Seek Learning

President Nelson said this in his final talk in the most recent general conference: “If most of the information you get comes from social or other media, your ability to hear the whisperings of the Spirit will be diminished. If you are not also seeking the Lord through daily prayer and gospel study, you leave yourself vulnerable to philosophies that may be intriguing but are not true. Even Saints who are otherwise faithful can be derailed by the steady beat of Babylon’s band.” His statement is an intriguing one because I believe the majority of people, especially here in the United States and including Latter-day Saints, would fall into the category of getting “most” of their information from social media or other news media sources. If the knowledge and understanding we gain does not get deeper roots than those ephemeral sources, then his message is that we are in spiritual trouble. The famous statement from the dedication of the Kirtland temple doesn’t say “seek learning out of the most popular social media posts”—rather, we are to seek wisdom “by study and also by faith” through the “best books” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:7). I think that most information in our world today is given out without real study or faith or work on the part of those who receive it, and thus it is of little enduring value. Elder Patrick Kearon referred to this as having a “poor digital diet,” describing it this way: “We may be suffering in many aspects of our lives, without fully recognizing it, because of a poor digital diet…. If you spend much of your time consuming one kind of message that you become affected and influenced by it. Spending too much of our time with social media, celebrity or entertainment news, games, and the pursuit of online, time-hungry activities constitutes a poor digital diet.” That kind of information diet leave little place for the Lord to truly speak to us through the power of His word found in the best books and in the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.

               President Nelson’s words remind me of a talk about following the Spirit given by President Faust at BYU many years ago. He said this: “The Spirit’s voice is ever present, but it is calm. Said Isaiah, ‘And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever’ (Isaiah 32:17). The adversary tries to smother this voice with a multitude of loud, persistent, persuasive, and appealing voices.” In other words, we have to do spiritual work to hear the voice of the Spirit, and that means finding quiet, dedicated time to study His word and seek to hear His voice. We cannot only listen to the loudest voices that we hear. President Faust continued: “I suggest a simple solution for selecting the channel to which we attune ourselves: listen to and follow the voice of the Spirit. This is an ancient solution, even eternal, and may not be popular in a society that is always looking for something new. It requires patience in a world that demands instant gratification.” The Book of Mormon gives us a powerful example of what happens when we do and don’t make this effort to hear the voice of the Lord. Nephi and his brothers Laman and Lemuel were brought up by the same father in the same society and they had the same difficulties to face as they travleed to the promised land. But those older two brothers were consistently miserable as they murmured and rebelled against their father. Nephi, on the other hand, was faithful and rejoiced in the Lord throughout his trials. He believed in the words of his father but his brothers did not. What made the difference? Nephi gave us the key: “I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart.” His brothers, on the other hand, would not do that: “They did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them” (1 Nephi 2:12,16). They expected the Lord to simply give them knowledge in a cheap and easy way, and they never did the spiritual work to truly have their hearts softened by Him like Nephi. When Nephi asked them, “Have ye inquired of the Lord,” they replied, “We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.” But, as Nephi stressed, some things “were hard to be understood, save a man should inquire of the Lord” (1 Nephi 15:3,8-9). They were not willing to put forth the effort to understand spiritual things. If we want understanding and knowledge from the Lord, their story shows that we need to be willing to put forth the effort the Lord requires. We must, as President Nelson stressed, “Make time for the Lord.”