Understanding the Character of God: Turning Our Hearts, Priesthood Blessings, and Sharing My Testimony

March 3, 2014

The first thing I want to mention is that I figured out, partly from the letter I wrote last week, that if I want to have grand spiritual experiences learning the principles of the gospel, or the character of God I have to write my thought about the subject down or share them with other people. I kind of figured this would be the case, but now I know for sure.  And it's not really a whole bunch of grand spiritual experiences, it's a process where the Spirit slowly saturates your life over time as you continue to consistently read, write, and pray. Which I also already knew, but forgot to apply to this situation. Isn't it funny how that happens?  I feel like that happens to me all the time - I know the answers, I just assume they don't apply to me, or in this circumstance, or because of some fact or other. Well, they do. Principles are principles, and truth is not esoteric.

Anyway, because I've been consistently reading, marking, and writing my thoughts about the Book of Mormon I have been so full of love and beautiful contentment this past week.  For the last several months I haven't been enjoying teaching, and I've been irritated at all of my students - I've also been super stressed, and getting worn out super fast - but this week, I'm pretty sure because I've been making a focused effort to come closer to God through my scripture study - I've felt so much love for all of my students, and for everyone I'm with, and I've been so much happier, and I haven't felt completely dead or unsatisfied at the end of every day. 

I've also been visiting my great Aunt Alice regularly do work on family history stuff, and I'm pretty sure that has contributed to it, too. I always feel the Spirit so strong when I'm at her home. She has so much love for everyone, and for God, she's so inspiring.  I love listening to her stories and learning from her. There are so many things we can learn from the elderly; talking to my aunt has widened my view of mortality immeasurably, and really helped me to refocus on the things that matter. There are so many things that she was once able to do that she can't any more, and it's very frustrating to her; she's had several brain surgeries so her memory and ability to express herself clearly have been greatly decreased - which she greatly laments - but still she tells me how good her life is and how greatly she is blessed; and still I see her cheering up all the other ladies in their little elderly community with her kind words. Any time any of the other ladies see me with her they make it a point to come tell me what an amazing, loving person my aunt Alice is.  I have come to love her so much in the small time I've been getting to know her. I was named after her, and anytime I visit her , or even think about her, I think of the scripture in Helaman 10, where Nephi is telling his sons that he named them after Lehi and Nephi so that "when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and written, that they were good."  And it makes me want to be like her. [Editors note: this part isn't strictly about the character of God, but visiting with my aunt has helped me learn of the goodness of God. Visiting elderly relatives is such an amazing blessing. If you have relatives remotely close to you VISIT THEM. Turn your hearts to your "fathers" so God doesn't smite us all with a curse! Ask them about their childhood - it will be just as much a blessing to you as it is to them, I promise.]

Another thought: tonight my dad asked my Grandpa for a blessing for guidance in some things he is working on and it occurred to me - another one of those facts that I always knew, but forgot I knew - that priesthood blessings literally are someone speaking for God, saying the words He gives them to say.  We have access to direct and exceedingly specific personal revelation from God, right in our home. 

After my dad got a blessing a couple of my other siblings wanted blessings, too, and so did I.  The counsel and blessing the were given to me tonight were almost all things that I had felt impressed about, or promptings I'd received in the past month or two. Which made me realize, again something I already knew but hadn't understood as fully, that I have direct access to exceedingly specific personal revelation from God, when ever I am worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and willing/able to listen. 

That is a tremendous blessing, and no one outside this church has it. We are so blessed, and I wish everyone could have that privilege in their lives to bless and help them as it's blessed and helped me. It is literally a saving grace.

Understanding the Character of God: The Atonement and C. S. Lewis

February 24, 2014

For family home evening tonight we had a discussion about the Atonement, because my grandma gave a talk about it in sacrament today.  In the talk she shared the story by President Packer, I believe, about a man who went into debt, and when the time came to pay his debt he didn't have enough; he begged the creditor for mercy.  The creditor responded by telling him that mercy would only benefit him, but the original agreement benefited both of them, which is why they both agreed - and he demanded justice. Then the debtor's friend came and offered to pay the debt and become the man's new creditor.  As I listened to it today I wondered why we always use the analogy of money, because it always seems to come short of answering the questions I have. You can have someone else pay a debt for you and the creditor will be perfectly happy - assuming they're not vengeful - but like Amulek says "Now, if a man murdereth, behold will our law, which is just, take the life of his brother? I say unto you, Nay. But the law requireth the life of him who hath murdered; therefore there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sins of the world."

