Joseph Smith on the subject of ego

We are so very blessed to have the wisdom of prophets of God.  In the midst of all the media and buzz wordsof the world, comes the simple and direct teachings of the men who have been called by God to be his mouthpiece in these days.  Joseph Smith was the first of this dispensation to be called upon to serve as an authorized representative our our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ.

Author Truman G. Madsen, quotes Joseph Smith in saying:

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"Now one of the strongest and wisest statements I have ever heard on the subject of egoism.  The question was put to him, 'Joseph, is the principle of self-aggrandizement wrong?  Should we seek our own good?'   Listen to his answer.  'It  is a correct principle and may be indulged upon only one rule or plan--and that is to elevate, benefit, and bless others first.  If you will elevate others, the very work itself will exalt you.  Upon no other plan can a man justly and permanently aggrandize himself.'  That is another way of saying with the New Testament, "Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.'  To paraphrase:  He that seeketh to save his life has mere physical survival.  He that is against me, or indifferent to me, will lose it.  'What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?'  Nothing.

Creating Order from Chaos

I regularly read the Deseret News even though I live far from Utah.  I was fascinated with the clarity of understanding presented in Mr.Carroll's article on the leadership model that exists within the culture of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Although the focus of his article  is business, we can gain a lot of appreciation about how we function within our own roles as leaders.  Many Latter-day Saints chose to be leaders because they see disorder in a situation, not because they want power over others.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700172565/Globe-looks-at-Mormonism-as-a-business-model.html

Globe looks at Mormonism as a business model

Published: Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011 4:28 p.m. MDT

By Joseph Walker, Deseret News

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Referring to Mormons as "the original organization men," Boston Globe columnist James Carroll looks at LDS history and doctrine today on the Globe's website and concludes that "outsiders attempting to understand the surprising arrival of the Latter-day Saints can do worse than to think of it as a business model — made perfectly, it turns out, for the 21st century. Made in America.
"The faith has found a way to make God and a genius for commerce work together," Carroll writes. "The reasons begin not in business but in theology."

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Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

The LDS church office building May 30, 2008, in Salt Lake City.

He cites LDS belief that God did not create the world out of nothing, but "organized it out of chaos."

"The distinction between God as creator and God as organizer matters because the perennial religious call to imitate God made organizing a defining act of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Carroll said. "The Book of Mormon organizes a vast and disjointed history. Joseph Smith, and his main successor Brigham Young, who led the exodus to Utah, were men of high religious charisma, yet each had a gift for practical leadership that enabled the organizing of an historic movement."
  This organization's philosophy, Carroll asserts, translated into an LDS penchant for success in business. By the late 20th century, he says, "Mormons were leaders in organizational development and other business-transforming fields."

The column also explores the organizational impact on the church of the its leadership structure, its early period of polygamy, its properties and holdings, the businesses of Mormon entrepreneurs like J. Willard Marriott and the continuing influence of church structure on tens of thousands of missionaries each year.
Through it all, Carroll says, the business ideal and the religious ideal reinforce one another.

The Value of Each Part

Quincy will be starting  at BYU this fall.  She is like so many other young and hopeful Freshmen.  Her last year of high school was full of parties, dances, tests and triumphs.  Life has been pretty good for this young woman and as a result, her prospects for a successful career as an undergraduate are very high.  She is sure to be an asset to her new ward and the college of her choice.

Quincy will also bring one more thing to her BYU experience that others might be lacking.  She will bring humility.  For the last several weeks, I have been following her adventures as she and her mother have volunteered in a leprosy colony in India. Their most recent blog included pictures of  those who are affected by this disease, and among them is a picture of Quincy gently holding hands with a woman who had most of her fingers deformed and missing as a result of this horrid disease.

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Quincy was in charge of bandage removal. 
This can be  a smelly and very shocking as
to how bad the wound has been since the
last bandage change.  She was very good at
taking on this job and was so good with these 

                elderly patients.  She has a tender spot for this age group                                

http://quincyandbrenda.blogspot.com/

One of our challenges as alumni, is to find ways of mentoring and supporting this new generation of BYU students.  How many of us came to the university with the vision that this girl will bring?.  Along with the memories of popularity will come vivid understandings of the parables of our Savior.  At 18, she has walked among those who have been the most needy and the most neglected; those with whom the God of this Earth walked during his mortal experience.

