I’m not good at being patient.  That is probably why He finds ways to teach me that lesson again and again.  I’m a stubborn and willful child.   But one of the things that helps me to remember that I can reach my goals and potential is a quote I have loved for about 33 years now.  It has helped me to regain focus and realize that it is OK to take a bit longer to reach my goal as long as I am going forward and not backward.  These words are ones that bring comfort to my soul when things seem hard:

“Eternal things are always done in the process of time. Direction is initially more important than speed.” ~Neal A Maxwell

Our Heavenly Father wants us to be happy.  He wants us to make goals for ourselves and work toward achieving them.  He wants us to reach our full potential.  The neat thing is that He knows our full potential.  And to get there might be hard.  It might be really hard.  But if we ask Him to bless us and help us to reach that potential, He will willingly and happily guide and direct us and support us in our journey.  We just really need to humble ourselves and ask.

Last week 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 Principle 1 in my post from last week.  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.”

This principle reminds me that with God, nothing is impossible.  Sometimes He may ask us to do hard things.  But if we have faith, we will be able to accomplish what he has for us if we are diligent and keep trying.  It won’t be easy.  But this again reminds me of the first principle that we discussed last week.  We have to ask God for His help.  He wants us to ask.  Perhaps the asking is our test.  Once we practice our faith and ask our Heavenly Father for His help, he will bless us with it and then what seemed impossible now becomes possible.

This principle also reminds me that everything is always done in the Lord’s time.  The word patience sticks out to me here.  Sometimes we try to weary the Lord with our requests for things to be done right now.  We are so focused on the here and now, that we cannot see the big picture.  That’s where God comes in.  He can see everything.  He has a different perspective.  When I catch myself becoming impatient with the Lord’s timetable, I like to ask Him to help me to see things the way He sees them.  It is amazing how my attitude changes when I remember to do this.  I may not be able to see everything and comprehend the timetable.  But I do become more patient with the process when I ask to see clearly.

The other word that really stands out to me in this principle, is the word obedience.  If we do our very best to be obedient to the Lord’s will, He will bless us.  A few years ago, my husband felt prompted that it was time to change his employment.  We live in a small town, and honestly, there were no jobs available that he would be able to do and be able to support our family.  We didn’t know what to do.  There was no clear path before us.  But we knew we needed to be obedient.  A retail store was being built here and even though it was not in his field of work, he did have the retail management experience needed to be able to run this store.  This would most likely be a pay cut, and he probably would not be happy in his work.  But that was the absolute only possibility that we could see.  So he filled out the online application.  Within about two days, a job with our town opened up.  Would you believe that it actually needed someone to work in an area of his degree that he had not been able to use before?  He applied and got that job.  The funny thing is that the first place never even contacted him.  They hired someone with much less experience and we have watched some things happen in that store that has confirmed that the Lord blessed us for being obedient to His will.  The initial prompting looked impossible.  Accepting the actual job he now has looked impossible as well as it was a severe pay cut.  He makes less than half of what he did before.  But he is happy.  My son and I have enjoyed having him home every night.  And God is blessing us so that we are seeming to make the ends meet somehow.  Again, we are being blessed for being obedient.  And for that I am truly blessed and grateful.