So how does God's law, which is just, accept the life of the murderer's Brother?  As we were discussing this tonight I finally understood: Christ took our sins upon Himself like a parent would take legal responsibility for the actions of their child.  He is literally the God of this world: He gave us the law and the commandments, and is responsible before the Father for how well we follow those commandments.  He has already suffered the consequences of all of our actions so that we don't have to suffer - if we will come unto Him. He "counted His will as naught, and said, O Lord thy will be done," and the only payment He asks of us in return for the price He paid is our will, but ultimately even that He will give back to us, and in better condition than when we gave it up.

I finished reading The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis this week, and when we came to this point in the conversation it reminded me of a vignette from the book - my favorite part of the whole book.  In this short scene one of the ghosts, (they're all in the after life) who hasn't yet decided if he wants to stay in Heaven or if he wants to go back to Hell, has a lizard on his shoulder, whispering things in his ear, telling him he should go back to Hell - and he would give him good dreams, pleasant dreams that are practically innocent, and he'll behave this time, just as long as the man/ghost goes back to Hell (though he didn't call it that.) While this is happening a angel of light comes up to him, stretches out his hands - which are very nearly glowing with fire - so that he's nearly touching the lizard - and asks "May I kill the lizard?"  The man recoils at the thought, and tries to make excuses for the creature. The Angel asks again "May I kill it?" The ghost starts to mumble about why he even bothered asking, why didn't he just kill it before and get it over with so he didn't have to make the choice. the Angel responds by explaining that he has to have permission first, then asks again, "May I kill it?" "Will it hurt me? Will it burn?" "Yes, it will, but it won't kill you.  May I kill it?"  Finally the ghost consents. So the angel grabs the lizard off the man's shoulder, twists it in half, then throws it to the ground. As he does the man recoils in pain, then grows brighter until he becomes an Angel of light himself.  After this the lizard's body transforms into a magnificent stallion, which carries the new angel into the presence of God.

(I love this story so much, and I very much want to paint a picture of the moment right before the ghost decides to let the angel kill the lizard.)

Relating the story to the discussion about the Atonement, our will is the only thing separating us from the presence of God - Christ is standing next to us waiting, asking to take our sins, waiting for us to give our will to Him.  What makes the process so powerful is that we give it up completely, that we are willing to let it die, permanently, without any thought of getting it back; and it hurts, it burns like crazy, but once we completely surrender our will to His, than He gives it back to us and it becomes the means by which we come into the presence of God

Understanding the Character of God: Introduction

The next series of posts are excerpts from letters I've been sending to some of my friends who are on missions, with the thoughts I've been having as I've been studying the Character of God.  This post is the back story, I'll post the rest of my thoughts over the next couple weeks - and then probably weekly as I send them to my missionaries.

February 3, 2014

I was reading in 2 Nephi 6, and Jacob said he was going to recount the words of Isaiah so that the people may "learn and glorify the name of God." I thought that was a particularly powerful way to describe the next series of chapters that follow.  I think I want to get a new Book of Mormon, and possibly all the standard works, and read and mark them with the express purpose of learning the character, or name, of God. Elder Holland said that the Book of Mormon provides the most complete depiction of the character of God, because of it's clarity and simplicity.

As I was sitting in Sacrament meeting today, people were bearing they're testimonies and I started thinking of areas I wanted to have a stronger testimony in, then a quote came to my mind and started playing on loop - A testimony is found in the bearing of it. So I got up and bore my testimony, and I felt so good afterwards, I love bearing my testimony. It must be so wonderful to have so many opportunities to testify to people every day! I'm going to work on finding/creating more opportunities to bare my testimony, be a member missionary like I'm supposed to be :)

Response from Jared, February 3, 2014

I like that idea to mark up the BoM, and eventually all of the standard works, with the intent of learning the character and perfections of God. Joseph Smith said in his lectures on faith that learning of the perfections and attributes of God is necessary to becoming like Him, which makes sense, but I believe he also said that by learning them we grow in faith, which is cool. Do it!

