“The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom”

August 29 – September 4

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST DISCLAIMER: This podcast represents my own thoughts and opinions. It is not made, approved or endorsed by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Any content or creative interpretations, implied or included are solely those of Maria Eckersley ("MeckMom LLC"), and not those of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Great care has been made to ensure this podcast is in harmony with the overall mission of the Church. Click here to visit the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please go to.

Welcome back everyone.

This is week 30, six of creative.

Come follow me for the old Testament.

And we are officially out of Psalms, but we're diving headfirst

into Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

We'll just have this one week to cover these two books, but

they'll feel a little familiar.

They're a little bit like Psalms in that they're still wisdom literature.

They're still.

No storyline.

And it's a bit of a, a smattering of wisdom.

In fact, this whole book of scripture, especially Proverbs

is focused on acquiring wisdom.

And I gotta tell you to be completely honest.

What I found the most valuable about studying Proverbs was not

so much what's in the verses.

Although there are some beautiful snippets in the verses.

It's that when I went to study those verse.

Online and find who had referenced them in talks.

Oh, my word, there were so many incredibly poignant talks about

acquiring God's knowledge about learning to trust in the Lord.

I mean, it's just, there's fodder for beautiful thoughts in these chapters.

So I promise it's worth studying.

I just stick with me and I'll help guide you through things.

I would warn you though that both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are gonna feel.

Scattered.

And that's because it's not even so much poetic.

Sometimes it's sort of just like hitting you with wisdom.

The thing that kept coming to my mind and you'll get this feeling when we get to the

object lessons is, um, if you've ever been to a Chinese food restaurant and all your

families there, and you all open a fortune cookie and some of the fortunes are.

Cool.

And some of them are terrible and some of them are so poignant and powerful that

you're like, oh, we should put that in a, we don't put that in a frame on the wall.

That's, that's what you'll get.

When you jump into Proverbs and a little bit in Ecclesiastes,

it's, it's a smattering of wisdom.

A lot of it is traditionally attributed to Solomon.

So remember David's son, Solomon, how he had the gift of

discernment and the gift of wisdom.

We tend to think of Solomon's wisdom and the situation with the two

mothers who are arguing over the baby.

But traditionally, all of these verses are attributed to Solomon.

So you'll get a lot of guidance.

Some of it's.

Not necessarily spiritual, but we're for me and our purposes here.

I'm just gonna go on the spiritual side.

I'm trying to find each and every verse I can, that will pull out an understanding

of how we can come closer to Jesus Christ.

And there's plenty to work with you guys.

So this is a good week to get started.

If you're jumping in head first, this is a good one to begin with.

Um, you'll wanna grab your notes cuz that's where you're gonna find all

those great links to the talks that I referenced and grab your scriptures.

Of course.

And let's get started.

You.

All right, you guys, I'm just gonna say it.

If you're short on time this week and you can't cover all the chapters, focus

your efforts on Proverbs one through four, I found so much goodness, in

just those four chapters, cuz it's all about acquiring wisdom and not

just random guidance and good things.

It's wisdom that will help you become more like God wisdom that is designed

to help you self master the natural man.

The intent of Proverbs.

Traditionally again, it's spoken from king Solomon to his son, so you're gonna

see him reference his son in the verses.

I did think it was kind of cool, assuming this is Solomon speaking to his son.

I like the way he starts things out.

He begins in the first couple verses talking about receiving instruction.

So before Solomon even approaches the wisdom he has to share, he makes sure

that the son is ready to receive it.

I thought this was particularly interesting, cause I had a lot of chats

with teenagers and young adults lately.

I'm not sure they're ready to receive my wisdom.

and I just keep dumping it out anyway.

And I think there's some good guidance from a teaching perspective

to take a minute and talk about, are you sure you're ready to hear me?

Are you sure you're ready to what's the posture of being ready?

the thought that came to mind is I had read a BYU devotional a few months ago

about a basketball coach, who she was referencing, how her job was to train

someone, to be an inbound receiver.

So if you're taking the ball from out bounds to inbound, you're gonna, you

know, send it into the court and you need somebody who's ready to catch that ball.

Cause it can be a turning point in the game.

If that receiver is ready.

And she talked about the stance of a good basketball, inbound receiver and

how it applied the things spiritually.

And I loved it.

I, the visual just clicked for me.

If I really want to receive things that the Lord is trying

to offer me, like ordinances the gift of the holy ghost blessings.

All those things are not passive receptions.

I might have access to them, but I can't actually use those gifts and

tools unless I am a ready receiver.

I just sort of love the visual of.

Our heavenly father, ready to put the ball in motion.

I think that's what we get.

When we listen to president Nelson, he's talking about how the Lord is just

ready to pass us this ball, and we need to be ready to receive it and then go a

good receiver has her eyes on the ball.

She's got her hands in the air.

She says, got a stance.

That's like agile and ready to move.

And she has a play in her mind of what she's gonna do next.

That's the power of being a ready receiver.

So I love that.

That's kind of the beginning of where all this wisdom starts.

We have to start with being receiver gold.

Isn't her talk.

It was so good.

It's in the notes.

Some other things I love is, um, they talk a lot about the wisdom and

learning and the value of learning.

I'm not gonna go into it here in the videos, but there's a lot of quotes in the

notes about what our church teaches about the value of learning about the value

of knowledge, especially deep learning.

And if you would just wanna.

Dive head first, you should go to the BYU speeches website and look by

topic under knowledge and learning.

I could have stayed there for days.

There's so much goodness there.

Um, but you'll see it in these verses as well.

It's this emphasis on God intends us.

In fact, it's one of our divine responsibilities to.

Grow in wisdom and knowledge.

And so there's, there's power in learning how to do that.

Some other things you'll see in this chapter is some advice from a father to

a son about how to avoid the temptations that are inevitably gonna come his way.

