Smarts!

So I am still not doing much of anything so I thought I would take a moment to get something off of my chest. This will be a more testimony oriented post, but I think this needs to be said. Today I was in Relief Society with my mom (I Love it when that happens!) and we were discussing what "provident living" means. During the course of the discussion the women brought up the need for an education. As always they began discussing all the things that could happen to force a woman to work. I know that is true because Christ Himself taught that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, but I think so many people miss the bigger picture.

See, this is what makes the Church so great: There is always more to learn. While having the means to support oneself in whatever may come is very important, it is more important to become like our Father in Heaven. I very firmly believe that every bit of truth we recieve adds to our spirits. My favorite class this past semester was "psychology of music." I love studying neroscience in that and my other classes. That is mostly brain science and what the brain does to our body. With an enlarged understanding of the way I operate I can more fully understand the way Heavenly Father operates. I still don't undertand how the celestial brain works, I don't even understand how the temporal brain works, but I have a much better idea because of what I learned from a school class.

One of the most testimony building classes I ever had was anatomy and physiology. If ever any of you feel that Heavenly Father is not mindful of you, look at your body. The greatest testimony of divinity I have ever found is the microscopic detail of our physical temples. They are so beautiful and they are made to withstand so much. I am amazed that we live through life. Not only are we created so perfectly (in spite of our imperfections) but we are guarded night and day. Constantly in that class people would ask "how did I survive this, that, or the other?" and the teacher would say "I don't know." Every day I came out of that class I knew my omnicient Father in Heaven loved me.

One of my passions is psychology, or the disection of the human spirit. It never ceases to amaze me how similar we all are. All humans have the same basic needs and uprotection mechanisms. The human mind works in a fairly predictable way, which is why counseling can work. However for all our similarities we are infinately diverse. We all have the same needs and a lot of the same perceptive abilities, but we are all so different. We all gain testimonies in different ways and bring different likes and dislikes. We all overcome trials with different outlooks. We have been designed to compliment each other and given the tools to build each other as well as recieve edification. I know this because of what I have learned in a colection of psychology and socioiogy classes.

No, I am not going to leave out the most important one in my life. I know music is a spiritual power. Because of the music history I learned in the assistant principal viola chair I know that J.S. Bach was inspired. He was the first to write with a thing called the triad. The notes are symbolic of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I feel music places me where I can communicate to my Father in Heaven all the feelings of my heart that are beyond words. I know how to place music to a setting that is beautiful and inspiring. I have arranged many LDS hymns over the years and enjoyed it very much. I can learn music quickly and effectively. Because of this I see some beauty in the hymns that those without this training miss out on. My knowledge of musical resonance has helped me understand how truth enters and changes our hearts as well as how to listen to everything, including the Spirit. None of my viola teachers were ever LDS, nor my orchestra conducters, but music gave them access to special truth to prepare them for the fullness of the gospel.

Okay, this was kind of a long winded way to get my point accross, but I want to testify that we are not called to get an education only so we can provide for ourselves. Spencer W. Kimball (at least I think it was him) said that it was more impotrtant to get a spiritual education than a secular one, but we still need both. I like to think of it this way. Spiritual education is like water. We need lots of it every day. Secular education is like food. Going without that is not so urgent, but we will die without that too. I testify that my secular education is one of my greatest spiritual strengths, and I admonish everyone to learn every thing they can. It doesn't have to be school, it could be reading, or even the discovery channel, but I know our salvation is dependant on taking opportunities to learn.