February 10, 2014

Jared shared a quote from Elder Holland in his general letter last week that I think has been very applicable to me this week, about how one of the attributes of the Spirit is that it's provocative, and the best time to challenge someone to act is while they're feeling "provoked".  I've been feeling that a lot recently, and learning how to use the provocation as momentum to commit myself to act - and the more I act the stronger the feeling gets, and the easier it is to act. For example, one of those moments came after a reply of "Do it!" to my telling Jared I thought it would be cool to mark up the scriptures with the intent of learning the character of God. And I did it. Well, I started it.  I went to the distribution center on Wednesday - because that was the soonest I could get there - and bought a new quad.

One thing I learned while marking up my new scriptures this week is that God gave us the scriptures to teach us about Him, and He gave us the commandments to help us become like Him.  God wants us to know who He is, and to have a personal relationship with Him, to know Him.  All the prophets testify of Him and try to help us more fully understand His works so we can more fully understand Him. "All things testify of Christ" and teach us about His character.

February 16, 2014

 I've found I've been learning less than I thought I would, just having the intention to learn more about the character of God as I read. Having a specific question in mind about the character of God will probably be very helpful, like you said. Preston had a cool way of stating it, too, he said: "Because after all, every single word in the Book of Mormon (and the other scriptures too, but the BOM particularly) is an answer to a question. But we only see it as an answer, and thus as inspiration, when the question is in our minds." 

I think I'm also going to start writing a "conference talk" on the character of God every week - or maybe every month - to help with that, too. because, as you've probably learned much better than I have, you learn much more when you're preparing to teach someone else than when you're studying for yourself.  I'm not sure what I'll do with my talks/speeches after I write them, though. Probably post them on my blog, and if they're any good I may send them to you on occasion :)

I was reading through some old conference Ensigns this week, and I found this quote, that seemed precious and sacred as I read it. I think I want to hang it on the wall in my bedroom:

Although our thoughts are centered in this sacred and solemn assembly on the noble titles High Priest, President, Apostle, Prophet, Seer, Revelator, the heavens are not offended if we at once speak of father, mother, child, brother, sister, family: even dad, mom, grandma, grandpa, baby.

If you are reverent and prayerful and obedient, the day will come when there will be revealed to you why the God of heaven has commanded us to address him as Father, and the Lord of the Universe as Son. Then you will have discovered the Pearl of Great Price spoken of in the scriptures and willingly go and sell all that you have that you might obtain it. (Boyd K Packer, April 1995)

The Next Shakespeare

This is an old essay I dug up from 3 years ago.  Granted it could use some polishing, but I thought it was interesting.

In every culture since the dawn of time there have been storytellers.  These may come in the form of poets, such as Homer; playwrights like Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus;  historians, Herodotus, Flavius Josephus, to name a few.  And all throughout history, and all throughout time, someone has had a tale to tell; perhaps the most well know is Shakespeare, who could be called all three – Poet, Historian, Playwright.  William Shakespeare is, arguably, the greatest playwright of all time; he had depth of understanding of human nature that few men ever gain, and he was skilled in the vivid portrayal thereof – his tragedies pluck upon the heart strings of those who hear, and his haunting scene linger in the depths of one’s mind.  It is easy to say that once viewed, the scene where Macbeth kills king Duncan out of lust for power2, or Juliet falls upon her dagger in sorrow3, will not be soon forgotten.

President Brigham Young Said:

Upon the stage of a theater can be represented in character, evil and its  consequences, good and its happy results and rewards ; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnanimity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to shun it.4

        I find it quite fascinating, that a Prophet of the Lord can reveal truth to the world, but it takes the world some times more than two-hundred years to “figure it out for themselves.”  I recently came across a study called “The Persuasive Effects of Fictional Narratives,” which states almost exactly what Brigham Young did, only in a more ‘scientific’ way.  The article says this:  “Fictional narrative [is] a powerful means of altering our world view – more powerful indeed than most nonfictional persuasive attempts which often produce at most short-lived persuasive effects that decline rather quickly.”5

                    Unfortunately this works equally as well for truth as it does deceit.   President Brigham Young also had this to say on the subject of plays:        

Tragedy is favored by the outside world, I am not in favor of it. I do not wish murder and all its horrors and the villainy leading to it portrayed before our women and children; I do not want the child to carry home with it the fear of the fagot, the sword, the pistol, or the dagger, and suffer in the night from frightful dreams. I want such-plays performed as will make the spectators feel well ; and I wish those who perform to select a class of plays that will improve the public mind, and exalt the literary taste of the community.