Particularly he's talking about unrighteous friends, how they're

gonna entice him to do things.

Remember this is the prince who's hoping to ascend to the throne.

We are in a really similar spot spiritually, where we are.

Destined to become Kings and Queens in a spiritual sense.

And we need training.

And a big piece of that training comes with avoiding what is wrong and what

would pull us down since so much of many of us talk about this with our teenagers.

I thought it would be valuable to give you this quote from elder HAES.

I think I found it from sister Dalton.

She referenced it it's in the notes, but he says basically that

friends are people who make it easier to live the gospel of Jesus.

Isn't that a great succinct definition.

so consent not that's what Solomon says to his son.

You're gonna get enticed.

You're gonna get these opportunities to do these evil things consent

not, and that phrase, I just loved, like, it's all on you.

It doesn't matter how many enticements are out there or how many, you

know, things pop up on your phone consent, not don't give your agency

away to lower sources, reserve your strength for what is valuable.

And you'll see a lot of that guidance in here.

So other things I thought were interesting is in a couple places this week,

you'll see wisdom, personified, meaning they'll speak about wisdom as a female

and talk about how can I say this?

There are many different opinions on how to read that part,

where wisdom is personified.

Some people kind of aggrandize it and make it seem like that's

something about women that's specific.

I really feel like there's plenty of other verses, especially in these

chapters that talk about women being.

The causes of you, you know, like seducers and other things.

So I, I don't think you should read too much into it.

What I do think you should read into is the idea that we should

have a relationship with wisdom.

It should be something we seek after that.

We try to make ourselves worthy of receiving something we

cultivate and curate that's.

I think that's what the point of having it be a female voice is, but

you'll see it sort of laid out there.

I really love what you find in verse 20.

How long, ye simple ones.

Will you love simplicity?

Remember, this is an urgency of you need more light.

You need more knowledge, stop living at the surface.

I think all of us have had times in our lives where we've.

Spiritually been at the surface.

you're going along.

You're going with the flow.

It's kinda like being a lazy river.

You just sort of get carried by the current and what we've learned in every

chapter, almost that we've studied is when you lack spiritual depth, when you're not

willing to do the work to understand God, then when storms come, you have no roots

and you just get carried with current.

So that's what I think he's trying to warn us about.

It reminded me a little bit of that conference talk where they

talked about the deer that.

Filling up on straw and then they died of starvation cuz they didn't have nutrients.

That's kind of that same idea here.

He's warning us about it.

What I do love is the antidote comes in verse 23, turn you at my rep proof behold,

I will pour out my spirit onto you.

I will make known my words onto you.

To me, this promise was.

Well, I guess I would say, I think some of the reason we live at a spiritual

surface level is because we're afraid.

We won't understand.

I, you guys, I'm looking forward to a month of teaching

you Isaiah, and I'm afraid.

I won't understand.

I mean, I actually love the Isaiah in the book of Mormon.

I've come to study it and love it.

But this is a lot bigger and I'm a little nervous, but then I

got to this verse and I'm like, Maria, do you believe this or not?

That's the promise.

I will pour out.

It's not a small dose.

It's not exactly measured.

It's I'm gonna pour out my spirit and if you're ready to receive

it, you will know my words.

You'll know what I need from you.

I feel the same way about the temple.

If I go with this like sponge mentality, I can soak up so much

more because I'm ready to receive.

Uh, it reminds me a little bit of the widow that we studied.

Do you remember when she was struggling gently on one pot of oil and the

prophet told her, go to your neighbors and get as many pots as you can get

as many open vessels as you can.

And.

Pour out the oil and see how many you can fill.

And then she fills up every single part because that was the promise.

That's a miracle.

And that I think is what he's promising here too.

You come to me with an open vessel and I will fill it.

In fact, I will pour out abundantly.

It's an incredible promise than I'm counting on it working.

Um, when you go a little bit further, You'll see this

comparison between fear and wisdom.

Fear basically is the antidote to wisdom.

I really believe one of the reasons heaven father wants us to grow in wisdom is

because he doesn't want us to be afraid.

We are not designed to be afraid.

We are designed to be empowered.

And the only way for us to do that is to get a solid footing in what is true.

And he doesn't want.

He doesn't want us to have a spirit of fear.

That's what he teaches us in second Timothy, right?

That he doesn't give us the spirit of fear.

He gives us the spirits in my margins, the spirit of power

of love and of a sound mind.

So when I picture these two, I almost picture them like a Teeter totter.

You know, they go up proportionally.

So if I increase in wisdom, my fear proportionally decreases

and the opposite is sadly true.

If I start living at a shallow surface level, especially spiritually my fear.

Increases.

And he doesn't want that for us.

He wants us to be deeply rooted.

So you'll see a lot of guidance about that in these verses.

Some other things you'll see when you jump into Proverbs too, this is where he

talks about the combination of the heart and the mind it's in a few different

places this week, but I love it in two.

I particularly love it when there's there.

I can't even remember who the quote is.

You guys had send the notes, but the notes are long.

So I can't remember.

He talked about the heart and mind being a harmony.

I really loved that word choice because I.

Particularly with revelation.

For me, some revelation comes to me in my heart and some of it comes in my mind

and they're not necessarily balanced.

Sometimes I'm like 2% mind and all are . And sometimes it's the opposite

where I understand and I feel like I've got this structure, but I don't feel.

Anything, you know, that happens to me a lot with the scriptures

where understandings come and it clicks and I know it's right,

but I don't feel anything.

So I just kind of have to go on faith.

And that, I think that harmony piece of heart and mind is really powerful.

It's taught even better in the book of Mormon.

So I try to give you some links there.

One of the guidance I would give you guys.

