Loving Lifelong Learning

Read the following with the sisters you visit, and discuss the questions, the scriptures, and the teachings from our Church leaders. Share your experiences and testimony, and invite those you teach to do the same.

President Gordon B. Hinckley: “You belong to a church which espouses education. … There is an essence of the divine in the improvement of the mind. ‘The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.’ (D&C 93:36.) ‘Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.’ (D&C 130:18.) … Education is an investment that never ceases to pay dividends of one kind or another” (“Rise to the Stature of the Divine within You,” Ensign, November 1989, 96).

D&C 88:118: “As all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “We seek learning by studying the accumulated wisdom of various disciplines and by using the powers of reasoning placed in us by our Creator. We should also seek learning by faith in God, the giver of revelation. … Seekers who have paid the price in perspiration have been magnified by inspiration. The acquisition of knowledge by revelation is an extra bonus to seekers in the sciences and the arts, but it is the fundamental method for those who seek to know God and the doctrines of his gospel. In this area of knowledge, scholarship and reason are insufficient” (“Alternate Voices,” Ensign, May 1989, 29).

D&C 88:77–79: “I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in … all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms.”

President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985): “We must be trained to clarify minds, heal broken hearts, and create homes … in which mental and spiritual health may be nurtured. … Our schooling must not only teach us how to bridge the Niagara River gorge, or the Golden Gate, but must teach us how to bridge the deep gaps of misunderstanding and hate and discord in the world” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, edited by Edward L. Kimball [1982], 391).

President Brigham Young (1801–77): “I shall not cease learning while I live, nor when I arrive in the spirit-world; but shall there learn with greater facility; and when I again receive my body, I shall learn a thousand times more in a thousand times less time; and then I do not mean to cease learning” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 195).

How can an understanding of “line upon line” (D&C 98:12) guide our efforts as lifelong learners?
As we become lifelong learners, how can we encourage our families and all who fall within our sphere of influence to become the same?

Illustration by Julie Ann Allen