The prophet Joseph Smith taught about the importance of understanding  about leadership and lepers:

"The cause of God is one common cause, in which the Saints are alike all interested;  we are all members of the one common body, and all partake of the same spirit, and are baptized into one baptism and process alike the same glorious hope.  The advancement of the cause of God and the building up of Zion is as much one man's business as another's.  The only difference is, that one is called to fulfill one duty, and another another duty; 'but if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and if one member is honored all the rest rejoice with it, and the eye cannot say to the ear, I have no need of thee, nor the head to the foot, I have no need of thee;' party feelings, separate interests, exclusive designs should be lost sight of in the one common cause, in the interest of the whole." (Smith, Joseph Feilding. ed. The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Deseret Book. 1976. pg 231)

A Zion University Part III

 This is our third and final Cougar Friday focusing on a speech given by former BYU President Merrill J. Bateman.  I began my college career at a state university.  There were many things I liked, but something was definitely wrong.  Very shortly after entering my program, I realized, I would be required to compromise my LDS standards, if I wished to continue in my chosen major.  I knew I could get a good education at my state university, but how would my testimony be doing by the time I had my diploma?

Brigham Young University is unique in that it offers a world class education, yet throws the worldly out of the process.  I have worked in my field for almost 30 years and my memories of my education are clean and uncompromising.  BYU provided me with a great foundation to build upon.

President Bateman shared a person testimony moment, at the conclusion of his address, "A Zion University."

A Message to the Students

"May I paraphrase an earlier president of Brigham Young University: 'Our reason for being is to be a university.  But our reason for being a university is the students.'  For more than 120 years this campus has had a distinctive character.  Strangers who visit are struck by the cleanliness and orderliness of the buildings, the grounds, and especially the people. . . .It was so refreshing to return to this campus, to see the clean young people, and to feel the peace that prevails here.

May I share with you a flash of insight given me by the Spirit twenty years ago in which I learned about this university's major role in building the kingdom . 

. . . .I realized that 27,000 students were being prepared to enter the world.  Every year approximately 6,000 would leave Provo, scattering across North America with some going on to Europe, others to Asia, some to Africa, and a number to South America.  Some might even go Down Under.  If the university performed its roles well, deepening spiritual roots and providing a first-class education, in the course of time strong Church families would grow up in hundreds and thousands of communities all over the world.  These BYU families would be waiting when later missionaries arrived.  My earlier experiences in London, Boston, Colorado Springs, High Wycombe, Lancaster, Bedminster, Accra and Lagos had pointed to the importance of just one or two strong families to form a core around which the Lord could build a branch, then a district, and finally a stake.  The BYU families would be good neighbors; have strong relationships with business associates; and, if well-trained, be leaders in their communities.  These strong families, by example and invitation, would open doors for missionaries to enter. 

. . . .This institution will not fail.  As Daniel prophesied, the kingdom will not be left to other people.  Joseph's and Brigham's vision that the spiritual can be combined with the secular without the latter overcoming the former will prove true because of faith and priesthood power.  Brigham Young University will continue to be a light to the world, dispensing truth for the public good and for individual happiness." (Merrill J. Bateman. Learning in the Light of Truth. Deseret Book. 2005 pgs. 24-6)

Joseph Smith the Communicator

Joseph Smith was a fabulous communicator!  Good leadership depends on the ability to get your ideas out to those who will help make them a reality.  Truman Madsen, an expert on the life of Joseph Smith shares the following:

"[Joseph had] the ability to be simplicity-minded, and that's a gift.  Not 'simpleminded,' but 'simplicity-minded,' having the ability to reduce elaborate ideas to a core center or essence.  At the same time it is a gift to be able to see what other minds do not; to recognize implications, nuances, extensions of ideas that go beyond ordinary perception.  Here again Joseph Smith was an original, for on the one hand in administrative and decision-making enterprises he went quickly to the heart of the matter with ingenuity and skill.  But on the other hand, if required and asked to elaborate on a given doctrine or teaching he could do so and then would stretch the minds of all present. " (Madsen, Truman G. Joseph Smith the Prophet. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft 1989. pg 23)

It is very easy to develop the skill to communicate with people like ourselves, but a truly effective leader will not be satisfied with such a limited audience, no matter how well educated that audience may be! In his book,  Madsen goes on to quote Brigham Young who acknowledged the broad range of Joseph's skill as a communicator of ideas:

" 'The excellency of the glory of the character of brother Joseph Smith was that he could reduce heavenly things to the understanding of the finite.  When he preached to the people. . .he reduced his teachings to the capacity of every man, woman, and child, making them as plain as a well-defined pathway,'  In that connection, speaking of Christ the Prophet said, ' If He comes to a little child, he will adapt himself to the language and capacity of a little child.' " ( Madsen, pg 89)

Capturing the Vision

Have you ever wondered what an affective vision statement looks like?  Elder Gordon B. Hinckley provides us with a powerful example:
                                                                                                                                                                            
      "In 1845, less than a year after Joseph's death,  Parley P. Pratt wrote a summary of the Prophet's work and a statement of our obligation to advance it.  These words, poetic in their beauty, are as follows:

         'He has organized the kingdom of God.--We will extend its dominion.  
          He has restored the fullness of the Gospel.--We will spread it abroad
          He has kindled up the dawn of a day of glory.--We will bring it to its meridian splendor.
          He was a "little one," and became a thousand--We are a small one, and will become a strong nation.
          In short, he quarried the stone. . .We will cause it to become a great mountain and fill the whole earth.'
          (Millennial Star 5 [March 1845]: 151-52.)

     "We are seeing the unfolding of that dream.  I hope we shall be true and faithful to the sacred trust given us to build this kingdom.  Our efforts will not be without sorrow and setbacks.  We may expect opposition, both determined and sophisticated.  As the work grows, we may expect a strengthening of the efforts of the adversary against it.  Our best defense is the quiet offense of allegiance to the teachings which have come to us from those whom we have sustained as prophets of God."  (Be Thou an Example, Deseret Book Co,  Salt Lake City. 1981 pgs  10-11).

                                                                                   

Knowing what we don't know Part II

For Joseph Smith, his statement of vision was literal, for most of us, however, our statement of vision is symbolic. The vision a leader shares with others, must identify a problem and offer insight into the reason for the problem.  Joseph's vision is central to the belief of faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because it allows us to feel that Joseph's problem is also ours.  He didn't know how to develop a good relationship with God (the problem) and how to overcome the specific things that enable the problem to continue (the additional information he previously didn't know--which also prevents us from solving our own challenges in developing a meaningful connection with our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.)

Whether it is re-branding a product with slumping sales or helping a child with slumping grades, our job is the same.  Ask the question, be willing to do some research into contributing issues, then present a positive means for changing those factors. Often, our understanding of a problem is good but we just need to find a more productive way of doing what we already know.  There are times, however, when finding an answer to our question requires us to change everything!  Are we willing to do that?  Are we willing to admit to ourselves that the vision we support about our product or ourselves is flawed?

Maybe the answer to our challenges can be found in much the same way as those of Joseph Smith:  "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." (James 1:5).

If we exercise faith and admit that we "don't know, what we don't know," then we have His sure promise that he will provide us with a means to "know what we don't know."  What we do with that knowledge is up to us!

Knowing what we don't know Part I

I don't mind working on puzzles.  I enjoy sorting the different pieces and finding relationships among them.  Sometimes, my favorite puzzles are made with words, not just cardboard.  While studying various materials to use with the students I teach, I came across a sentence that has kept my mind busy for some time:  "I don't know what I don't know, until I know what I don't know."  (The Red Road to Wellbriety , White Bison,  Colorado Springs, Co., 2002  pg.46).
 
 To be effective leaders, we need to have a plan or vision.  The puzzle in the sentence above is the same one we face when we are trying to create our own vision.  In the first clause of the sentence, the writer tells us that there is some type of problem facing us, the second clause tells us that we can't begin to solve that problem until we understand why we don't know how to solve the problem.  Lost?  Let's try looking at it through an example:

Joseph Smith was a 14 year old with a problem.  He wanted to please God, but didn't know how to go about it.  He knew that membership in a church could lead him to a better understanding about how to please God, but there were a lot of churches and a lot of doctrines to sort through.  Joseph understood he had a problem, and knew the only way to resolve the problem was to find out why it existed in the first place. In other words, he knew what he didn't know and he wanted to know why he didn't know it!

                                                                                               To be Continued