While Shakespeare may be the greatest playwright, he most definitely is not the most virtuous, even without all the Freudian interpretation, I do not believe Shakespeare’s plays fit within the bounds Brigham Young set.  Shakespeare may have a profound understanding of human nature, he may be skilled in connecting with the human nature of his audience, but the human nature he portrays, appeals to, connects with, glorifies, and makes humorous is fallen, base human nature.  Now, not everything he writes is dirty, dark, or murderous, there is the transcendent:  Portia’s soliloquy about mercy and justice is moving and inspirational, as is King Henry V’s famous battle cry, “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;/For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother!...” But scattered and sprinkled all throughout the rest of the play is lewd humor, and fallen human nature.  This is not to say Shakespeare was evil, or that we should stop reading his works altogether, but it is a plea.  A cry.  Can’t there be something better?  Is there no one who can write plays as great as Shakespeare’s, but Write plays that appeal to the exalted human nature, to that which is good and virtuous within us, to the noble soul we each posses?  Someone who will write plays of repentance, of joy, rather than murder, and the inevitable hell that follows?  President Spencer W. Kimball, said:

Everybody quotes Shakespeare. This English poet and dramatist was prodigious in his productions. His Hamlet and Othello and King Lear and Macbeth are only preludes to the great mass of his productions. Has anyone else ever been so versatile, so talented, so remarkable in his art? And yet could the world produce only one Shakespeare? 6

He then continues to explain that because that we have the restored gospel on the earth today, the fullness of truth, we should be able to create works as great, or even greater, but works of virtue, goodness and light.

Would God only produce one Shakespeare?  But who will the next Shakespeare be?  In the last Forty years since President Kimball gave that address no one has stepped up.

Who will be the next Shakespeare?  Perhaps, it will be me.

Who will be the next Bach? DaVinci? Plato?  Perhaps, it will be you.

Works Cited

1. DISCOURSES OF BRIGHAM YOUNG page 376

2. See MacBeth Act 2 Scene 2

3. See Romeo and Juliet act 5 scene 3

4. DISCOURSES OF BRIGHAM YOUNG page 376

5. Persuasive Effects of Fictional Narratives Increase Over, Time Markus Appel and Tobias Richter University of Cologne, accepted for publication in the journal Media Psychology

6. Spencer W. Kimball, "The Gospel Vision of the Arts", Ensign, July 1977, 3 (Emphasis added)

In Defense of Hope

"The world doesn't need anymore great men, the world has had enough great men; what the world needs is a God."


Quick Note

This is a long post, so I put headers to each of the sections so you can easily skim over the boring parts if you feel so inclined. :D  And, Ironically enough, I've given up on finishing this post, so I'm just posting it as is. Also, I found a marvelous talk by Elder Maxwell that pretty much sums up everything I was trying to say about a hundred times more eloquently, so if you want, here's the link.

A Story

When the earth was still young and Man had no Women, Zeus created a Woman to torment man.  He named the first Woman Pandora, and gave her a box, which she was instructed never to open.  Being a Woman, however, curiosity got the better of her and she lifted the lid: before she could close it again out flew all the evils that now plague the world -- death, sickness, birth, diseases of all kinds, pain and cruelty -- all according to the plan of a vengeful god.  But before the very last evil flew out she flung herself upon the lid and trapped one last flying creature.  She looked in the box, and Hope remained.

I used to think this was a beautiful story conveying through metaphor the idea that no matter what evil is released into the world there is still some spark of light, some goodness to be found - Hope remained. Then I actually read the story of Pandora and discovered otherwise.  As Nietzsche said "Pandora brought the jar with the evils and opened it...Then all the evils, those lively, winged beings, flew out of it. Since that time, they roam around and do harm to men by day and night. One single evil had not yet slipped out of the jar. As Zeus had wished, Pandora slammed the top down and it remained inside. So now man has the lucky jar in his house forever and thinks the world of the treasure. It is at his service; he reaches for it when he fancies it. For he does not know that the jar which Pandora brought was the jar of evils, and he takes the remaining evil for the greatest worldly good—it is hope, for Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man's torment."

