The Gift of Knowledge

If you have been a member of the LDS church for more than a few years you have probably attended a lesson at church in which the gifts of the Spirit were discussed. 1 Corinthians 12 and Doctrine and Covenants 46 are two places in the scriptures that list gifts of the Spirit.

The gifts of knowledge and wisdom are two spiritual gifts listed in these chapters, and in church classes the discussion of these gifts tends to focus on the difference between them. Interestingly, in my experience, the majority of the time the conclusion seems to be that knowledge is inferior to wisdom, or even the unrighteous version of wisdom. Often in these discussions I feel that the underlying feeling about seeking knowledge is, "Well, it's okay if you like to learn things, but just keep in mind that it's dangerous to get too smart because knowledge makes you prideful, so be careful." There was even a time when I visited my parents' ward, and when the teacher asked for some modern parallels of a wicked group of people from the scriptures, a man raised his hand and said, "Scientists!"

After one class about gifts of the Spirit a few years ago, I came home feeling troubled because this conclusion didn't feel right to me. Why would knowledge be a gift of the Spirit if it's not worth having? Since then I have pondered this a great deal, and recently I had the opportunity to look at the subject in even greater depth because I was asked to teach a class about it at Stake Women's Day.

I think part of the confusion comes because of semantics. Sometimes in the scriptures knowledge and wisdom are desirable, and other times they are described as worldly or as the causes of wickedness.

In his talk, Converting Knowledge into Wisdom, Marion G. Romney gives some definitions:

The dictionary distinguishes wisdom from knowledge--which, it says, denotes "acquaintance with, or clear perception of, facts," and from science, which "is exact, organized, and classified knowledge, especially in relation to the physical world," and from information, which is defined as "knowledge communicated or acquired, especially by reading or observation." Wisdom as distinguished from these, it says, "is the capacity of judging soundly and dealing broadly with facts, especially in their practical relations to life and conduct." 

. . . Since knowledge is an "acquaintance with, or clear perception of, facts;" and wisdom is "the capacity of judging soundly and dealing broadly with facts; especially in their practical" application "to life and conduct," it follows that wisdom is a product of, and is dependent upon knowledge.

That last phrase is important. Yes, we should strive to learn wisdom. But how can we have wisdom if we aren't clearly acquainted with the facts? We need knowledge; God wants us to seek for knowledge because without it we cannot be wise. In fact, after studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets I have come to realize that learning is preparation for eternity.

Boyd K. Packer said:

As we learn about ourselves and learn about the great plan of redemption, we know that in the premortal existence intelligence existed forever. It was not created. It will exist forever. In due course, we were given a spirit body. We became then the sons and daughters of God . . . While in that existence, we were valiant and chose good . . . Then, in the course of our having chosen good . . . we had a body prepared by mortal parents, and we were born into mortality. (Boyd K. Packer, The Instrument of Your Mind and the Foundation of Your Character)

I think it’s interesting that before we were given spirit bodies we were called intelligences. So even then we had some knowledge. Then as God has given us spirit bodies and physical bodies our capacity for understanding has increased.

We learned the gospel in the spirit world, but without a body we were limited in our ability to grow and apply the gospel. We also couldn’t be like God because he had a body. So we were born into mortality and now we have bodies. Boyd K. Packer also said, “Our spirit and our body are combined in such a way that our body becomes an instrument of our mind and the foundation of our character.” (The Instrument of Your Mind and the Foundation of Your Character)

Put this way, we can see that our bodies are a gift from our Heavenly Father to help us learn. Learning was one of the central purposes for sending us to earth, and when we are resurrected we will have an even greater capacity for learning.

We shouldn't squander our mortal life. Because our bodies are instruments of our minds we need to use this gift to learn as much as we can. Joseph Smith taught: "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come." (Doctrine and Covenants 130:18-19) Now, it's not a race; God recognizes that we all learn (both spiritually and intellectually) at different paces. But I think it's clear that as resurrected beings we will be grateful that we sought knowledge during our mortal probations.

>>Using God to Fill In the Gaps

Organizing the hall closet

Before:

After:

I decided to tackle the storage closet. The games were getting a little out of hand, so for the boxes that were falling apart I put all the pieces in labelled plastic drawers. There is a designated drawer for card games. I like the drawers because now if I find a random game piece lying around I can just open the drawer and put the piece in instead of having to pull out a possibly broken box from the bottom of the pile. I also organized the mason jars. They were all kind of piled up on top of each other and mixed with lids.

Halloween 2015

Happy Halloween from Superman, Anna (from Frozen), and a lady bug.

