CH3 - The Greatest Revelation: Approaching Skills

[Erudite]

"I refer to these here not only as attributes of Christ, but as approaching skills of love. They are 'approaching' because they are the skills we need not only to approach one another, but ultimately to approach the Lord with purity" (p. 46).

Isn't that powerful? This was an amazing section for me. I was reading it on the plane and sat back to think about how to work harder on these skills. I turned at some point back to the scriptures where I was reading in 1 Nephi and discovered that Lehi's example in 1 Nephi 8 shows perfect application of nearly every attribute on the list. When you are studying this chapter, I highly recommend looking at Lehi as a parent in using these skills.

I wonder if we want a different thread for each of the approaching skills. I would love to hear what happens in the day when you are specifically practicing a particular skill. I know that we can all learn from each other in doing so and each of us can get better at each of the attributes. Yes...I think that's what I'll do. This will get very convoluted if we try to discuss all 9 here. I'll just end with what Dr. Lund said right after the above quote.

"Living these principles of righteousness gives us the ability to "reprove betimes with sharpness" and do it so as not to offend the Holy Ghost." I know that as I've strived harder to react only when prompted by the Holy Ghost, I stay in much more control and bless my family as a result. I'd love hear if you have had similar experiences in feeling the prompting of the Holy Ghost to react a specific way.

[5ft Diva]

I think this is a fabulous idea, Erudite. I look forward to what everyone says.

The Holy Ghost has just simply encouraged me to slow down and stop bull-dozing through my kids' lives. They aren't at my level of understanding and so I need to slow down when teaching them concepts. This is very hard for me. I have been taught that I need to take things slowly and the Holy Ghost reminds me that my children are learning and learning takes time. In fact, yesterday I was having a conversation w/ one of my boys (it was a very long one - and it should've been) and then all of a sudden I felt impressed to stop because my son had all that he could handle in his brain and felt I should continue the rest of the conversation later once he was able to digest the concepts we'd just talked about. To me this was putting all of the qualities into practice but mostly I felt I was working on long suffering. It would be so much easier for me to just lay it all out in 5 minutes but then that's me deciding for him what he's going to do and how he'll do it. He' won't learn anything. Sorry if this doesn't make sense.

I know for some people this doesn't necessarily fit the bill of long suffering but if you know me, this is exactly what it is because it's gonna happen over and over for a while.....with all of my kids.

[Erudite]

Hey everyone...feel free to jump in here on chapter 3. I haven't been finding the time to get threads for all the approaching skills going (let alone consider how to practice them) but if you have...share!