This perception of Hope is more prominent than I would have ever thought, until just recently that is. I have never had my belief in Hope challenged before, and I never anticipated having it challenged -- Hope is inherently valuable, it's worth is self-evidently beyond dispute: or so I thought.  In the last two days I've had two people, who are very close to me, tell me that Hope is useless, weak, and childish.  It broke my heart. But it proved to be a useful wake-up call; the first time I couldn't actually defend Hope, or say why it was so important, so powerful, or so necessary -- I didn't actually know what hope was (which was relatively shocking to me, because I've claimed Hope as my mission statement for years.  I thought I was an expert on Hope.)  So I've studied some, and have came up with some answers as to what Hope is, and why it's power is so necessary.  Hence the title: In Defense of Hope.

Another Story 
(Or perhaps the same one from a different perspective...but that's a post for another time.)

In the Beginning God created the Earth, and all things that in her are, and He saw man, that he was alone -- so God created an Help Meet for him.  God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but Eve partook and brought into the world all the evils that now are -- death, sickness, the travails of birth, diseases and sickness, pain and cruelty. All according to the plan of an all-knowing, loving Father.  But along with death came the promise of Eternal life, and the opportunity to become like God -- along with death, for all of God's children came Hope.

"If Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.  But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.  Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. And the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall."  Thus Christ became the Hope of Israel, and of all men.  

Hope Wothout Faith

In April 1976 General Conference, then Elder Monson stated the following in reference to this picture, titled "A Hopeless Dawn"

For her and many others who have loved and lost dear ones, each dawn is hopeless. Such is the experience of those who regard the grave as the end and immortality as but a dream. 

The famed scientist, Madame Marie Curie, returned to her home the night of the funeral for her husband, Pierre Curie, who was killed in an accident in the streets of Paris, and made this entry in her diary: 

“They filled the grave and put sheaves of flowers on it. Everything is over. Pierre is sleeping his last sleep beneath the earth; it is the end of everything, everything, everything.” (Vincent Sheehan, trans., Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie, Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 1943, p. 249.) 

The atheist, Bertrand Russell, adds his testament: “No fire, no heroism, no integrity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave.” And Schopenhauer, the German philosopher and pessimist, was even more bitter. He wrote: “To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake.” 

In reality, every thoughtful person has asked himself the universal question, best phrased by the venerable, perfect, and upright man named Job, who, centuries ago, asked: “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14.) Through inspiration from on high, Job answered his own question: 

“Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! 

“That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! 

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. … 

“In my flesh shall I see God.” (Job 19:23–26.) 

Few statements in scripture reveal so clearly a divine truth as does Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22.) (1976 April General Conference, Hopeless Dawn—Joyful Morning, Sat. Morning Session - Thomas S. Monson)

 “What is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ” (Moro. 7:40–4) This, to me, is the essence of Hope: that God suffered for our sins, that He laid down His life so we might live again.  It is the kind of Hope described by Noah Webster in his 1828 dictionary:  "A Strong and Confident Expectation...To trust with confident expectation of good...Hope always gives pleasure or joy...The highest degree of well-founded expectation of good...Grounded on substantial evidence."

Without a God to atone for our sins and to offer us the promise of eternal life there is no reason for Hope, and there is nothing substantial to Hope in -- Hope is useless, weak, and childish: it has no practical use, no positive outcome. Supposing, for a moment, that there is no God, what would one Hope for, what would one Hope in?  Well, men might hope for world peace, or one might have hope in a friend - that they will be there when they need them. And to what avail? None. That hope, in and of itself, accomplishes nothing but to help the person have a more positive attitude -- which in some, arguably many, cases leads to inaction or foolish action: for instance if someone has hope in their own strength it may lead them into unwise skirmishes or fights.  This hope may be reasonable, they may have been in fights before where they came out on top because of their strength; but either way, to go into a fight, or to draw the analogy on a larger scale, to go into a war hoping in the virtue of your own strength is useless, foolish, and childish. 

But there is a God and not only does He bring Hope, He has commanded us to Hope for Eternal Life, to Hope for a remission of our sins, to Hope in Christ.   Thus we see that Hope without Faith is vain, and just as Hope without Faith is vain, even so, as Mormon taught, you cannot have Faith without Hope.