As you remember how I told you that when you go in the old Testament,

you should watch for any JST and highlight it at the bottom.

Before you even read a verse, I would do the same thing with any book of Mormon

reference, anything you see highlight in the color, mark the little letter,

and then go do your scripture study.

Because if you've missed the book of Mormon, that's a beautiful

way to jump back into it.

I think these are two witnesses, right?

This is what Jason and I talked about this week.

He, he mentioned that these are two witnesses that are supposed

to compliment each other.

So I'm gonna try and put a little more emphasis on focusing on.

Where the book of Mormon adds to and enhances what we learned here.

So we'll see that as we go through chapter.

But a few things you'll wanna watch for, they talk about crying after wisdom.

I just kind of love that visual.

It's a, it's a desperate plea to grow faster and there's encouragement in it.

Um, I love in five, how he talks about fearing the Lord.

I wish I had more time about, I was just teaching this to my kids this week,

cuz it's kind of a weird phrase, right?

To fear the Lord.

Um, and the way I taught my kids this week is I compared it to Dr.

O this probably won't mean much to most of you, but remember I'm making

these videos for my posterity.

So I don't want them to forget this.

We have a surgeon, um, who cut out Jason's initial pancreatic tumor.

Uh, it was big tumor and we were afraid and he was the only one that could do it.

And miraculously, he called us.

It's a long story.

Don't have time to go into it.

But what I will always think of when I think of Dr.

OT is his discipline.

I would see him every time I would go up and down the stairs, Dr.

OT was on the stairs.

He was very disciplined himself and he was very disciplined with Jason's healing.

So after this gigantic surgery, this Whipp procedure, it's

like an eight hour surgery.

You guys we're in the room for not even a half an hour.

And he's talking to me, Dr.

OT comes in, he talks to me about how I need to get Jason up and

he's gotta do all these laps and he's gotta do this breathing thing.

And I'm like, he just got outta surgery.

He can't even stand.

How on earth is he gonna do laps?

But because of.

Fear of Dr.

OT.

Like he's you could see, even the nurses responded to Dr.

OT.

He, he is someone that people respect is the way to say it.

They, they understand his knowledge level and they respect it.

And so they respond to it.

And so did I, so I got on Jason and we got him moving and whether

we wanted to, or not, whether we understood it or not, we respond.

That's what fear of the Lord is.

It's not so much that you're afraid of God it's that you are in awe of

how much he knows, and you can see the distance between how much he

knows and how much, you know, and you're like, I just need to trust.

It makes no sense to me that you to walk lap, but I trust that this surgeon knows

what he's doing, so we're gonna go.

And what I can testify of is both in the real world with Dr.

OT, I saw the.

Immediately.

We could see the blessings to Jason's health as we followed his

guidance and spiritually speaking, I definitely can see the blessings

when we follow the Lord's guidance.

Even when we don't understand it, there are blessings that

roll our way because we fear God.

So I just, I love that piece fit.

Okay.

I gotta stop on chapter two.

We're gonna jump to three and four next.

Proverbs three teaches us what to do with wisdom.

Once we've acquired it.

You see in verse three at the beginning, let not mercy in truth

for safety, bind them about th neck.

Write them upon the table of the heart.

It sounds just like you're gonna find in second Corinthians.

It's the fleshy tables of the heart.

The understanding, I think is that one, you really know something

when you've received your own.

Witness your own understanding from the Lord.

You need to inscribe it on your heart.

It needs to become a piece of you, which means you talk about it all the time.

You teach your kids about it.

They know what you believe.

That's, that's what he's asking us to do.

I love the example from president Nelson, when they were gonna do that

bicentennial proclamation, they talked about how they were thinking of doing

a statue or making a park or something.

And they ended up saying that what would be the most powerful is to

teach the world what's written on the fleshy tables of their hearts.

And so they created.

Proclamation.

And I love that example for us then you're when you go a little further

in five and six, these are those verses that are quoted everywhere.

And there's good reason.

These are life changing, kind of.

trust in the Lord with all nine heart lean.

Not until that own understanding in all of my ways, acknowledge him.

And he shall direct paths.

I feel like we could spend half an hour on this.

mostly cuz there were so many conference talks that talked about

this, that I loved learning about it, but it's the youth theme this year.

So I don't wanna skip it.

There's a few things I, for me that jumped out the most.

I love the phrase lean not, I think it's just a cord that talks about

this in a conference talk once, but it's this understanding that

even the slightest inclination off can redirect you off the path.

I always picture a skateboard or a scooter if you've ever ridden or a hoverboard,

I'm a kind of a Huff board fan.

So when I get on a hoverboard hover board around our cul-de-sac,

it takes the very slight.

Pressure difference from my right foot to my left for me to turn like almost 360

degrees like this, I just, the slightest lean completely changes my trajectory.

And that can be really instructive.

I think what's also helpful is to know that if you're off the path that you know,

you're supposed to be on the slightest lean can also get you right back on.

Sometimes this repentance process, we get all freaked out about how

long it'll be and how hard it'll be.

But I think especially if we're in this.

Phase of daily repentance.

It's, it's just a lean every day.

I'm just trying to lean a little closer so that over the course

of time, my trajectory gets right back where he needed me to be.

I just love that phrase.

another one that jumps out for me is that he shall directive paths that it's plural.

And I know we've talked about this a few times, but I always picture

the path of the Lord the same way.

I picture a GPS where it's not so much that there is one

way to get to my destination.

There are an infinite number of ways to get where we need to be.

Cuz it's not so much about a destination as it is about acquiring the

characteristics of Christ in this mortal.

And so he can get me there a thousand different ways.

And if the one that I am on gets rammed into, by someone else's agency,

I call these intersections of agency where I'm on this path and someone

else's dumb choices, knock me out.

Then all of a sudden I feel like, oh no, I'm way off.

