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The Importance of Writing it Out

Recently there has been a coalescing of events related to the idea of writing down exactly what you believe and why.

For scripture study on Sundays, I ask each of my children to come up with a gospel question, then do their best to search out the answer in the scriptures, and write it up as if they were trying to persuade someone who didn't believe their answer. At dinnertime, we discuss their submitted answers, and I add any insights I might have on the topics.

Recently, I was describing to my kids the idea of a study journal. This can be done on paper with a 3 ring binder, which allows you to organize things topically and add more pages when needed. With access to computers, it probably makes more sense to do this electronically. 

I received an email recently from a reader who has made just this sort of thing: a document that has a topical index of all his beliefs, complete with scripture references supporting each bullet.

When you do this, God will respond to your efforts by giving you further light and truth. He will begin correcting your incomplete or incorrect notions, and he will give you more and better than you had before. It is impossible for a priest to salt a sacrifice if no sacrificial animal is brought.

In order to receive much more than you already have, you must first be true and faithful to all you have already been given. It is fanciful to imagine that you can be true and faithful to what you cannot even describe. Writing things down is a first step to concretizing what it is you believe. Beyond being a rich source for additional questions, what you write also becomes your own personal tablets cut from the mountain. It defines what it means for you personally to live according to everything you understand about God.

Too many people balk at the notion of spending significant amounts of time writing, pondering, and curating what God has taught them. And it is no wonder why these people don't receive more, and reject greater things when they are expensively obtained and neatly packaged for them by others.

Before you seek more understanding from God, you should ask yourself what you have done with what he has given you already.