Symptoms of Hope

Paul, when describing the armor of God likened the Hope of Salvation to a helmet.  I think it's significant, perhaps even ironic, that Hope is what he saw most fit to protect our head -- the seat of thought, logic, and reason, the governing organ of all our actions. 

Mormon taught that it is by Hope that we are purified, even as Christ is Pure, and by Hope that we may have the Faith to see Him as He is.

Paul and Ether both preached that Hope is an Anchor to the souls of men, "which would make them firm and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."  (That's pretty hardcore, if you ask me...Unless your definition of hardcore is ninja-type-things that appeal to 8 year old boys...)

A Word Concerning Definitions

I realize that because of our language, and the versatility of words, some may quibble with the definitions I've chosen to include and to postulate, saying that Hope is nothing more than wishful thinking, i.g. I hope my little brother will stop making that terribly annoying noise, or, I hope that I can marry Johnny Depp one day! etc.  Yes, we use the word Hope and wish interchangeably sometimes, but that is what I call Falsehope. As President Uchtdorf said in my favorite conference talk of all time -- The Infinite Power of Hope -- 

"The complexities of language offer several variations and intensities of the word hope. For example, a toddler may hope for a toy phone; an adolescent may hope for a phone call from a special friend; and an adult may simply hope that the phone will stop ringing altogether.  I wish to speak today of the hope that transcends the trivial and centers on the Hope of Israel, the great hope of mankind, even our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  Hope is not knowledge,  but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance."

And a Random Painting
That doesn't really fit with the rest of the article, but I liked it.

"with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music and praise God ... To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope ... that's the real word God will have us hear from this passage and from Watt's painting."-- Jeremiah Wright
 According to Watts [the painter], "Hope need not mean expectancy. It suggests here rather the music which can come from the remaining chord".

4 Skills of Successful People

I got this little blurb in an email update from one of the many random sites I decided to sign up for email updates from.  This one specifically was from Uncollege, a group dedicated to helping people find alternatives to a standard college education.  I thought it was an interesting list of skills needed for success that others might find helpful/interesting.  Also, I wanted to hear your thoughts. The group is decidedly liberal (you know, that whole hippy-homeschooler genre) but they have a l lot of interesting things to say.  As I was reading through the first two "skills" I thought "Man, I have this in the bag!!" Then I read the next two...turns out my bag has wholes :)

4 (More) Important Skills For Hackademics [people creating their own education] to Develop
By Jean Fan

About a year ago, I published a piece on the UnCollege site called 4 Important Skills for Hackademics to Develop. The four skills I listed were writing, coding, networking, and thinking entrepreneurially. At the time, I thought those were the key skills people needed in order to be successful. Each of them has very practical applications, and I believed that the combination of them would ensure that you never had trouble marketing yourself. 

What I (and the rest of the team) realize now, at the end of the first phase in our inaugural Gap Year program, is that there are even more fundamental skills that people need to be successful — crucial meta skills that I glossed over before. I realized that not everyone needs to write, code, network, and think entrepreneurially in order to succeed.

Then what do hackademics need?

1. The ability to be self-aware

I spend a lot of time thinking about myself. Specifically, I spend a lot of time thinking about what I’ve done, what I’ve learned, and what I want to do. This ability to analyze my life has been instrumental to my success —the small amount of success that I’ve achieved so far, that is. 

It began, and always does, with the question: “Why?”

Why am I doing what I am doing? This is a question that I ask myself almost every day. I ask this question of myself to make sure I’m doing the right work. I ask this question of myself when I’m doing things that I don’t actually enjoy. I ask this question when I feel myself experiencing happiness or sadness or frustration. 

Question everything, Immanuel Kant once said. 

Understanding the “why” behind what you do means that you can properly tell your story later on, whether you need to explain your reasoning behind dropping out of college or sticking with that job or giving all of your things away to travel the world. You need to understand why, before you can explain it to other people. Therefore, self-awareness is key to effectively promoting yourself. For hackademics, effectively promoting yourself is key to success.

2. The ability to treat everything as a learning experience

As a community of people who have opted out of the traditional education system (either permanently or temporarily), we recognize that learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom. So where does it happen? 

Learn happens when we work, intern, or volunteer. Learning happens as we engage with other people in conversation, whether that’s the knowledge we gain or the social awareness we develop.

