Plans, Thoughts, and Dogs

With the Church’s new curriculum into the scriptures, I was really excited to share the New Testament with my kids. I was really happy that more of the teaching emphasis was going to be put on the home, and I think that part of that is because we already do so much of it already that I feel like with what we do at home, plus the three hours of church, it’s pretty overwhelming for all of us, especially the kids. I really like that the “Come, Follow Me” manual is split up into weeks because then it keeps all of us on the same track with our study. I want to do a part of the lesson everyday for our family scripture study which essentially breaks up the week long chapter into 6 or 7 individual, daily parts. I’m going to take the extra hour that I would be at church and make a lesson outline for the upcoming week, broken down by day so that I will have something to follow everyday instead of just looking through the lesson briefly and pontificating about various points. I want this to be organized and comprehensive.

So there will be an outline for the upcoming week put out, hopefully every Sunday and it will be filed under the tag: “Come, Follow Me.” Now that I’ve done a couple of the lessons, I would really like to go through and make charts and maps and illustrations, etc, to help with the understanding and to make it so that it is not just a wall of text to be read out loud like a lecture. I would love for it to be an interactive tool that complements all types of learning styles. I realize that that will be a big task, so maybe I can do the words part now and then work on the rest of it over the next three years so that when we circle back around to the New Testament in four years, the better version will be available.
I had a couple of other insights as well that I want to share briefly. First was something that I heard in a December 2018 Ensign article entitled, “Win the Battle with the Natural Man” in which Elder Carl B. Cook talks about a horse that he got that was wild and eventually, with lots of training and kindness became an amazing horse. I originally misheard what Elder Cook said, but the horse’s name was Spinner. He says, “It took approximately 15 years for Spinner’s nature to change significantly.” Originally I thought he said that it takes about 15 years for a permanence of discipleship to be within us. I often wonder if my change has been deep enough to be permanent.
I often tell my kids that when I’m old and senile, I will be mean and angry all the time, because that’s my nature. I told them to put me in a home and never come visit because I won’t be lucid enough to know what’s going on and I don’t want my meanness to ruin anyone’s life, so I told them to leave me. But this article made me think, is angry and bitterness still my nature? When I am old and out of my mind, will my inclination be to treat others horribly? Or have I changed enough to have the core of who I am, at minimum, be kind or easy going? I’m definitely not the angry person that I used to be, I have calmed down a significant amount, but I wonder how much of that is age and exhaustion and how much of that is a change in me as a person. It is an interesting concept.
The last insight came to me while I was thinking about Peter’s role as President of the Church after Christ’s ascension. We talked about changing who we were and more specifically, Peter learning to rely on the Spirit for guidance instead of the Savior coming down and telling him exactly what to do. I was still thinking about why Jesus gave to command to accept gentiles into the church without first converting to Judaism through a vision and not an in person command. These thoughts led me to think in terms of my dog, which is a compliment because dogs are amazing.
If Jesus had appeared to Peter personally and said, “preach the gospel to the gentiles and accept them into the church,” Peter would have understood the message, but also would have associated gospel instruction with direct appearance from the Lord. Peter would implement that change and then go on about his business. This lesson would teach Peter to obey God’s commands when given directly and in person. I would liken this to a dog who has been trained to obey his master’s voice when called. The “natural” part of a human and a dog are still there, but they are disciplined enough to obey a command. But Jesus, like dog owners, can’t be with them all the time to command in every little action or behavior. If we were to simply train a dog to do what we say, that’s a good start but what about when we are at work? We won’t be there to control the dog, so they will eat our shoes, pee on the floor, and bark at the wind, and most likely end up being locked in a kennel the whole time we are gone. This is a miserable existence for a dog.
Likewise, if Peter relies on the Savior to personally appear and instruct about every change that is going to come up while he’s leading the Church, when Jesus isn’t standing in front of him, he’s going to make policies that reflect his own opinions, and be the same compulsive, rough fisherman that he was when Jesus found him. This probably won’t move the work forward much because the message that Peter brings to the people won’t have the convincing power of the Holy Ghost, because he hasn’t learned to take instruction in any other way except face to face.
A dog is happiest when it is free and with it’s people. A human is happiest when it is free and has the Holy Ghost, because remember, the companionship of the Spirit is the most desirable thing in this life. In order to take a dog from wild and untrustworthy to calm and predictable, we must teach the dog principles like “don’t chew stuff up” and potty training and stuff like that. Basically the dog has to change from crazy to calm, and that change comes when the dog is trained so that it has a different nature. Likewise, people have to change from self-serving and self-centered, to open to the Holy Ghost, and that is how our natures are changed, not having Jesus appear to us face to face every time he wants to tell us something, at that point we are only dogs trained to respond to the master’s voice. But if we can have the Holy Ghost with us, then we can constantly be taught and improve and grow spiritually. We can preach with power and teach us Christ in a compelling manner. That’s why Jesus gave Peter a vision instead of an appearance, because he was training Peter to turn to the Spirit for guidance and learning. He was slowly changing his nature.