#3: And it came to pass that some of this stuff was useful.
Assorted wisdom
There’s a great quote I once heard from BYU professor of Religious Education, Robert L. Millet, about how Latter-day Saints should handle hostility on their missions. He says, “Whenever a person asks me an antagonistic question, I never answer that question, but rather, I answer the question they should have asked.”
This ended up inspiring the screenplay I wrote to get into film school (which, if you haven’t guessed, is about Mormons).
It’s an interesting quote, partially because it’s something exmos like to point to as proof of Church malfeasance—an explicit encouragement to lie about what the Church believes. I tend not to agree with that read. The message has always stuck with me as largely applicable to most of our lives.
Read one way, we can understand it as, “Ignore challenges to your faith by diverting the conversation.” And maybe a step further, cast those people who are questioning you as antagonistic.
But from a different angle, the interpretation is closer to, “When someone is trying to hurt or mock me, instead I give them the context they need to understand me.”
Whether you believe in the Church’s teachings or not, it’s undeniable that missionaries get a lot of harassment. And frankly, this is awesome advice for anyone trying to respond to that with diplomacy.
Wisdom like this is readily available in some of the most loaded places, and it’s one of the things that keeps me coming back to a church I don’t belong to.
It’s something I encounter again and again with LDS, and it’s something really special that gets missed because of the reputation.
So, that said, I’d like to share three more pieces of wisdom from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that have been useful to me, a non-member:
If there is a God, a god as we understand it broadly in the West, that god would make himself present in all regions on earth.
“Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?” 2 Nephi 29:7You can’t experience the fullness of life—including its greatest joys— without also experiencing pain.
“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.” 2 Nephi 2:23Finally, some insight on how to graciously accept a compliment. Your partner will, at least in the beginning, see an idealized version of you. Instead of denying it, strive to embody that. Use compliments as a form of inspiration. (I first encountered this quote in a Pinterest meme, who would have thought?)
“As grateful partners look for the good in each other and sincerely pay compliments to one another, wives and husbands will strive to become the persons described in those compliments.” — President Russell M. Nelson
P.S. Yes, I’ve read past 2 Nephi. It just has lots of good stuff!