Today is a gorgeous day where I live. Sunny, warm, clear crisp air, with an autumn stillness hovering like a protective hand. I love it, and so I'm going to memorize every second of it so that when dark, cold, drizzly winter days come I can close my eyes and remember today.
It really works! Our minds are powerful tools that we don't use well enough. But we can learn to use our memory, imagination, and interpretation of experience to help us Live in Truth.
Way back in the days of manual typewriters—before word processing and before electric typewriters—I learned to test out the touch of a typewriter by typing this sentence: “Now is the time for all good boys to come to the aid of their country.” Supposedly this sentence covers most of the keys on the typewriter so you can get the feel of it. To this day, every time I put my hands on a key pad those words go through my head.
Touching my fingers to alphabet keys also brings back another memory every time I touch them. In my freshman year of college I was taking a linguistics class where we had to memorize the phonetic symbols. I transcribed the "good boys" sentence into phonetic symbols figuring if it had most of the keys it would be an easy way to learn most of the symbols. To my surprise the final exam asked us to write out that “good boys” sentence in phonetic symbols. I aced the exam!
The fact that forty-plus years later the simple act of putting my fingers on a key pad brings back those memories is intriguing to me. Our minds are powerful and if instead of just letting things happen we recognize the power of the mind and memory we can make them work for us. Last week I wrote about Alma's sermon in which he encouraged the people to use the power to imagine. In that same sermon (Alma 5) he urges the people to also use the power to remember. But we don't have to wait for something to happen to us and then remember it. We can make associates with things we see each day so that every time we see that thing we remember what we have associated it with.
For example, I have a fan over my bed that has five blades. In symbology the number five represents the Atonement. Each morning as I wake up the first thing I see is that fan and I remember and give thanks for the Atonement. It is a magnificent way to start the day!
In speaking to some people in Zarahemla (Alma 5) who have
strayed from the gospel, Alma encourages them to use the three powers of the
mind that create faith. One of these powers of the mind we don’t talk about
much, and yet it can be so powerful in helping us live what we believe; that is
the power we have to imagine.
Alma encourages the people to imagine themselves standing
before God and asks them to imagine how they will feel and what they will do.
Will they try to lie to God and claim they are innocent? Or will they stand
before Him confident in their righteousness?
As I imagine myself in that position, I feel a determination
to do better. It makes what I have been taught seem more real. It then gives me
a memory instead of just a few words that I can recall anytime I need strength.
But there are other ways we can use imagination to help us. One is to think of
situations and circumstances when we fall short or make mistakes and use our
imagination to determine a better response the next time we find ourselves in
that situation. We can plan new behavior to break old habits, and plan for new
responses to people who “push our buttons.”
Imagination is a powerful tool that we have been given to
help us grow closer to our Father in Heaven and Savior, a tool we don’t use
nearly enough.
The last power of the mind that Alma teaches us to use is the power to experience. “Experience,” you are thinking, ”isn’t a power of the mind. Experience is a power of the senses.” But not according to Alma. Many people think that what they experience is a result of their environment. To put it in a mathematical type formula stimulus = response. But as we all have observed, the same stimulus can be given to two different people and the response will be different. Thus the formula is stimulus + agency = response. We all choose what we experience.
On the hill of Calvary there were many people who experienced joy and rejoicing as they witnessed a blasphemer be crucified and receive His just reward. Other people on that same hill experienced extreme sorrow as they witnessed their Savior and King suffer extreme pain and degradation. What they experienced was a choice, and what we experience is a choice. When we go to Sacrament meeting do we experience the sweet spirit of the Lord rejuvenating us and encouraging us? Or do we sit through the meeting thinking about the new hairdo of the woman three rows in front of us, or how we wish the speaker were better, or all we have to do during the coming week to get ready for Christmas?
Alma asks the people if they have experienced feeling the spirit in their lives and if they have in the past if they are still experiencing it. Alma understood that experiencing is a power of the mind that we can use to bring us closer to our Father in Heaven and to increase our faith. Each of us can choose to experience what the Spirit is offering you right now or you can choose to get caught up in the things of the world—the emotions and thoughts that push us far from the Spirit.
Remembering, imagining, and experiencing are abilities we have all been given that when used properly will strengthen and empower us to be Christ-like.
Yesterday I spent the day driving to California and didn’t have Internet access. I love long car rides and watching the world pass by. I know a lot of people think the drive between Utah and California is nature at its most forlorn, but even in the desert I find an amazing peace and beauty. God has created a fascinating world and I love seeing the different formations, creations, and beauty of it.
Now back to Alma 5. The next power of the mind that Alma talks about is the power to imagine. He asks us to imagine ourselves standing before God. What will we say to God? What will we do? Do we think that at that point we can fool God? No way!
Imagination is powerful. We can use this power to project ourselves into the future and decide how we will deal with specific problems or situations. We can use it to imagine the consequences that will come from decisions we are about to make. We can imagine ourselves in the celestial kingdom and feel how wonderful that will be and then use those “sights” and feelings to motivate ourselves to do what is right so that we will be in the celestial kingdom.
Using the imagination to help us live righteously can help us immensely on our journey back into the presence of God.
In Alma’s great speech to the people of Zarahemla, one of the first things he asks is if they have “sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?” He goes on to ask them if they have remembered God’s mercy and longsuffering toward them and how through the atonement Christ has delivered them from hell. He asks if they have remembered how the hearts of the people were changed and how they were freed from bondage.
This is one of the great powers of the mind that help us to use our agency correctly. If we use our minds to remember Christ and all the marvelous things He has done for us and our forefathers, it becomes very difficult to give into temptation. Learning these stories and then thinking about them often is empowering.
I have many family stories I often recall about the hardships my ancestors endured so that I could be a member of Christ’s church. There are also a lot of Church history stories that are the heritage of all members of the Church. I also have many experiences of the tender mercies of the Lord in my own life that I recall often to help me remember how much the Lord loves me and how He has helped me. But most of all, as Alma says, I am blessed by remembering the Atonement and what it means to me personally.
If we constantly keep these things in our memory, we are fortified to make right choices and every time we make right choices our faith grows. Remembering the good and remembering Christ fortifies us. Memory, therefore, is a powerful tool that helps us draw closer to God.
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