But what the Lord always offers is a rerouting and he will find a way to

make it all work together for my good.

So I love that paths is plural.

It's not sometimes I think, especially with teenagers, they get this visual.

There's just this one path and I'm way off it.

And it's not necessarily even my fault, but how am I supposed to get back?

And I think you wanna promise these verses promise that you will be rerouted

lean, not onto your own understanding, trust that God can direct that path.

There are many, and he will find you a good one.

Some other things to love in this chapter is about chasing.

You wouldn't think this is a verse to love, but here's why I love it.

11 and 12.

Talk about the chasing of the Lord.

Why this, I think is powerful as anyone who's ever been in any

kind of serious learning SA phase.

Like at a college, when you jump into a heavy course, when you don't get

any correction or you get easy as.

You don't grow very much.

It's when you have to struggle.

When you have to get corrected that you really improve the same thing

happens on a volleyball court.

Right?

If my coach isn't talking to me about my skills, then I'm missing something

or she doesn't care about me very much.

So I feel like there's guidance here.

I heard elder Benard talk.

Once he said, if I I'm not quoting, this is just kind of

his, what he basically said.

He said, if you, um, if you haven't been corrected by the spirit lately, you

should check the quality of your prayers.

I.

Oh, okay.

You know, if we're not seeking correction.

My favorite example of this is from Kim Clark.

He has a devotional.

It's been referenced a couple times by others in conference, but he said, the two

questions you should ask in prayer are, what am I doing that I should stop doing?

And what am I not doing that I need to start doing?

And those two questions are basically this.

It's saying, Lord, where do I need correction?

And then asking, and then listening to the answer and acting on it.

That's what the Lord, that's the kind of chasing he's trying to give us.

So I love those two questions.

I've written big in my margins.

I also love the promise about the happiness that comes from seeking wisdom.

This is from like 13 to 18 or so, what I thought was really

cool is the way he describes the happiness as part of the process.

I'm trying to think of a good example.

Last summer last summer, I just got deep into studying women in the priesthood.

There were some things I had read, cuz we were studying the doctorate

covenants that just troubled me a little bit and I wasn't sure.

I felt like I needed to know more.

I knew my, my knowledge was a little bit surface level.

And if I really wanted to feel grounded, I needed to go deeper.

So I took a whole summer, you guys, and I studied, I studied a lot, um, trying

to understand this and what I loved is.

I, I got clarity.

I got understanding I got peace that came in layers over time.

So it wasn't so much that I reached a destination of, oh, now I know

all about women in the priesthood.

I don't think I'll ever say that.

I know everything about women in the priesthood, but I did feel joy

and peace in the journey of seeking.

I think the Lord wants us to be seekers and he.

Delight to bless us as we are seeking, because we're gonna find

these pockets of knowledge that he's just sort of set aside for us.

We just have to go finding them.

It's like Halloween party clues, they're out there and he wants us to, he wants us

to gather them up and that's what I felt.

There was joy in the wrestle.

Uh, and.

We have to teach our kids about that because I think oftentimes we're trying

to give them the end product saying I have a testimony and isn't it lovely.

And what I really need to teach my kids is what's the wrestle like,

and what's the uncertainty phase like and how do you get past it?

In fact, when you go a little further, I love the way it's

phrased in this particular chapter.

If you get 25 and 26 being not afraid of sudden fear, and then in 26 for

the Lord shall be that confidence when you are determined to be a true seek.

There are gonna be times of sudden fear.

Um, and that doesn't mean things are bad.

It's think of yourself the first day you went to the temple.

You probably felt a wave of sudden fear.

You know, it's a good place, you know, there's righteousness there and it's good,

but there's so much you don't understand.

I felt very similar.

The first day I went to a math class in college.

the first time I sat down in a math class at BYU, I felt a.

Sudden fear of like, I don't remember this and I'm not sure it's gonna come back.

That's that, that just means we're at the beginning of wisdom, right?

That we there's, there's a vacuum.

That's gonna be filled up.

If we stick with that, I love the way it's phrased in some of those BYU

devotionals that stepping across that uncertainty being willing to Wade

through it is the beginning of knowledge.

It's what keeps you humble and ready to gather in.

So don't be afraid of sudden fear hold the ground.

People already want is how elder Holland would say it.

When you a little further, the end of the, this chapter talks

about being kind to others.

There's some good wisdom about how to be kind, how to be charitable,

but we're gonna jump into four.

So when you go into Proverbs four, there's some good stuff there as well.

So first, the first couple, maybe four verses or so this is when Solomon

asked his son to heed good doctrine.

The only reason I pulled this verse out is I love that phrase.

Good doctrine.

It reminded me of a quote from Joseph Smith where he said the

doctrine that is true, tastes good.

He uses the phrase good doctrine, but I love that connection.

There are sometimes when I can't articulate why I know something is true.

I can't even explain how I know it's true.

I just know it tastes good.

Something about it.

Fits it clicks into my heart, like a puzzle piece that I

didn't even realize was missing.

And all of a sudden, I feel kind of this whole miss, I don't know when I study the

scriptures, that's what happens for me.

Or I listen to a talk or devotional and all of a sudden I something tastes good.

I just, anyway, so I don't miss that piece of it.

When you go a little further, you'll talk.

They have that same idea of wisdom personified, and they treat this

wisdom almost like a spouse.

In fact, that's the kind of the way they describe it.

I do love the way it's phrased in eight and nine, exalt her meaning

wisdom, and she shall promote the, she shall bring the honor.

And when thou dust embrace her, she shall give to th head an

ornament of grace, a crown of glory.

Shall she deliver to.

I love this because of what we know in doctor incumbents.

So in DNC 93, 36, we talk about how the glory of God is intelligence.

