Mind Your Language!

Oh, boy, it’s been a busy month! I never realized how much fitting college into my life would impact my time. Another thing I didn’t realize is that having all my time filled with the activities of life as well as the activities of study, especially things of a gospel nature, has expanded my thinking about life.

In one of my classes this week we discussed the principle of work. I had to look back on a time in my life where I was blessed by doing hard work. That was an easy one: The time I took to go to court reporting school and begin my career. It was very hard work, very time consuming, and the best thing I have ever done.

There is a principle most of us know: If we work and put ourselves into achieving something, whether it’s a goal or educational pursuits, we will actually gain more from the experience than if we were handed the accomplishment on a silver platter, no effort on our own part. There is a sense of satisfaction that only comes with doing the work.

In my other class we discussed the importance of knowing and understanding our written language. I know this is hard for some, and I’ll just say math is my nemesis. All of my friends who are court reporters or teachers and others of that nature fuss with the minute details of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Yes, those things are important. But what I am really referring to here is having a written language so we can teach our children to understand and write it as well. Anyone ever play the telephone game? The more people you have in that game, the less likely the last person will state the same thing the first person stated. It’s fun but also very revealing about how carefully we listen and verbally share the things we hear. Thank goodness for court reporters who listen and then WRITE IT DOWN.

My husband will sit in a Sunday school class, back row, staring at his iPad. No, he’s not checking Facebook. He likes to use that time to study Greek. When he was a middle schooler, he did poorly in a Spanish class and decided he had no aptitude for learning new languages. When he was filling out mission papers, he requested an English-speaking mission because he knew he would never be able to learn a different language. He was sent to Fukuoka, Japan. After nearly 18 months in Japan, he was speaking with near-native fluency. That was a lesson and a testimony building experience for him as he learned that if God needs him to learn a new language, he can do it. The experience also changed the self-talk he had been speaking for half a dozen years. He now knew that he does have an aptitude for learning new languages.

Speaking of writing things down, this summer I finished reading the Book of Mormon again. I love it more every time I read. I can’t wait to sit at the feet of those who sacrificed to preserve these records for us. Now I am studying the Book of Mormon again in college. I so appreciate the time and talents and inspiration of those who put together the Institute manual we use alongside our reading because the manual offers great insights and better understanding as I read.

How lucky are we to have the scriptures anywhere and everywhere with the press of a finger on a touch screen? One of my personal goals is to make that a wonderful thing in my life rather than a “Oh, I have to read the scriptures” kind of thing. Elder Neal A. Maxwell talked years ago about our handy little "quads" we use that contains all of our scriptures. He warned that since we know there will be more to come one day, we might be carrying around "little red wagons" of scripture. How wonderful that we have this technology that enables us to have them fit in the palms of our hands.

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!