In the past I haven't done a lot of sewing for Halloween, but this year I thought it would be fun. I sewed Heidi's cape and dress, Kevin's cape, and Ann Marie's ladybug wings. They all turned out really well. I think the zipper on Heidi's dress is my best yet. (It took me a few days to work up the courage to start on the zipper. They're still challenging even though I've done it four or five times by myself.)

When the kids woke up in the morning they were as excited as they would have been on Christmas morning. We had a fabulous ward Halloween carnival at the church in the morning. There were breakfast, carnival games, and a fun spook alley with "gross" things to touch (like spaghetti for guts and a jello brain), then trunk or treating at the end. Ryan said that Ann Marie figured out the concept after three cars, and after that she insisted on carrying her own bucket and going to the cars herself. Kevin didn't figure out the point of trick or treating until he was four.

In the evening we went trick-or-treating in our apartment complex, which was very fun for the kids. Ann Marie figured out that people loved it when she waved and smiled sweetly at them, which might explain how she managed to get more candy than her older siblings. You should have seen her when we tried to take her candy bucket away when we were getting her ready for bed. She screamed bloody murder and held onto the bucket with a death grip.

I actually bought pumpkins this year. The kids were talking about carving pumpkins and I thought it might be a family home evening activity or something. But after I brought the pumpkins home the pumpkin-carving talk changed to, "Mom, when you carve my pumpkin I want it to look like such-and-such," which is when I realized that the kids weren't planning to carve their own pumpkins, which should have occurred to me much sooner. I didn't want to touch the slimy inside of the pumpkins at all. So we did put the pumpkins outside our door on Halloween, but other than that they ended up sitting on the kitchen counter with all the other clutter and not really being decorations. Then they got moldy spots on them and we threw them away.

Hanging Rock State Park, take 2 (10/17/2015)

When Kevin was a baby we visited Hanging Rock State Park with Ryan's parents and had a really nice time. Since we are probably moving next summer I wanted to go back one more time, and we finally had an unscheduled weekend with great weather.

There are several different trails there, but this time we decided to try the trail to Hanging Rock. The trail was described as a moderate hike, but it was a little more difficult than I anticipated. Most of the way was uphill, and as we got higher the trail was uneven stairs made of boulders and rocks, so that was challenging for the kids. But we kept encouraging them and they made it all the way to the top and back. We were very proud of them.

There were a lot of people and a lot of dogs. I was impressed by the many rat-sized dogs with bows in their hair that walked all the way up to Hanging Rock.

When we got to the top I felt like I was too tired to appreciate the view. Ryan was excited and wanted me to come see, but I just wanted to sit and process the fact that I finally finished climbing the mountain. Mainly I was freaking out trying to keep Kevin and Heidi from running right off a cliff. I think the stress of keeping track of the kids made it hard to appreciate the beautiful views as much as I normally would have. But it was a great view and it was nice to see so much of the sky for once.

On the way back Heidi said her hands were cold and I made the mistake of telling her to put her hands in her pockets, which meant she was trying to go down the boulder stairs with her hands in her pockets. She finally agreed that it would be better to keep her hands out so she could catch herself if she fell. At one point Kevin fell down some stairs and as I ran to him I was expecting to find him with a broken nose, but even though he stood up crying that he didn't want to go on this hike anymore, he didn't even have a scratch.

It was a lot easier on the way back since it was downhill. Heidi mostly stopped complaining and instead was saying, "This hike was so fun. But it was really boring."

Kevin was very happy when we stopped at Chick Fil A on the way home.

We went on several hikes this year. Most of the time when we do this I end up wondering why in the world we torture ourselves trying to drag our kids up a mountain, but after the fact it's mainly the good memories that stay. When Ryan and I got married we agreed that we wanted to go hiking and camping as a family, which was why I made a goal to go hiking more this year. I was thinking about it on the way back down the mountain, and I think we keep doing it because we want our kids to develop a love of nature and to know that it's important to be physically active and get away from the screens and electricity for a while. We were so proud of Kevin and Heidi for walking the whole way even though it was hard work.

Kevin and Heidi thought this branch growing sideways was pretty fun.

a few more September pictures

Kevin gave some weird explanation of how he wanted his orange cut, and the description didn't sound anything like, "I want my orange cut in quarters," but somehow I still managed to read his mind and knew he wanted it cut in quarters so he could put it in his mouth like this. Sometimes my mind-reading powers amaze even me. And then at the most inconvenient times they don't seem to work.

Ryan and I deny any knowledge of this event. We were completely surprised to find this picture on the camera.

Science in our bathtub

A video by Physics Girl inspired some late-night science experiments in our bathtub.




Here's the video by Physics Girl:

what we're up to

Whoops. Here's a post I wrote a few weeks ago.