These two things will always be woven together to attain the glory of God

means we attain the intelligence of God, the compassion of God, the

empathy of God, all of that is.

The wisdom of God and they will always be linked.

So I love those connections.

When you go into 14 or 17, you're gonna see some warnings

about avoiding wicked paths.

I think what's really interesting about those verses is that this is David's son.

This is Solomon we're talking about, and Solomon's giving

advice to David's grandson.

And I think David's choices.

About where to stand and, you know, when he fell off, the direction he fell.

I think Solomon's trying to pass on the wisdom that undoubtedly

David taught Solomon through.

You know what I would imagine where many tear felt conversations.

I almost picture it the same way.

I picture Alma, the younger and Corey, and I imagine David and Solomon had

similar conversations and Solomon's trying to pass on that wisdom.

At the end in 18 is a verse.

I really love it says, but the path of the just is as a shining light, that

shine at more and more until the perfect day sounds like the book Mormon to me.

Um, that path, it's the same thing that we see when we read

the way it means Jesus Christ.

He's our path.

And as we come closer to him, That light only increases.

There's no cap.

It's not like I can say, oh yeah, I've learned everything about women in the

priesthood or everything about the Atoma of Jesus Christ or there's never a ceiling

that we reach a threshold it's, um, it expands and we expand in the process.

So I love that piece as well.

The last one I would tell you is to look for is in 26, 26, says

ponder the path of my feet and let all by ways be established.

When you think of the path of your feet.

Don't just think of where you are in this mortal sphere.

Think of where you have walked before.

What decision you made to come here and the path that is ahead of you

beyond this one, there is celestial dust on your feet that I think with

the right eyesight, you can see, and you can capture a vision of who you've

been and who you're intended to be.

Um, and that kind of vision can, can motivate you to stay on that path.

So don't miss the very end of chapter.

See, I told you, I love those first four chapters.

I'll try and go a little faster through 15 and 16.

When you jump into 15, there's a, a key famous verse, right?

At the beginning in one, a soft answer, turneth away wrath, but

grievous words stir up anger.

I've always kind of read that to mean I should speak in a soft tone

to others and that will make them less angry, but I really feel.

All these decades of mothering have taught me that it's, it's actually a

turning in my own heart that happened when I choose to have a soft answer.

It means I have shown temperance.

I've shown I've reserved and controlled my own reaction to something.

And that is changing for me.

It Toth my wrath.

I think it also impacts outsiders, but my goal here is just to focus

on what I can control and that's me.

So I love that verse when it applies to me specifically,

there's a great quote in the notes.

If you wanna learn about what a soft answer really is, I, I thought they

phrased it really well, but basically they talked about it being disciplined

from a humble perspective that your words are carefully chosen, but true.

Anyway, Goldman notes, you can learn a lot.

In four, you'll see that a wholesome tongue is valued as well.

So this I learned from elder Oaks, a wholesome tongue is a tree of

life, but perverseness they're in, is a breach in the spirit.

He used this verse to talk about profanity and that the real

risk of profanity is that you.

You separate yourself from the spirit?

I don't know why I'd never really thought of it this way.

I always knew it was bad to swear.

I've been teaching my kids not to swear, but I never really give

them a reason why we don't swear.

And I loved his reason.

The, the simple truth of it is when you choose to use profane language, this.

This gift of your voice that God has given you, and you use it in inappropriate way.

You separate yourself from the spirit.

And what Eler said is when you separate yourself from the spirit, you open up a

gateway to all kinds of other sins, all of a sudden you're Mo much more vulnerable

to the temptations of the adversary.

So it's this gateway that is so easily close.

I say that.

I can't remember if I've told you guys this before I told my kids that

I had a swearing problem for a while in junior high, cuz all my volleyball

teams were and I kind of got into that habit, especially related to volleyball.

And then I, I made a decision that I couldn't stop and at least in my head

I made a decision that I was just gonna decide, never to swear again.

So like honestly you guys, I haven't sworn since probably eighth grade and

it's one of those commandments that I.

I got this.

It's not even tempting to me anymore, and I'm not pretending

that I'm perfect by any stretch.

I got all my own weaknesses, but I do love that this is one I can totally

control and say, no, I just don't.

I just don't do that.

So I love that verse and I love the way elder Oaks taught it.

I think as I'm teaching my kids, it's gonna be deeper now.

It's not just about, we don't swear.

Cuz the church teaches us not to swear it's you need the spirit

and you need it every day.

And this is a really easy way to keep the spirit.

So I love what Elda Oak's taught there.

Um, in 22 it talks about having a multitude of counselors and why

that's a good thing in the notes.

I give you much more guidance about how we still have that in our

church, this idea of councils and why they're so valuable and how it's

patterned after the council in heaven.

So go on the notes.

If you wanna learn more on that 32, I really like, it's an interesting verse.

Let me read it for you says he, that refuses instruction.

Despiseth his own soul.

When we turn away from knowledge, especially when the

Lord is trying to give it to.

We are actually turning on ourselves.

It's not so much that God is disappointed in us.

It's that we are stunting our growth it's being damned.

Right.

It means I've stopped my progress in some way.

I just thought it was interesting that it's really all about me.

It's about what I choose and then I'm gonna reap the consequences of it.

It's it's all on me.

So I kind of loved the way he phrased it.

another one that I thought was interesting.

When you jump into proverb, 16 is in verse two, it says all the ways

of men are clean in his own eyes.

But the Lord with the spirits, this reminded me of Saturday jobs at our

house for that's what I have written in my version because when our kids

do jobs, sometimes they come to me and they're like, yeah, no, it's clean.

You know?

And then I'll walk in.

I'll.

Wait, what maybe we need to go over what the definition of clean is.

I'm sure you guys have had this experience.

And I think that's what, what he's saying.

