The gist of the principle of the wood chop is: When splitting a piece of wood with an ax, a person needs to focus completely on the job at hand and concentrate great effort to get the job done. I believe the Lord has tried to teach His children this principle on many occasions because He loves us and He knows that making progress brings us joy.
Proverbs 10:4 says, "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich." A diligent hand "maketh rich"; gets things done so that progress is made. A "slack hand" or half-hearted effort causes lack of progress, or to become poor. Just putting in time isn't the same as focusing on getting the job done. If you noticed, I was using a machete on that piece of wood, which would take forever.
Just putting in time isn't the same as focusing on getting the job done. Today I will discuss three specific roles to which the principle of the wood chop applies: first, to your current role as a student at BYU-Idaho; second, to the role we have in our families; and third, to our role as disciples of Jesus Christ.
First, the role of a student.
I hope you'll forgive some personal references, but I want you to know how much I love this place and the people who come here.I learned how to chop wood as a boy in Oregon. I started to understand the principle of the wood chop as a Ricks College student. At seventeen I came to Rexburg and began my college education.I lived in a basement apartment with three other guys at 156.5 East 2nd South. I met my wife in the 1st Ward. She later said that she chose to date the least ugly guy passing the sacrament.
I was a boy who came to Ricks College sporting a shiny 2.3 high school GPA. Academically, I had gone through the motions of gaining an education. Perhaps the best adjective to describe my academic performance in high school is 'mediocre', or maybe even better, "slack handed". I decided that I was going to do better in college. I attended all my classes. I did my reading and my homework. I had great teachers like Paul Nye and Gerald Oldham.
One day Brother Nye asked me to stay after American Heritage class for a minute. He said, "Marion, you scored in the 97th percentile on this test. This is a nationally normed test, and students at top universities take this test. You're competing with the big boys and doing very well. I just wanted you to understand how well you're doing." I left the classroom thinking, "Really?!" After that day, instead of reading the assigned chapter once, I read each chapter twice before taking the tests. What we used to refer to as "The Spirit of Ricks" is the miracle that happened to me thanks to Brother Nye.
I have seen it happen in the lives of many students who have been blessed by this campus. It is the spirit of awakening to our potential and understanding that the difference between failure, mediocrity, and excellence lies within the purview of our agency to choose either to benefit from "each shining moment" or to "let them pass us by." We did not come to this campus to learn or to practice mediocrity.
In Brother Oldham's Heredity class on the first day he said, "I can pretty much give you all your final grade today, but we'll go through the semester and by the end you will learn that I know most of you. The people here on the first two rows will get the A's. The people just above them will get the B's. All you people up there in the middle will get the C's and you people way up at the top, you will get the D's and F's." Of course, you can guess where I was sitting. I knew from my high school experience what kind of a student I was. I was sitting way up at the top but I said to myself that day, "He doesn't know me. He can't determine my grade on the first day. I'll show him." I worked my heart out to prove him wrong and got an A in the class from the back of the room.
It was hard, but I learned a lesson. I had never really realized how many distractions there are in a classroom between the back and the front. After that, I never chose to sit at the back of any college classroom. My GPA started to climb. The next verse in Proverbs, chapter 10 says, "He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame." There are certain seasons of our lives when there is work to be done that only applies to that season. We must focus completely on the job at hand and concentrate great effort to effectively get the job done.
Thank you Brother Oldham for teaching me to ask myself, "Do I really want to choose to put distractions between me and the task at hand?" Doctrine and Covenants 45:26 says, "And in that day...the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men's hearts shall fail them." This refers to our day and there is great commotion in the whole earth." In our society and I dare to say, on our campus, the distractions you face are like never before in the history of the world. Distractions will rob you of excellence. Distractions will stop you from accomplishing what you set out to do. Distractions will stop you from being who you want to be.
President Hinckley said, "Don't be a scrub". President Kimball said, "Do it!" In the words oft quoted by President McKay, "What e're thou art, act well thy part." Now is the season to apply the principle of the wood chop to your role as a BYU-Idaho student, especially during finals week.
Second, the role in the family
I wish to share something more precious than pearls, very personal, with the hope of conveying this message clearly. During the time of our courtship and engagement, my wife shared her patriarchal blessing with me. One phrase of it states, "I bless you with the prospect of a home surrounded with righteousness in union with one who will honor the priesthood and build with you a home where the peace of the gospel will prevail over the sins of the world." I thought to myself, "Can that possibly be me? Where and how could we build such a home?"
We met at Ricks College and dated a year and a half before I left on my mission. We married six months after my mission. We started our lives together with a $700 car, a $700 ring, and a $700 a month job in a plywood mill. We also started our lives together with a rich vision of the type of home we wanted to build together. We sat down and set goals for the number of children we wanted, the kind of people we wanted them to be and the kind of people we wanted to be.
