This chapter was titled "Humbleness of Mind", which is something in which I need much personal practice. There is a lot here, but, again, it is marvelous and enlightening.
I want to emphasize,once again, that this is different from my normal posts, but it was something that because personally important to me. We will return to light heartedness tomorrow :)
Original post and explanation of this book here.
"Meekness of mind is essential, salvationally. It is likewise vital if we are to experience true intellectual growth and to heighten our understanding of the great realities of the universe. Such meekness is a friend to, not a foe of, true education."
If we look only at the outside things, we will miss what the scriptures tell us of the process of deepening discipleship."
"The meek make way for divine data even when these can be both dislocating of pride and startling to the intellect."
"...Great stress must be placed upon the need for intellectual meekens --'humbleness of mind.' Meekness is not a passive attribute that merely deflects discourtesty. Instead, it involves intellectual activism."
"Alas, most are quite content with a superficial understanding or a general awareness of spiritual things.(Alma 10:5-6) This condition may reflect either laziness or the busyness incident to the pressing cares of the world."
"Great knowledge in response to the great questions will alter how we view both great and small things, if we are intellectually honest."
"[Jesus] was meekly and spiritually submissive because He had first been intellectually submissive. Having first made room for great knowledge and great understanding, He later made room for greater responsibilities and awesome burdens. Unlike Him, some of us run from the implications and responsibilities of the doctrines in which we believe. Even when 'the judgments of God stare [us] in the face' (Helaman 4:23), some of us 'spurn at the doings of the Lord'(3 Nephi 29:4)."
"Thus meekness is so vital -- not only to introduce us to new knowledge but also to put down pride, which could keep us from facing and submitting to the implications of that knowledge, especially when responsibilities previously agreed to and understood must be finally me and endured will to the end"
"Intellectual meekness is a particular challenge, Without it, we are not intellectually open to things we 'never had supposed'".
"Some wish to be neither shaken nor expanded by new spiritual data. It is quite a step, for instance, to move from passive belief in an immaterial, impersonal life-force god to a belief in a God who is indeed our Heavenly Father and in whose image we have been created. This latter God, the only true and living God, behaves just like a Perfect Father, loving us, reproving us, stretching us, teaching us, and, yes, making demands of us.
"It is also a major move from using one's doubts as a cover for errant behavior to having those doubts taken away by truth with the resultant need to humbly alter one's behavior."
"Meekness emancipates us from the prison of the secular mind, the proud mind."
"Those who are proud of mind demand extrinsic evidence...On the other hand, those who are humble and meek seek, by faith, to understand truth. They are comfortable with intrinsic as well as extrinsic evidence. They know that 'faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen' (Hebrews 11:1)."
If you made it through all of that, I would love to start a conversation with all of your thoughts on meekness and what it really means.
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