2.314 I Love to Learn

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. You ever heard the phrase, "you can't take it with you when you die"? Well, maybe there are a few things we need to take with us.

Welcome to our readings this week. We're reading Doctrine and Covenants, sections 129 through 132. We are so close to wrapping up the Doctrine and Covenants.

We're also reading this week kind of a smattering of the Book of Mormon, so I don't know if I'll repeat this every time this week, but we're reading this week 3 Nephi 29 through 30. We're finishing 3 Nephi, 4 Nephi chapter 1, and Mormon chapters 1 through 2. Sounds like a bunch of reading, but there's kind of some small bits inside of there, but basically 3 Nephi 29 to Mormon chapter 2 is how I'll phrase that the rest of this week.

There's an old story that goes, you know, two guys pass away and they get up to heaven, and they're sitting there chatting with each other, and one guy says to the other, "How much did you leave behind?" And the second guy responds, "All of it." I don't know if you ever heard that one before, but when we pass away, it's common for all of us to understand that we leave behind all of the material things in our lives. But the Lord does not make us leave everything behind. And that's what I want to take a look at as we look at our reading today.

Just a heads up on Doctrine and Covenants this week. We are — it's almost like Joseph Smith gets to a point in his life where he's like, "Oh yeah, I need to just drop these insane, massive doctrinal, single-phrase comments on everybody." At least that's how I feel when I read Doctrine and Covenants sections 129 through 132. So just a, just a heads up.

If you want to study angelic visitations, the earth celestialized, the law of obedience, the nature of God, The New and Everlasting Covenant, The Sealing Power of Earth and Heaven, Plural Marriage. Take your pick. Those are just a few of the topics inside of our Doctrine and Covenants reading this week.

So just a heads up, Savory Salt is definitely not designed to go historically into every one of these topics. That's what you and your own scripture study are for. We're going to try and stay in the realm of, "What does it mean for us to be a little more savory?" How can we just be a little bit better as we go forward as disciples of Jesus Christ?

So I will leave all of the deep and heavy doctrinal study pieces to you and your own historical readings, and instead try to say, "What does it mean for me today?" That's where we're going to try and stay as we read this week, because there are definitely massive doctrinal pieces in here that could take entire, well, I'm sure you listened to other podcasts that do take hours on end to discuss these things historically. Instead, let's take a look at our verse for today and see what we can learn from it and how it can change us today. Our verse for today is in Doctrine and Covenants, section 130, verse 18.

It says, "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection." My friends, there are things we can take with us from this life. And this verse tells us one of them. Intelligence.

There is a reason for you and for me to study. There's a reason for us to learn. What should we learn?

We should learn all things that can bring us further intelligence. So if you're in the mindset that — and look, this, I'm speaking to adults and to teens and to kids as well. If you're in the mindset of like, "Ah, what do I need to learn that for?" It may not seem like it has eternal consequence in your life, but that gaining of intelligence, you get to bring along as you pass through the veil and as you die.

So what level of intelligence would you like to be at? I hope it's at whatever high level you could absolutely possibly attain. I know that, for an example that comes to mind for me, my dad, in terms of kind of the lens of the world, my dad did not acquire the accolades of men.

Okay. He worked at the United States Postal Service. He was there for 35 plus years—38, I think it was, 37, 38 years, right?

Worked as a postal worker. But my dad read.