Bucket list 39 – learning by example

June 15, 2014

One of the most universal experiences we have as humans is learning by example. When I was five years old we lived in the white house in Concho. I didn’t know, consciously that I was two years younger than my brother, Glenn, who was the youngest of the group of boys in town. Nothing was ever thought of that we couldn’t figure out how to do. That is exactly how I got stung by a wasp as I was on a twelve foot ladder getting ready to climb into the old, old attic of the white house. I am not sure, but I do believe they would treat me kind of like Mikey on the life cereal advertisement – let Mikey do it. He will do anything. That is probably how I learned to fly cats in a highly engineered parachute from the top of the wind mill. That is exactly how, when mother and dad said they would give us $100 (that was a fortune in 1950.) if we would learn Spanish, we went out and learned all the cuss words our Hispanic friends knew, which was a mouthful.

We learned millions of things over the last seven decades by examples from others; mostly good, but mingled in with all the good there are tons of things that I learned that plague me to this day. Things that I detest having in my memory banks, but realize that they are permanently imbedded and will rise with me on the morning of the first resurrection as part of my book of life. I am not going to give a laundry list; we all have our mental and spiritual understanding of the things referred to in Moroni 10:32 in the Book of Mormon: “Yea, come unto Christ and be perfected in him and deny yourself of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by His grace you may be perfect in Christ;

This is the lesson that is given time after time in all God’s scriptures. That is exactly why we are encouraged to participate in worship services, to serve others, to listen and act on the promptings of the Holy Ghost (Spirit). When we learn positive and meaningful things, then we relearn them daily through using them as examples in our lives for good, we grow. When we learn the dirty words from “friends” eager to bring a little dirt into our lives, we retreat from the Spirit of Christ and begin to deny his reality.

I believe the means of achieving a meaningful life is to seek out and follow examples that will uplift and strengthen our thoughts and actions. I listened to talks in Church today that brought me to a beautiful place. The speakers were not great orators in the manner of theologians, or politicians. They were just a young couple that told the story of their experiences in growing closer to Christ. They told how the husband had fallen away from spirituality in his youth and learned many bad habits from those who always seem to be around and ready to do damage. While in the midst of this life trial he sought out a friend who ended up blessing his life by providing good examples, giving his spiritual strength, helping him restore his faith in God, marrying him, and building a wonderful family.

I was going to visit about how we can improve the examples we surround ourselves with in our daily activities, but I found these experiences to be super valuable to me and wanted to get them on paper before I can no longer express my thoughts. Next week I will get into how this relates so directly and completely to the educational experiences our children and grandchildren glean.

We, as a nation of searchers, are facing dilemmas and crises at the highest levels of government, business, and community; as well as in our education systems. We must band together from all sectors of life, from all beliefs, from all spiritual persuasions, and give our children and grandchildren opportunities for learning from examples that are consistent with truth, honor, and freedom.

God bless each of us as we work for a better tomorrow.

Duane Jacobs, grandfather, father, uncle, cousin, brother, and friend