Monday, December 12, 2022

Sherre Finicum-H on the Importance of Common Sense

  

In addition to the necessity of prophets and personal revelation in charting our course, the Jaredites teach me the value of common sense. Their ships were curiously constructed. Since the top, bottom, and sides were “tight like unto a dish” (Ether 2:17), the Lord told the Brother of Jared to construct “a hole in the top, and also in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole water come in upon thee, behold ye shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood” (Ether 2:20). If our ships are leaking, is it not just common sense to stop up the holes?

 

God often leaves us to our own skills and intelligence to determine the course of action we should take. The idea that what we can do ourselves we are expected to do is further illustrated by the story of the Jaredite’s need for light in their barges. The Brother of Jared prayed to know from what source this light would come. “There is no light; whither shall we steer?” (Ether 2:18). The Lord simply returned the question. Through effort and thought of his own, the Brother of Jared fashioned 16 small stones to light their ships (Ether 3:1). Although the Lord was the source of light to the stones, this illumination came only after human effort. I think it is significant that a Jaredite sip was devoid of any light except that which the Jaredites brought into it themselves. Christ teaches this principle in the Doctrine and Covenants also. We are agents unto ourselves. The Savior does not intend to command us in all things. A lack of initiative—being compelled in all things—makes us guilty of slothfulness (see D&C 58:26). (Sherre Finicum-H, “Ships and Turnips,” in The Restoration of the Gospel and Applied Christianity: Student Essays in Honor of President David O. McKay [Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1988], 19-20)