We had read a book together about President McKay, the prophet of our youth, and Sister McKay. We set goals to treat each other like the McKays; to have a life-long love affair. Perhaps most influential, we started our lives together having lived in homes where parents loved each other and loved the Savior. We were rich! We found a little plot of land in the middle of the woods where the peace of the gospel could prevail.
With a loving and knowledgeable father to guide us (my carpenter dad, the guy up there on top of the forms), and a year of hard work on our part, aside from our other jobs and callings, we built together our physical home where we raised our children. For 20 some years, we cut, split, hauled, and burned enough firewood from the surrounding woods to heat our home through the winters. I had much time to contemplate the principle of the wood chop.
Not only is marriage between a man and a woman ordained of God, but a happy marriage between a man and woman is His plan for His children. You know the doctrine but let me read you excerpts from a string of scriptures that convey what Heavenly Father wants for us and our families.
"A ... man shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh."[1]
"He that loveth his wife loveth himself."[2]
"Let thy soul delight in thy husband."[3]
"Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart."[4]
"Thou shalt live together in love."[5]
Too often we hear the lame, mediocre, slack-handed excuse to give up on marriage: "We just drifted apart. We just aren't the same people we were when we fell in love." My wife and I started our life together with a rich vision. We had a distant dream we were working toward and we've worked every day together toward our goals. If you set your sights on a star and you work together in the same spaceship every day to reach that star, you will not drift apart, but will truly become one. The day of our marriage in the Idaho Falls Temple, after everyone else had congratulated us and left the room, my mother hugged me and said, "Son, a celestial marriage was not made today. A celestial marriage is made every day for the rest of your life."
With a loving and knowledgeable father (our Heavenly Father) to guide us, and a lifetime of hard work on our part; we can do it. I treasure every Scripture Story Time, every Mom's Minute, every family prayer, every scripture reading at the breakfast table, every Family Home Evening, every moment of really being at home with my family more than any other moment or memory of life.
I'm not so grateful for moments that I was there, but not really present. This life is the time to apply the principle of the wood chop in our families. It requires attention and effort. "Do it!" It takes chop after chop of concerted effort. Your family deserves no less.
Third, the role as a disciple of Jesus Christ
In the recent general conference, Elder David A. Bednar said that true conversion,"...includes a conscious commitment to become a disciple of Christ." The word "conscious" is important. He explained that, quote: "The essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ entails a fundamental and permanent change in our very nature made possible through the Savior's Atonement." Elder Bednar explained that this change, for many of us, happens, quote: "Gradually and almost imperceptibly" as we "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ" and endure in faith to the end.
I suggest that the opposite is also true. We stray from the path "gradually and almost imperceptibly" by allowing ourselves to be distracted at key moments. We need to consciously make good decisions in our quest to become disciples of Christ. As we do so, gradually and imperceptibly, we can become more like our Savior and by so doing, gain eternal life.
Almost exactly two decades ago, President Henry B. Eyring was assigned to visit our stake (The Rainier Oregon Stake) for a stake conference. At that time he was serving in the Presiding Bishopric of the Church. He stayed in our home in the woods and sat at our table and talked with us and our children. As a newly called stake president, I privately sought his counsel regarding a member of the stake. He told me a story about when he was a young bishop and sought counsel from then President Spencer W. Kimball.
After explaining the situation he was facing and asking President Kimball what he should do, President Eyring expected a clear answer of profound wisdom. He was surprised when President Kimball started to ask him a string of what seemed to be trivial questions about the member that Bishop Eyring was concerned about. Does he come to all his meetings? Does he arrive early or late? Does he sit in the front or the back? Does he participate in classes or just observe? And so the questions went.
That little story has profoundly impacted my life. I think of it often as I make small, but conscious decisions. Alma 37:6 says, "Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." Great things, like eternal life, hinge on our small choices. Small choices are at first "conscious," effortful decisions, but eventually in our quest to be true disciples of Christ, they become part of our very nature.
Thank you for attending devotional, a conscious decision. Thank you for really being here, not just physically. Thank you for coming early and staying to the end, unless there are very exceptional circumstances. Those seemingly small conscious choices, with practice, eventually will become part of your very nature.
Then, with Christ-like perspective, your heart will turn from a focus on yourself to helping others. You will not want to come in late or leave early to a sacrament meeting, a class, and a devotional because you would never want to be a distraction to others or especially to detract from the spirit of the meeting. Some may suppose these seemingly trivial things are foolishness.
Thank you President Eyring for that little story about seemingly little, trivial questions. With the recent announcement that eighteen-year-old young men will be called to serve missions, I have reflected on the experience of being a mission president in the Mexico Culiacan Mission. Little shout-out to my missionaries a few or some are here today, thank you. I love my missionaries. Young men in Mexico have been serving, and have been being called at the age of eighteen for a long time. I testify that eighteen-year-olds can be and are marvelous, effective missionaries.