Oftentimes, especially if we're at that surface level of spirituality.

We feel pretty good things.

Look these a little clean on the surface.

And I think we have to trust that the Lord knows us better than that.

And he knows our hearts.

In fact, the same way.

When I look at the jobs of, you know, those who've done their Saturday

jobs, I look at their heart, right.

I can tell if violet put a lot of effort in, but didn't accomplish a whole much.

And I can tell if Jack put almost no effort in and also

did the accomplish very much.

So I feel like that's the promise of the Lord is that he will see

your works and know their thoughts.

That's what you're gonna find in verse.

When you go a little bit further, you'll see in five, this is another great verse.

Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

It's really easy, especially if you're focused on wisdom and gaining knowledge

to veer off, into pride where I feel like I know more than lots of other people,

and I know more than I, you know, like it's really easy to go down that road.

So there's lots of warnings about pride and lots of great quotes in the notes.

If you wanna learn more from the prophets about it.

Another one I love is in nine.

This is a man's heart.

Deviseth his way.

But the Lord directed his.

Here's what I love about this, dude.

I feel like this is like the brother of Jared.

He is my favorite example of someone who devised his own way.

The Lord invited him to come up with his own solutions.

He does, but I think the Lord was helping him in every step.

I don't know if he knew how to make stones before.

I don't know.

I don't know how much he knew.

Same thing we see with Nefi.

We saw it again with Esther.

I think the Lord loves when we use our creativity and our

talents to try to accomplish good.

The promise is he will bless us with the spirit as we make

efforts as we step forward.

And we try.

He will bless your efforts.

He will direct your steps.

I just think there's power in that understanding.

Okay.

Jump a little bit further around verse 18.

You're gonna see more warnings about pride.

One of my favorite quotes about pride was from elder UOR.

I just thought this fit perfectly.

He said this isn't a direct quote, but it's in the notes.

He says humility.

Isn't thinking less of ourselves.

It is thinking of ourselves less.

Isn't that beautiful?

It's like you're.

Stop being so self focused and you're thinking about how can I help?

What can I do?

How can I serve when you think of yourself less, you are meek.

You are teachable.

You are humble that I love that promise.

You'll also see warnings about digging up evil.

This I, you can go in the notes and learn a little bit more, but around

27 and ungodly man, they get up evil.

I think that applies to those outside of us.

We shouldn't be gossipers.

We shouldn't be people who are trying to dredge up the past, but I

think it also applies to ourselves, especially when it comes to repentance.

I think we shouldn't be continually like pulling up things that we have

settled with the Lord long ago.

So there's guidance in that, that we should let things lie

that are, that are taken care of.

And then, okay.

I can't skip . This is one of my favorites, 31.

Okay.

It's weird.

Cuz it's a weird phrase.

The Hory head is a crown of glory.

If it be found in the way of righteousness, H head, if you look in the

footnotes just means somebody who's aged somebody with lighter hair, white hair.

And here's what I loved about this.

You guys, I read last year when you were in the doctor in covenants, I think it's.

Brother BA he's a, a religion professor at BYU.

He gave this awesome devotion about Joseph Smith this year.

And one of the things he talked about was a vision I'd never heard of before

where Joseph Smith and some others saw Adam and Eve, and he described

them with silver, white hair, and he talked about their aged appearance.

And I was like that's.

So I just always kind of wondered if everybody looks 20 when you're in heaven.

And I don't know, I still don't know how that all is gonna shake.

But I do love that in this church, we Revere age, all of our leadership

prove that, that there is guidance and wisdom in seeking, seeking

help from those who have been here.

A while I pointed out to my wife says last couple weeks ago, that

president Nelson was actually the same age as captain America.

, you know, he's, he's been around a long time.

And because of that, He can give us specific guidance.

In fact, one of the things I loved studying was that the kind of guidance

he gives, even if their age limits them, physically, that that actually channels

them to focus on what matters most.

I think it's elder HAES.

Who said, if you can no longer do what you've always done,

you focus on what matters most.

And that's what happens as you age.

I think you, you focus on what matters most and isn't that lovely

that that's what our leadership is.

I just love that.

So that takes you to the end of.

We'll do Proverbs 22 kind of quick, but there are a few

things you don't wanna miss.

First, I love the way he talks about a good name is rather to

be chosen than great riches.

That's first one.

And I think it's great to understand that even if our family name isn't particularly

a great one, You know, if you're you come from a family that you're not necessarily

thrilled to have that name, the promise of our baptismal covenants is that

we've actually taken his name upon us.

And that's a name that is always a good name.

And I, I wrote that in my margins.

Another key one is six, train up a child, and the way he should go.

And when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I guess I've always pictured this verse, kinda like a sledding hill.

Have you ever taken your kids sledding and you know how you as an adult

will often go down first so that you can make a hard packed path so

that your kids can then follow the path the rest of the sledding day.

And that's great when it comes to just having a really fun, happy day.

It's not great for spiritual progression.

I actually think what, what he's trying to teach us here is that

it's not so much about getting your kids to the destination.

It's about teaching.

How to sled, it's less about getting them to the end goal and teaching

them instead how to do it, how to maneuver on that hill in life's,

you know, crazy twists and turns.

How do you control things?

That's why we can't make a spiritual sledding hill.

That's.

Perfect for our children.

So they can't fall off the edges.

We can't have so many rules and so many restrictions that they can't make

mistakes because we need them to learn.

And, oh, I'd much rather have them learn when they have a safe landing

space here at home than learning when they're an adult and the

consequences are much, much bigger.

So there's a lot of guidance in the notes.

If you wanna hear some of the prophetic, you know, general conference talks

about this idea of helping your kids learn to use their agency.

That that's what it means to.

In the way they should go.

It's how they maneuver this world.

Not so much where they end up at the end.