Learning happens as we live our day-to-day lives. Instead of separating learning from working or from living, we should treat every experience as one that we can learn and grow from. 

Living life like this is a great way to be optimistic. You can never really lose, because you’re always gaining knowledge and wisdom. Take every situation — good or bad — and ask yourself: “What can I learn from this?” You’ll find that you develop a much more positive outlook on life. At the same time, you’ll become a dramatically improved person.

3. The ability to maintain your well-being

At the Under 20 Summit in New York City last weekend, my friend Dany led a great breakout session on maximizing your mental and physical performance. He talks about the basics: drinking more water, sleeping regularly, exercising, and understanding your mind.

“When I dropped out of college to live and work on my own for the first time,” Dany says, “my attitude towards food changed. I discovered that my lethargy was caused by my eating habits... Nutrition plays a massive role in our lives. [Learn] how you can use the science to get up easier in the morning, be less stressed, and concentrate better.”

What I’ve realized in these past few years, as I’m studying the habits of the most successful people, is that most of them are also very healthy. Part of me is very intimidated by that. Not only is someone a professional rockstar, they also have a kick-[butt] body?! Unfair. 

What I’ve missed, and what Dany’s session reminded me of, is how closely interlinked the two realms of success truly are. In order to be professionally successful, you have to make sure you are building a foundation of physical success — or else you’ll never be able to reach your true potential.

4. The ability to disappoint people (especially people you care about)

For me, those people are my parents. As first-generation immigrants who both have doctorates, they were not very happy when I became involved with UnCollege. In fact, they were quite upset — especially because I started working here just as I began applying to university. My family life during my senior year of high school was turbulent.

Yet I continued working at UnCollege anyways.

Why? It was something that I deeply cared about, and its vision makes sense to me. I recognized that UnCollege was promoting a dramatic shift in paradigm, and I anticipated pushback. I realized that taking an unconventional path will inevitably make the people around you emotionally distressed — whether because it forces them to rethink their own lives, or because they are deeply invested in you and can’t bear to watch you fail.

There were moments in my past when I distinctly remember thinking to myself, ”My life could be so much easier if I just did what people expect of me.”

Then I remember that I only have this one life. I have to be selfish. I can spend it living to appease the needs of everyone around me, but I choose to live it in a way that satisfies me.

Beauty

Art has always been my dear friend, and beauty nearly a way of life for me - something I’ve regarded as inherently good and precious, and as such whenever anyone else sees and loves beauty as much as I do, or recognizes the beauty that I have purposefully created they are at once endeared to me.  The other day I was doodling in my sketch book with a soft charcoal pencil, making smooth, blended, dark lines and curves - because I liked how they felt - when my friend commented how much he liked them and inquired after what they were to be. It usually annoys me when people ask those kinds of questions when I’m drawing - I wonder, when God was forming the earth did all the angels ask ‘What’s that? How does that support life? Why the random plant? Are you done yet? What’s it going to look like when it’s finished?’ Or did they watch in wonder as He created and say ‘Ah, that’s a beautiful line.’ Or ‘Oh, is that the shape of the place we’re to live? It’s magnificent; and the way it ties in with the shape of the orbit, the balance simplicity of it’s harmonies are lovely.’ - they were drawn because I like them, and they give me joy. so I said rather condescendingly, “A line. And a shape, I guess. I didn’t really intend for them to be anything.” To which he replied “Well I like them; they’re nice.” I realized then that he saw exactly and all that was intended to be conveyed in those simple drawings; Beauty. For the sake of itself, and nothing else.  Beauty, because it makes me happy; he felt that and it made him happy, too. Beauty, because it reflected in its simplicity and in its own small way the glory of God.

I have been struggling for some while now to come to a satisfactory conclusion as to the definition of Beauty - not beauty that is in the eye of the beholder, but a true or absolute beauty, as it were; for a long while I’ve believed there is such a thing as Absolute Beauty, just as there is Absolute Truth, but the defining of it has escaped me.

C.S.Lewis describes Joy as that sensation one feels when looking at the magnificence of a sunset and wanting to claim it, to grasp, or internalize it - only to find the feeling gone before it came: or the profuond rapture of listening to Flight of the Valkeries for the first time and feeling a longing for something utterly intangible - like the memory of a memory. I have thought before that Lewis’s Joy is connected with the definition of Absolute Beauty that I’d been searching for, because I always felt Joy while experiencing beauty.  He said that this feeling is, as it were, a memory of Heaven and the Absolute Beauty there.

