"Again??"

My son was doing Seminary the other day and he was a little frustrated and tired.

"Mom, Seminary is supposed to be fun.  I already know it all and the kids that get online for our Friday meeting are all tired so we don't have fun there either."

I felt sympathetic, knowing he was a good young man and knowing that this is one of the hard things of the Gospel: keeping going when it doesn't feel "fun" or when it just feels repetitious.

"Well," I said, drawing on something I had read or heard lately, "Maybe it is because we know it with our heads but are we doing what we know?  Maybe we just need the reminder?"

He shrugged and carried on but I can tell this answer was not one he wanted.

I have thought about this conversation since then and was folding my bedding up this morning when something hit me.  I ran into where the Goob was resting in bed after his early morning Seminary session.

"Hey!  It's like a weight lifter or a swimmer!  They go through the same strokes, again and again, or do the same exercises again and again, but each time, like the weight lifter, they add more weights. Only the process is spiritual and it is God that is adding the weight, creating that deeper strength as we do those repetitious exercises.

"Two people can sit in the same Sunday School lesson (do the same exercise) and one can be really pushing themselves to put on the "extra weight" or really humble themselves and open themselves up to what they can get out that lesson and the other is just going through the motions.

"Hey, that's cool, mom," the Goob replied thoughtfully.  "I really like that analogy.  Thanks."

As I left he called out, "You should share that with the world."

Here I am.  As sharing as I can get :).

I can open up my scriptures (picking up the bar or getting into the water) and then pray, ponder, study and apply (put on weights or add those flippers to create speed and strength) or I can just go through the motions (lift an empty bar...doggy paddle).  Which one will create that deeper spiritual strength, that increased capacity to discern spiritual truths?  Which one will make me ready to stand on that spiritual Olympic platform to inspire millions or prepare me for my part in the very real spiritual war that is raging even now in the hearts of men?

Do it.  Go to those classes, Do those ceremonies.  Read those scriptures and get on those knees and exercise those spiritual muscles. The world needs you.  Your family needs you.  I need you.  We all need each other.  No light is so small that, if it is shining, it does not have the capacity to light the lamp of another...

I met a stranger in the night, whose lamp had ceased to shine;

I paused and let him light his lamp from mine.

A tempest sprang up later on, and shook the world about,

And when the wind was gone, my lamp was out.

But back came to me the stranger—his lamp was glowing fine;

He held the precious flame and lighted mine.