Before I get to this week's BASOTRUSSL (Blog About Something Only Tangentially Related to the Upcoming Sunday School Lesson), a few notes about the last one (which was posted two weeks ago; there was no post last week due to General Conference--more on that in a minute).
In the section on George Albert Smith, I referred to the "You are late"/"But I am clean" story. My friend Petey pointed out that this is actually a Joseph F. Smith story; I was likely thinking of the "What have you done with my name?" story. The Joseph F. dream is better than the George Albert dream, though either way I don't think it would have impacted the rankings. But it's an embarrassing mistake. More on George Albert Smith later on as well.
In that post I also alluded to a negative experience I had with Joseph Fielding McConkie. I just found out that he passed away earlier this week, and now I feel guilty. Not like what I wrote contributed to his death or anything even close to that, but guilty of being negative. I didn't give any details and wasn't overly critical, but this was a situation where following the mantra "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" would have been better.Once again, more on this topic coming up later in the post.
Ok. On to this week's stuff.
In years like this one where we cover the Doctrine and Covenants in Gospel Doctrine, the curriculum also includes a small booklet called Our Heritage. Published in 1996, it's a brief overview of LDS history from the birth of Joseph Smith in 1805, through 1995. The book is just 146 pages; the first 65 cover the life of Joseph Smith and associated events, and another 26 are devoted to Brigham Young's term as church president (ending with his death in 1877). That leaves just 55 pages for the next 120-ish years of church history. Needless to say, no single topic or person from that time period is covered in extensive detail.
A portion of this quick historical summary is included with the assigned reading for this week's Sunday School lesson. Mentioned almost in passing is this about the aforementioned George Albert Smith, who had a long history of health problems: "The doctor's order of complete rest eroded his self-confidence, created feelings of worthlessness, and aggravated his tension" (p. 111).
I've likely read that sentence at least four times (once each in 2001, 2005, 2009, and 2013, as this lesson came up each time in the four-year cycle), but paid it little attention other than to think "George Albert Smith was sick a lot. That must have been hard."
The point was driven home much more forcefully in Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk at General Conference last week. In the first Conference talk (to my knowledge) to ever explicitly address and focus on mental illness, Elder Holland mentioned that "George Albert Smith...one of the most gentle and Christlike men of our dispensation...battled recurring depression for some years before later becoming the universally beloved eighth prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
I have fortunately never had to deal with depression of this sort, but I know people who are doing so or have in the past. I recommend the study of this sermon to everyone (and all of the other Conference talks; the text and video are already online. but read Elder Holland's first). It can provide encouragement to those who are struggling with this trial, showing through the example of George Albert Smith and others that it is possible to overcome and to thrive, and promising the blessings of the Lord to sustain you while you endure.
It also gives wise counsel for those of us who don't. Basically, it boils down to: Be kind. Don't judge. Listen. Offer help. Pray for them. Overall, just...be nice! It's what I should've done when writing that previous post. If you had to distill a take-home message from Elder Holland's talk down to just one sentence, you couldn't do better than these sage time-traveling poets:
No comments:
Post a Comment