My greatest concern as a mission president was not for the group of missionaries who were eighteen-year-olds. We're going to have many more sister missionaries. We only had one problem with our sister missionaries and that was that we just didn't have enough of them. Every sister missionary in our mission was wonderful. I'm not worried about the sisters.
As a mission president, my greatest concern for a group of missionaries was for the young men who had grown up in the Church and were just fulfilling missions as a cultural tradition-just going through the motions, putting in their time. If you aren't prepared with the right tools and you have an attitude that you are just there to put in your time; the work won't get done and the joy won't be there. I love what President Thueson said last week at devotional: "If you work your mission hard, it's easy; if you work your mission easy, it's hard." Thank you President Thueson for giving my talk for me.
I think that applies to our role as student, our role in our family and to being disciples of Jesus Christ. When I think of half-hearted effort, this scripture comes to mind: Revelations 3:15 "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art luke-warm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." The greatest concern was, and my greatest concern is for Heavenly Father's children who have the gospel and take it for granted; as if it were a health club from which to gain benefit at their convenience and whim.
They float in and out of dedication depending on whether the world's distractions are tantalizing them at a given moment. I could cite research on the limited capacity of the human mind to focus on more than one task, but suffice it to say, the Lord knew what he was talking about when he said, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." You can physically be in class, with your family, or in Sacrament Meeting, but whatever your heart and mind are focused on indicates what you treasure.
Now, I'm not saying that it's a sin to text, to watch a video, to talk to a friend, or even play a video game, but what I am saying is you need to choose what the priority is at the moment. Allowing your mind to be distracted will rob you of the experience you came to get. It's interesting that in the very next verse in Matthew, right after the Lord warns us that where our treasure is, our heart will be also, he says, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."
If during the sacrament you are envisioning the Savior walking dusty roads, picturing His example of complete dedication for us, contemplating how your life's walk can be more like His-then you are benefiting as you take the bread in memory of His body and His life. If you are looking at your cell phone, iPad, or envisioning what you'll have for dinner, then you are choosing to let commotion rob you of what you came to get. I learned that sitting at the back of the room put many distractions between me and the learning I was there to get. This "commotion", this temptation to not focus on the immediate purpose at hand will eventually cause "men's hearts to fail them."
Consciously choose not to let distractions come between you and what you came to get. "Gradually and almost imperceptibly," in Elder Bednar's words. Through small choices, we can let our discipleship get away. Peter walked on water until he diverted his gaze, lost focus and faith, and began to sink. Referring to Peter, Elder Bednar noted, quote: "Interestingly, this mighty Apostle had talked and walked with the Master, had witnessed many miracles, and had a strong testimony of the Savior's divinity. Yet, even Peter needed additional instruction from Jesus about the converting and sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost and his obligation to serve faithfully.
I see a parallel between Peter and many of us. For a season, we have strong testimonies and serve faithfully, but then the situation changes, (perhaps we're released from a calling, or from a mission, or we leave the surroundings of BYU-Idaho) and, like Peter, in transition we become susceptible to becoming distracted. The Savior reminded Peter that he had bigger things to do than to "go a fishin'." The Savior reminded him that his own progress depended on his obligation to serve faithfully. Like Peter, to be true disciples, we must be willing to serve Christ with all our "heart, might, mind, and strength." Will it be a sacrifice? Sometimes it will seem so in the moment, until later we realize that that small investment paid miraculous dividends.
For years my wife was known in our ward as Sister Music. She spent hours preparing charts and visuals to teach Primary children through song. Everywhere we went in the car, we would sing Primary songs. Those songs and the doctrine contained therein have sunk deep in our hearts and become part of us. That calling brought our family miraculous dividends towards the goals my wife and I had established.
As a different example, I remember one of my children voicing what probably all were thinking, "Dad, why do we always have to help Sister Pearson with her fire wood?" A few weeks ago, my son, the one who had presented this question to me when he was a young man, who is now serving as Young Men President in his branch, hand dug a grave for a deceased member of their branch with the help of his twelve-year-old son and the young men of the branch. I'm so proud of the man, the husband and father, my son has become. His son questioned him why they needed to dig a grave. Every calling, every service, every supposed sacrifice has repaid itself ten times over to our family in the quest for our eternal star. Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley said, "Our assignments are varied and they change from time to time. Don't take them lightly. Give them your full attention, your full heart and energy. Do them with enthusiasm. Do whatever you have to do this week with your whole heart and soul. To do less than this will leave you with an empty feeling."
Every small but conscious decision, completed with focus and effort, is a chop toward getting the job done. I wish you success as students at BYU-Idaho. I wish you great happiness in your families. I pray that you have true joy in your walk to become more like Jesus Christ through being His true disciples. Chop away. I testify that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Notes
[1] Ephesians 5:31
[2] Ephesians 5:28
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 25:14
[4] Doctrine and Covenants 42:22
[5] Doctrine and Covenants 42:45