And that's the promise.

You'll also see guidance in 17 about applying your heart to understanding.

We've talked about that a little bit, so I'll brush past it, but it's

another great verse to highlight.

And then at the end, there's guidance about charity that the Lord will plead

their cause that we should stand up for those who need help no matter what the

circumstances are, and because that's what the Lord would do in that circumstance.

And you can learn more about that in the notes as.

Proverbs 31 is another really familiar chapter.

And this is the one that talks about a virtuous woman and how rare

she is to find, um, it's intent who can find a virtuous woman

for her price as far above Ruby.

Traditionally, this, this chapter is written by Solomon's mother, giving him

guidance to, as he is seeking a wife.

And it almost felt like the princess and the piece to me, I don't know.

There's a bit of that feel there.

And there are some scholars who study this in depth and they

kind of peel back all the layers.

And I think you certainly can do that.

I just found that really the.

Richness I got out of this virtuous woman poem was actually when it

opened up opportunities to dive into modern revelation about how

God feels about his daughters.

And that's where I kept ending up.

Every time I would end up back in that section on women, that

gives you all the words of the prophets about the value of female.

And I just, I felt like there was more value there.

So I wouldn.

I wouldn't dissect this too much.

There are a few things I think are really valuable to understand.

First and foremost, I would say to understand what virtue is.

We talked about this with Ruth, so I don't think we have to go a

whole lot into it, but we have some misinterpretations of what virtue is.

We link it with chastity and we think it's something that, you know,

it has like different connotations than I think it's intended.

The Hebrew word itself is more talking about power.

It's talking about strength.

It's talking about a core understanding and integrity, um, of who you are and

what you're supposed to accomplish.

That's a virtuous woman.

And when I was studying elder Anderson's book for my YSA class, he talked about

how chastity and virtue are traits that cannot be taken from anyone.

They, in fact, I wrote it down in my notes.

He said, no one can take virtue or chastity.

These are spiritual quality qualities determined by your choices.

so I think that's important to understand that when we're seeking virtue, it's

not a perfection, it's a wholeness, it's a, it's a structural integrity.

That's virtue.

It's a inner strength.

Uh, Ruby's again, can translate into pearls.

And since pearls are often referenced, especially in the new Testament as this.

Treasury, you know, the Pearl of great price or casting your pearls before

swine or any of those references.

It's that understanding that there is a preciousness and a rareness to it?

What I love about what we learned in modern revelation, especially

from president Nelson lately, is that, that rare quality that

is in a virtuous, a strong.

Integrity, rich woman is something that attracts others.

It, it draws others to Jesus Christ and that's where I found

the power of these verses.

So I'm not gonna go into too much detail here, but there is a lot in the notes.

If you wanna go a little further into each and every verse, I just, I wouldn't,

I wouldn't advise you to go too deep.

There's a lot more to study, so I would just keep.

Okay.

I just have to be honest.

We're friends, you guys, so you'll understand.

I don't like Ecclesiastes a whole lot.

I just didn't get a whole lot out of it.

And there's four chapters we're studying this week.

It's got a very pessimistic tone.

There's reasons behind the pessimistic tone.

If you go in the Institute manual, you can learn them.

It's basically just a teaching style.

So it's a teaching style that this preacher that's somebody who's

speaking to an assembly of people is trying to teach them the ways of God.

And they do it in an interesting way.

Instead of speaking positively about God's attributes, they talk about.

What you would feel like if you didn't have those, particularly if you were

a king or a wealthy person at the end of your life, and you didn't have the

gospel in your life, how would you feel?

And so it speaks almost as if where, what I wrote in my Ecclesiastes margins

is this sounds like Eese or Scrooge wrote song because you know, he's

wealthy and he has all the things that you could possibly dream of,

but he's not happy and he's empty the phrase they use over and over again in

these first three chapters is vanity.

Vanity in a biblical sense is not just pride related.

It's about being hollow.

It it's remember.

We made paper mache ghosts once Halloween for one of the

object lessons that was vanity.

We were talking about how it gives the appearance to the outside world.

That things are wonderful, but it has no substance.

It's it collapses on itself.

That's what's happening here.

So you'll see references to vanity.

There's a great talk from elder UOR where he references this as king

Solomon saying Solomon had everything.

He had wealth, he had wisdom.

He had dozens of wives, more than dozens.

He had all kinds of things, but at the end of his life, he felt like

everything was vanity and he talks about how that's not true and how living

a purposeful life is more valuable.

So.

Rather than going to all those verses with you.

I thought I would direct you to elder Udo's talk in the notes so that you can

get a little more out of Ecclesiastes than I did the first time around.

But there are a few good things.

It's just kind of.

Those first three chapters are sort of almost like, you know, a, a deathbed

situation where you, you hear the person who's writing this talk.

Like what's the point?

What's the point of studying your whole life?

Nothing ever changes.

What's the point of, you know, getting up in the morning, nothing ever is different.

Nothing ever feels better.

It's just this kind of sad hollow sound.

And it sounds like heavens are screw to me.

So I wouldn't go too deep into it.

When you go into two, you get.

A little more of that feel.

The thing I wrote in my margins on chapter two is I wonder if assuming

the rich young ruler who we talk about, the new testaments never

changed and never followed Christ as the savior invited him to.

This is I think what his life would sound like at the end, where he had all these

things that he was afraid to let go of.

And then he realized how, how paper mache, like they were by the end of his life.

Um, cuz you'll get that feel as you read through chapter two.

I do think it's interesting how like some of the verses are completely

contrary to the gospel, like 24 and verse two sounds very opposite to

what the book of Mormon teaches about.

Eat.

Dream can be married.

So you're gonna see some contradictions in these chapters because they're not

written with a, a heavy spiritual lens.

They're written more.

To give you advice.

