Before getting married, my wife and I received a lot of marital advice. One insightful recommendations was to "cherish your spouse's quirks." I have a lot of quirks, and I'm so grateful my wife not only bears with them, but cherishes them. Let me share a quirk of mine. When I get a new book, I love to read the entire book. I study the front cover, the back cover, the copyright text in small print, and the preface. And then I start reading chapter one. As a result, I've read many overlooked prefaces over the years. Often they are written by the author; other times, they are written by an expert in the same field or by someone famous. And yet, in all my reading, the preface to the Doctrine and Covenants is unique. Do you know of any other book with a preface written by the Lord Himself? The heading of Doctrine and Covenants section 1 explains, "This section constitutes the Lord’s preface to the doctrines, covenants, and commandments given in this dispensation." If the Lord takes the time to write a preface to a book, it must be important! There is much to draw from the Lord's preface to the Doctrine and Covenants. The revelation "inform[s] readers of the subject and purpose of the volume," explains "why God revealed these commandments" to Joseph Smith, "paint[s] an apocalyptic picture of the wrath that God would unleash against the wicked" unless they repented, and gives a "'voice of warning' to the world to prepare them for Jesus Christ's second coming" (Joseph Smith’s Revelations: A Doctrine and Covenants Study Companion from the Joseph Smith Papers). In describing the purposes of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord also identifies the purposes of a prophet. And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days. A prophet is the voice of the Lord. A prophet is not important because of who they are; a prophet is important because of what they say and do as the Lord's mouthpiece.
The Lord has established His kingdom on Earth in such a way that "fulness of [His] gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers" (D&C 1: 24). God does not care about worldly accomplishments; instead, he cares about "the heart and a willing mind" (D&C 64:34). In a recent interview with a reporter from The Atlantic, the prophet Russel M. Nelson reflected, "I doubt if I’ll be judged by the number of operations I did [as a heart surgeon], or the number of scientific publications I had... I doubt if I’ll even be judged by the growth of the Church during my presidency. I don’t think it’ll be a quantitative experience. I think he’ll want to know: What about your faith? What about virtue? What about your knowledge? Were you temperate? Were you kind to people? Did you have charity, humility?” Sometimes, we overcomplicated the Gospel. In the end, it always comes down the two great commandments of loving God and loving our neighbors. I know the Lord will bless us as we strive each day to be a little kinder, a little more loving—a little more like Jesus Christ.
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For anyone interested, I have a professional blog titled The Instructional Designer's Toolkit where I share tools and inspiration for instructional designers and e-learning developers.
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