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While the early saints from the time that the Doctrine and Covenants was written were not just constructing an institution and building a community, they were also doing the mental work of building testimony\u2014and it looks to me like the process may have been a little different from what we go through today. Where many or most Church members today learn at home from parents or through classes at church \u2014 which we hope spark the mental work required to construct our beliefs and faith \u2014 the early members largely didn\u2019t have those supports and instead were more d\u00e9pendant on the scriptures, revelations and what they believed were still valid from their previous religious instruction.<\/p>\n
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I think the sections of this week\u2019s lesson all address elements of how to construct testimony, i.e., how to do the mental work needed to refine beliefs and construct faith, and perhaps even how to continue doing that work throughout life, since the mental work is never really done\u2014at least not in this life.<\/p>\n
We are frequently taught that one element of building testimony is by sharing it \u2014 by telling others what we have come to honestly believe and how we have arrived at that point. I don\u2019t think this is a process of repeatedly telling ourselves something that we don\u2019t believe, in order to force the false belief into life, like some kind of mantra. Instead, speaking out loud what we are thinking and how we have come to understand our thoughts is part of how we process our thoughts\u2014literally how we arrive at understanding. In the best case, speaking makes us organize our thoughts into a coherent form, that we can either accept as true or discard as incorrect, allowing us to move on to another option. Speaking can and should force us to think about what we are saying.<\/p>\n
At this point I have little information about the author of this poem, V. H. Bruce. Prayer is very similar to testimony, it\u2019s a way of reviewing and consolidating our thoughts as we try to express them to an audience\u2014who is our Heavenly Father in the case of prayer. In this poem Bruce gives a kind of testimony, sharing by example what he understands and believes, as well as how he has faith.<\/p>\n
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by V. H. Bruce<\/p>\n
1849<\/p>\n
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A major source for considering what and how we believe is the scriptures, and they are a source that we share with the early Saints in the Doctrine and Covenants. The scriptures allow us to consider ideas that may be different from what we have previously understood, since each time we read them we can see different ideas, especially if we ponder and question what they are trying to say.<\/p>\n
Here poet John Apiti explores what he sees in the scriptures as relevant to the Christmas season and message.<\/p>\n
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by John Apiti<\/p>\n
1948<\/p>\n
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I hope above I have made clear that I see gaining a testimony and building faith as a mental process. And I believe that the suggestion that the decisions in these processes should balance \u201cjudgment and the direction of the Spirit\u201d is crucial. Our Heavenly Parents have blessed us with minds, apparently expecting that we would use them \u2014 so judgment is clearly necessary. This suggests that blind faith and simply following what we are told, even when it seems to come from the Spirit, isn\u2019t the right process. But likewise relying solely on our own judgment is repeatedly condemned in the scriptures, so that isn\u2019t the correct process either.<\/p>\n
William Clegg is one of the early English poets who had such a significant impact on LDS literature. Born in 1823 in Hull, England, Clegg was baptized in 1850. His poems were soon appearing frequently in the Millennial Star. He immigrated with his family in 1863, settling in Springville, Utah, where he continued to write, eventually publishing a compilation of his poems, A Galaxy of Gems<\/em>, in 1900, the year before he died. His poem \u201cLet Earth’s Inhabitants Rejoice\u201d is #53 in our current hymnal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n by William Clegg<\/p>\n 1859<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Signs are often seen as an evidence of faith\u2014as an effect that comes after faith has been constructed. But I wonder if this is really true. Couldn\u2019t signs also be something that is part of the process of constructing belief and faith?<\/p>\n While Alice Morrey Bailey is giving us another Christmas poem here, it\u2019s also a poem that allows us to think about the role of a sign in building faith. It\u2019s hard to see how the process of seeing the sign wouldn\u2019t affect the faith of those who witnessed it \u2014 for good or for error. Bailey was a sculptor and poet whose work spanned the 20th century. As a poet her work appeared in the Relief Society Centennial anthology of 1938, and her 1995 book Rain Shadows<\/em> was considered for the Pulitzer Prize. Meanwhile, as a sculptor, she was asked by Torleif Knaphus to assist him in sculpting the Handcart Monument that stands on Temple Square. She was also an active member of the Association for Mormon Letters<\/a> until her death in 1997.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n by Alice Morrey Bailey<\/p>\n 1950<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the broadest sense, being chaste is abstaining from evil; so the righteousness of our conduct also has an impact on the processes of building faith and belief. Acting correctly, and processing mentally how those actions have influenced our lives, leads to better understanding the value of our beliefs and how those beliefs lead to our actions.<\/p>\n I think the point is that the mental processing of what we do \u2014 wether through simple remembering or journaling or meditation and pondering \u2014 helps us to build, as Lula Greene Richards suggests in this poem, character.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n by Lula Greene Richards<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1900<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This section of the lesson also leads me to consider a new idea\u2014that showing reverence for the sacred might also be involved in faith and belief-building processes. I\u2019m still thinking about that idea. Regardless, the reverence described by Nettie E. McMurtrey in this poem, and the reverence that the poem itself shows for her mother\u2019s prayers, suggest to me that yes, there is something to the role of reverence in the mental work of testimony. Please tell me what you think.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n by Nettie E. McMurtrey<\/p>\nReason<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Signs come by faith and the will of God.<\/h2>\n
Who Watched in Faith<\/span><\/h3>\n
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I can be chaste in my thoughts and actions.<\/h2>\n
Building<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Sacred things should be treated with reverence.<\/h2>\n
Mother\u2019s Evening Prayer<\/span><\/h3>\n
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