It wasn’t until I started reading Anne of Green Gables that I found words to put that definition into, though: Anne was so enraptured by beauty wherever she saw it, and that beauty made her want to be good - and while the sentiments she shared may have been expressed melodramatically they were sincere and they came from her heart. When she’s first coming to Green Gables she drives past "the Avenue" and says:

‘Pretty? Oh, pretty doesn’t seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don’t go far enough...It just satisfied me here’ -- she put a hand on her breast -- ‘It made a queer funny ache, and yet it was a pleasant ache. Did you ever have an ache like that, Mr Cuthbert?’

‘Well now, I just can’t recollect that I ever had.’

‘I have it lots of times whenever I see something royally beautiful.’

Later, when Marilla is teaching her to say her prayers Anne tells her that it is so difficult to be good because God gave her red hair, and she resents Him for that.

‘It would be so much easier to be good if one’s hair was a handsome auburn, don’t you think?’

She didn’t feel beautiful, or believe she was, so she wasn’t able to feel kinship with the God that created her to be that way.

a girl who cared nothing of God’s love, since she had never had it translated to her through the medium of human love

After she’s attempted her first prayer she explains to Marilla her philosophies of praying, how she’d rather feel a prayer than say one, and how she would do it after gazing on the beauty of nature -- and she tells us later that beautiful things make her want to pray.  Beauty made Anne want to be good, and the beauty of the language and ideas in the book made me want to be good -- because it was beautiful

From my experiences reading Anne of Green Gables I came to a definition that, for the time being, satiates the seeming unanswerableness of the question of Absolute Beauty:

Absolute Beauty is that which manifests or reflects the Glory of God and His creations or Divine laws. Something is beautiful when it is a conduit for the Light of Christ.

The Beauty of Nature testifies of Christ, the Beauty of friendships and love is a reflection of God’s love and the Covenants we make with Him to serve our fellow man, the beauty of language is a manifestation or reflection of His words that created the Heavens and Earth, the beauty of the human figure testifies of Christ because we were literally created in His image, the beauty in music is a manifestation of Divine order in the Universe and it’s laws - all of which is achieved through the light of Christ.

Beauty is just as vital to our soul as food is to our bodies -- without it the soul withers and dies.  And in Like manner when the spirit dies, cut off from the presence of God, we lose the ability to find beauty.  Charles Darwin, towards the end of his life wrote:

Up to the age of 30 or beyond it, poetry of many kinds . . . gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare.... formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music.... I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did . . My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive.... The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.9

President Brigham Young spoke to the Saints of his day.

“There is a great work for the Saints to do.  Progress, and improve upon and make beautiful everything around you. Cultivate the earth, and cultivate your minds. Build cities, adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations. In the mean time continually seek to adorn your minds with all the graces of the Spirit of Christ.”

President Uchtdorf taught

“Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLlnq5yY7k)

This last Summer I worked at a clothing store for Carol Tuttle, who focuses on helping women feel beautiful.  One day I heard her say “getting up everyday and taking the time to dress in your energy type [or the ways that make you feel most beautiful] is a way of nurturing yourself.  Women have an inherent beauty “sixth sense” as she called it -- it is one of our most fundamental inborn gifts; to love and desire to create beauty.  As we create that beauty on ourselves we create on ourselves, or make our physical appearance, a conduit for, or reflection of the Light and Glory of God.  Our bodies are created in His image.

Now, let me make a very clear distinction here: Beauty and Sex appeal are not the same thing - the fact that something pleases the carnal senses does not automatically qualify it to be called Beauty; however we are given “feminine graces” for a reason, and when used in the way God ordained, they can be Beautiful.  Women were meant to be beautiful, we are beautiful, and when we stop worrying about our red hair and take the time to cultivate our relationship with God, to remember we were created in the image of God and given the special gift to create Beauty and manifest the Glory of God, then we can feel just how Beautiful we really are; and that beauty can lead others to Christ.

When presented that way, doesn’t it make it a little less cliche, and much more profound when people say “True Beauty comes from within” or “the most Beautiful adornment you can possess is the Light of Christ.”?