Everyone except me has been sick, and the kids are now on round two of coughs. The humidifier is working overtime these days. Ann Marie's first cough was bad enough that I took her to the doctor. She sounded kind of rattley when she breathed and I was concerned. It turned out it was all in her throat, so it ended up being one of those visits where it's nice to know nothing's wrong but at the same time you kind of wish you hadn't bothered coming.

I've been practicing the piano a lot more since school started. I think I generally practice 4-5 times a week. My piano has been a bit of a disappointment because every key has a different timbre and it's already out of tune again, but at the same time I feel blessed to have one. I've been working through a sonatina book that has been a good challenge for me, and it's been very rewarding to see how much I improve over time. It usually takes me 3-4 weeks to learn all the movements of a sonatina. I hope that when my kids start learning to play my example of practicing consistently will be a motivation for them to do the same. The girls enjoy tormenting each other while I practice in the morning.

Halloween is just a couple of weeks away, so I'm trying to get costumes made. Heidi wants to be Anna from Frozen. Other than some strings to tie it her pink cape is done. For the dress I'm making her a jumper with a black bodice and a blue skirt. I don't think I've done much sewing for Halloween in previous years, but this year I thought it would be a fun project. Halloween is really fun with kids.

Ryan finished the revisions to his first paper and resubmitted it, so we're waiting to hear back about that, and he's working on another paper. The two papers will be his dissertation. Postdoc positions are starting to be posted too, so he's working on applications. I don't think it's registered yet that this is our last year here.

Kevin's reading skills have exploded in the past few months. They're learning about the commutative property of addition at school ("flip-flop facts"), and when we were working on his homework he told me, "Mom, this is like that poem in our book that says from Wibbleton to Wobbleton is fifteen miles and from Wobbleton to Wibbleton is fifteen miles."

Heidi loves her preschool coop. She asks every day if she has preschool that day. On Mondays we do a letter from Frontline Phonics, which has been great. I feel like the little lessons really help the kids to learn the letter sounds. On Wednesdays we work on handwriting. I think what I'm finding is that for a lot of kids writing letters on the traditional handwriting pages is intimidating because of the lines. Heidi will trace the letters, but sometimes she doesn't want to write them by herself. She seems to do better if she's writing on a sheet of computer paper. I think she'll start to get it by the time she goes to kindergarten. We also talk a little bit about numbers, art, geography, and science, and we work on kindergarten readiness skills. The kids like to do cutting pages. We also end with lunch, which all the kids enjoy. Heidi loves the idea of having her own lunchbox and choosing what food she wants.

Ann Marie is at a really cute stage, even if she's also a little mischievous. She will poke me at dinner just so I will look at her so she can say hi, and she's trying to figure out how to give kisses.

(10/12) Heidi climbed up on the counter when I wasn't looking and fell off. She landed on her face. Her teeth were bleeding and one was a little loose. After debating and worrying for a few hours I finally decided it would be better to get it looked at. They asked me if I could be there in 45 minutes, and apparently it really does take over half an hour just to get out the door with three kids because I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off the entire time and I was really frazzled when we got to the dentist's office. It turned out that Heidi's teeth look fine, so that was a relief. For some reason I always feel bad when I take my kids to a doctor for some illness and it turns out I didn't need to worry. But it did get me motivated to finally schedule the kids' first dentist appointments. The entire day felt mostly like a blur because I taught preschool in the morning and then Heidi fell off the counter right after that, and we went to the dentist's office after Kevin got home. Then when we got back from the dentist a neighbor boy was playing with a spinning paint toy in the hall and invited the kids to watch, which was a mess. Ann Marie got a hold of one of his soggy papers and had paint all over her hands. The one great thing was that Ryan's lab got cancelled, so he came home earlier than I expected and was able to help me out.

Added a couple of weeks later: I spoke too soon and last Sunday I came down with a cough and a headache that won't go away. And Ryan was lucky enough to come down with it too so he can't pick up the slack. Those zucchini I bought last Saturday (when I was healthy and full[ish] of energy) to make into zucchini bread are slowly shriveling up. At least now the vertigo has mostly gone away--that was, um, fun. On Monday morning when I said my prayers I said, "Heavenly Father, I know I'm going to be pretty sick this week, but please just help me to get the bathroom clean this week." And I actually did manage to get it cleaned, although the house has been a disaster.

[Since I wrote this post Ryan's paper came back and he just had a couple more revisions to make and then it's going to be published. The cough and headache eventually went away. A few days ago it occurred to me that the kids have been living on go-gurts and crackers, I've been living on canned soup, and Ryan's been living on cough drops. But things are getting back to normal now and now that the Halloween candy is almost gone we're eating our regular foods again.]