He that shall lose his life shall find it

I have a great desire to obtain knowledge. Spiritual knowledge. There is not enough time in the day for me to study from the standard works, prophets council, church manuals and books. I literally hunger to learn and learn. What a blessing to have so much instruction... again with these many blessings come much responsibility. What great responsibility it is.

In order to grow and master my natural man I need to be more focused on others. "I" should not be the prominent pronoun in my thoughts or actions. Think of Christ's life. I imagine all of His thought's and action's were for the benefit of someone besides himself. His purpose was to lift others. I desire to obtain this purpose in all I do. In every action, how am I helping others? The Holy Ghost will be the mechanism I use to live in this way.

I will learn to be a better teacher. I just started reading today "Teach Ye Diligently" by Boyd K. Packer. I did not want to pick this book out of my small library though I believe I was compelled by the spirit to choose it. As I started to read the first two chapters I kept thinking "ah, I just want to put this book down. I want to read something like Miracle of Forgiveness so I can focus on my own problems and spirituality and where I can improve in my own life. I need to be better in so many areas before I can teach others. Plus, I am not even a parent yet." I almost switched to a different book a few times as these types of thoughts circled through my brain. Then about half way into the 2nd chapter as I was about to close the book and grab a different one, it hit me. This is what I NEED to focus on! If I can turn my thoughts to helping others learn how to live righteously and be truly happy I will learn for myself much faster and deeper the things I desire to learn myself. I will become a better person by taking the focus off myself and my problems and turning it towards others.
     
 He that shall lose his life shall find it. 


Christ was a teacher. More than just a teacher. He was THE teacher. The perfect teacher. I am trying to be like Him. So I must strive to be a teacher as well. I must pray more, study more and ponder more about being an effective teacher, led by the spirit.

This is an area where I lack greatly. I am in need of much training. I have never really thought about my need to grow as a teacher. It is amazing the amount of improvement necessary in so many areas of my life, areas of my life that I am not even aware of, that hardly even exist at this point, such as being a teacher. It is so wonderful that as I am seeking, the Lord is blessing me with knowledge of where to work and pray for improvement!

And at different times in my life I would have been way overwhelmed to recognize all these flaws and weaknesses but because I am seeking them out with the Spirit I feel more peaceful and joyful than ever. I feel hopeful that I will be able to improve where the Lord sees necessary. This is because I have faith in Heavenly Father's perfect plan. I have the hope that I can be purified even as Christ is pure (Moroni 7:48). Even with the many flaws I do posses. Through Christ's atonement and my best efforts- anything is possible!