Thoughts from three favorites

Bro. Bott was teaching us today why missionaries are so irresistible. People fall in love with the mantle. They exude love because they are so steeped in the Spirit and God is love (1 John 4:16). He told us a lot of sad stories about elders screwing their lives up because they didn’t understand that girls were only falling in love with the mantle. He shared this excellent McKay quote:

There is one responsibility which no man can evade and that responsibility is personal influence. Man's unconscious influence, unconscious influence, the silent, subtle radiation of his personality. The effect of his words and acts. These are tremendous. Every moment of life he is changing to a degree the life of the whole world.
Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other. Man cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character. This constantly weakening or strengthening of others. He cannot evade the responsibility by saying it is an unconscious influence. He can select the qualities he would permit to be radiated. He can cultivate sweetness, calmness, trust, generosity, truth, justice, loyalty, nobility, and make them vitally active in his character. By these qualities he will constantly affect the world. This radiation to which I [4] refer comes from what a person really is, not from what he pretends to be. Every man by his mere living is radiating sympathy, sorrow, or morbidness, cynicism, or happiness or hope, or any other hundred qualities. Life is a state of radiation and absorption. To exist is to radiate. To exist is to be the recipient of radiation.

(full address: http://education.byu.edu/mckay/48apr27.html)

Then he said, “You people all think finding a mate is so hard. It’s really not. You sit down and figure out what characteristics you want in your mate. Then you incorporate them into your own personality. Then you just walk across campus and just radiate. D&C 88:40. Write it down. ‘Like attracts like.’ Some of you guys out there like anything that wears a skirt, but not most of you. You attract and are attracted to people who radiate the same characteristics.”

Old Testament was Micah and some 2 Kings. Bro. Merrill says these are some of his favorite, most beautifully tender verses in the Old Testament—Micah 6:6-8:
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the most high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Bro. Merrill’s commentary: “Does God want a lot? No. He wants everything. [I’m hearing some Lewis.] Look at D&C 11:12. Are you all as excited as I am for General Conference? I’m not expecting huge guidance. I’m not expecting to hear the exodus to Missouri announced. But I’m excited…We hear the same things at conference all the time. God isn’t asking us to get on our knees and walk to Kirtland. But in some ways, I think it would be easier to give up all my worldly wealth and walk to Nauvoo.”

How gratifying that great minds sometimes share my thoughts.

We've been discussing suffering in Shakespeare, as found in King Lear, and my teacher had a few good thoughts:
Everyone suffers in the play. How do they all respond? Edmund gets violent and treacherous. Edgar and Kent reach outside of themselves to serve others.
"What is the price of your soul? What does it take to get you all worked up about something to the point that it's all you can think about?"
"You can't suffer meaningfully and move on if you're holding a grudge."
Theme of identity/self-knowledge: You gain knowledge, positive and negative, about yourself, your limits, and your resources, but only after you go through something hard.
"You can't control the world, but you can adopt a more helpful attitude about it. Accept that you're going to experience some senseless suffering. Edgar: 'Men must endure Their going hence even as their coming hither. Ripeness is all.' So many of us have the mindset that 'if I follow the laws and commandments, I am shielded and I will be blessed.'" This is true, to a degree. But it can lead you into a false sense of security and then you're resentful when you do suffer and you miss out on your growth opportunities.

I LOVE LITERATURE!!! I sit there in class and I'm amazed that the discussions we have actually count as school.