Um, I, I wouldn't take them too much to heart, but there are a few key phrases

that you don't wanna miss, like in 26, on verse two for God, give us to a man

that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the center, he

give us trave to gather and to heap up.

Many of the scholars I read talked about how those, all those early verses are him

trying to talk about what it would feel like to be a man who lived without God.

And then these last couple verses in these chapters are the preacher's

advice on how to do that differently.

I just don't love that teaching style.

So it didn't really resonate with me, but you'll see that

through the first few chapters.

In three, when you flip over, you see that famous phrase about times and

season, this is the Footloose phrase.

, you know, when he says there's a time to dance, um, that comes from here and

songs and all kinds of things for us.

I think it's particularly valuable to understand that there are times and

seasons in our life and there was a great, um, I think it was a video that

I watched as elder Perry and elder Woodland, and they were talking about how.

In their old age, they'd come to appreciate that there are cycles in life.

There are times and seasons where you feel close, where things are hard, where

you have health and you don't, and they, they just had this piece about them

that they've seen all those cycles.

They've seen all those undulating, uh, Life rolling through life

auctions and they, they have peace because what they know, see, I, I

just got more out of studying about these verses that I necessarily

got out of the verses themselves.

So go in the notes, you can learn a little bit more.

Um, I do how I, I did love 11 in chapter three.

He has made everything beautiful in his time.

That phrase to me, especially considering all.

If there's a time to weep and a time to mourn.

And you know, all those times that all of these things can be beautiful in his time.

I think morning and weeping in time become a thing of beauty.

I think when you get perspective, they become those things.

A time to dance, a time to embrace those things that have beauty when

you understand the Lord's timing.

So I, I did love that verse in particular.

yeah, that takes you to the end of three.

Let's go to 11 and 12.

There's a little bit more that you can sink your teeth into and

Ecclesiastes 11, especially verse one.

I didn't get it the first time around when I read it, then I read something

from president Monson and elder go.

And I was like, okay, I think I get it.

So it says cast, I bread upon the waters for thou shall find it after many days.

And the way president Monson refers to this, he says, basically, this

is when you are trying to do good.

Do good generously.

And at some point down the road, you'll see the effects.

It's this promise of reaping the rewards of your efforts, even if

you don't get them for a while.

Um, El Laron says it kind of similarly, but speaking about the atonement

and I just love the visual of it.

I think as parents we're counting on that promise that a lot of the good

we do in this part of our lives, we don't get a lot of rewards from,

but we're trusting that down the.

We'll see that the blessings of casting, a lot of bread out into the waters.

It reminds me of taking violet to feed the ducks when she was in preschool.

And there was this cute little pond in Highland and we would go and she would

just like throw tons of bread all out at once and all these ducks would come.

And that's kind of the visual, I think we need to think of when we're casting out.

Goodness, just cast it all out.

Do as much as you can.

And trust that the rewards will come.

For me, I really feel like that's one of the greatest parts of the

promises of heaven is that we'll be able to see the fruits of our labors

and not just the goodness that I accomplished, if any, we also get to

see the goodness of all of our family, whatever they did in this lifetime.

We'll get to hear all about it, all that bread that we saw go out, but

we don't know what happened to it.

You'll know down the road where that's, where that ended up.

And I think that will be a delightful part of.

Some other things you'll see that I think are really important is in verse five.

This is where he talks about how little we know mortally as thou.

Noah's not what is the way of the spirit nor how the bones do grow in

the womb of heard that is with child, even though thou Noah's not the works

of God who make it all, this came powerful to me because I had just read

a post from the church about abortion.

And I had just been studying, cuz I think my teenagers have questions and I

wanted to be able to answer them clearly.

Um, we know so little about.

So much and I think to trust in the profit and trust in the guidance.

The church is a powerful grounding.

We don't know.

What we do know is that the Lord has asked us to educate ourselves on this area.

I think especially lately where there's so much debate and so much contention to

educate ourselves on what we believe and why we believe it is really powerful.

So I gave you some tools in the notes.

If you wanna open up this gateway and study, I thought it was powerful.

So enjoy that one.

And then at the end of, um, chapter 11, nine and 10, what I love about nine

and 10 is that they basically invite you to choose joy and remove sorrow.

Like I've talked about before.

I really believe I study joy for almost a year, um, when Jason was

first diagnosed and I, I think there's power in choosing it, despite

your circumstances, uh, choose it.

I think one of my favorite talks about this is elder ARDS, where he talks

about they hushed their fears, something else, if you wanna read more, but he

talks about the UMMA people and how.

He didn't Elma, didn't quiet, their fears for them.

What he did was he taught them about Jesus Christ and then

they hushed their own fears.

And that I feel like is what these verses are teaching.

You can choose joy by focusing on Jesus Christ and you can remove

sorrow by focusing on Jesus Christ.

So learn more.

If that's something that will pull at you.

When you jump into Ecclesiastes 12, there's just a couple things

I don't want you to miss again.

It's kind of that pessimistic tone.

So I feel like you can sort, you can sort of flip the page

and go all the way to the end.

So when you go to 13 and 14, thirteen's probably the crux of all of Ecclesiastes.

This is the main message I think of the preacher where he says, let us

hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God, and keep his commandments

for this is the whole duty of man.

I loved what we added to this in doctrine covenants.

Last year, we were setting, you know, his work and his glorious to bring, to

pass our immortality and eternal life.

And then I think it was elder UOR, who taught me that the

answer to our work is in doctor in covenants 11 it's 20 through 22.

And this is where he asks us our, he defines our work.

This is your work to keep his commandments with all your heart,

mind, mind, and strength to learn the gospel, and then to share it.

That is our work.

And I love that.

That's a big piece of.

Duty of man that they're referencing at the end of Ecclesiastes.