KNOWLEDGE INCREASES ACCURACY OF JUDGEMENTS

Shortly after returning from my mission in Northern Mexico, still not having completed my 22nd year of mortality, I received the call to teach the quorum lessons for the Elders in the Garden Grove 4th ward.

My attitude about my gospel scholarship seemed to diminish radically from the day of my call until the Sunday I was to teach my first lesson. I am sure that if I were to teach a lesson to a similar group now, they would all seem like very young men, but from the perspective I had then they seemed like a group of old sage men.

One of the things which salvaged my lessons in those days was that we were studying An Approach to the Book of Mormon by Hugh Nibley. Since, then as now, very few read the lessons in preparation for the classes, I found that I had a distinct advantage in spite of my youth, over the members of the quorum as I presented Brother Nibley’s wisdom. (Just as a side note – this made me a lifelong fan of Brother Nibley and I am sure there are few things he has written that I have not read)

Things were going delightfully well, when one Sunday after quorum meeting the Elder’s Quorum President asked me if we could have a lesson on reverence in Sacrament Meetings as the subject for our next week’s lesson before returning to what I had come to rely on as my safety net.

With all the pompous wisdom a childless young groom can have, I stood before the quorum the following week and presented my main point on how to make our Sacrament Meetings more spiritual. If parents with young children would keep their young children in tow (yes I am sure I used that word) the reverence in our meetings would increase many fold. I was sure I had done a wonderful job, since most of the class members sat quietly with their heads bowed during the lesson.

When I was rehearsing what a wonderful experience I had had to my new bride Kathleen and how I had set the world of the ward aright and how we could now expect our Sacrament Meetings to be blissful and quiet, she might as well have been speaking in tongues when she said ‘I wish you hadn't done that.’ I had no idea what she meant. I did get enough from her message to comprehend that she didn't share the same level of enthusiasm about the greatness of my lesson.

The mystery of her words started to be revealed to me with the birth of our first son, Cevin, and how his feelings about sitting in long meetings begin to be manifested in definite out of tow ways. By the time our sixth child, Erin, was a toddler, the full meaning of my wife’s lament had penetrated my thick skull.

I won't pretend to be ignorant of the meaning of her comment about our children’s behavior in church being much better when their father started receiving callings which took him away from sitting with the family during church meetings, but I will say I was grateful that we had long ago put distance between me and the members of that quorum of elders I taught in my younger days.

It was also interesting that the Elder’s Quorum President never asked me to deviate from the lesson in the manual after that lesson.

I am sure if the Prophet Nephi had been a member of the class he would have reminded me that we need to be very careful about digging pits for our neighbors which we will eventually probably fall into.

There is also that counsel about walking in someone’s moccasins before judging their reaction to circumstances.

I am sure the Savior was speaking to the problem when he cautioned us to withhold judgements of our neighbors. The sad capstone he put on that counsel was that with the same judgement we judge we also will be judged. I wonder how many recently returned missionaries have shaken their heads in disbelief (I was about to use a harsher word) at the out of tow Riley clan in Sacrament Meetings when father was with them.

I never liked shirts which didn't need ironing until I went on a mission.

Because of the way it smelled I never ate pizza until I had my first bite.

Until the scales fell from my 13 year old eyes I didn't appreciate the beauty of girls.

Not only do we cause a great deal of sorrow, harm and resentment when we pontificate ‘pseudo-wisdom’ from the pedestal we have built for ourselves, but we may also be denying ourselves many wonderful experiences because we make premature judgements. In the latter case we may deny ourselves the taste of sweetness and delight, while in the former what we thought to be great and marvelous counsel as it left our mouths may linger and turn to bitterness and embarrassment.

THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY