Today I read Genesis 12 which introduces us to Abraham in the Bible. When I was younger, before I read the Pearl of Great Price, specifically the book of Abraham, I had often wondered what was so special about Abraham? I mean, why was he made all those promises that his posterity would be as the sands of the sea and that his posterity would have the Priesthood and that they would possess the land of Canaan. It's really sad how much of the Bible is actually missing compared to how it was originally penned by the prophets. But like I said the Book of Abraham explains it quite nicely. The reason he was chosen, is because he sought out the things of God. Abraham tells us in his own record that he wanted something more than the idol worship of his fathers. He wanted the priesthood his ancestors had and he sought it out.
This raises the question about rearing verses personality. Now, I am a firm believer that how you are raised has a LOT to do with who you turn out to be. But I also believe that personality plays a huge role as well. Over the years I have had several friends who were adopted. All of them were loved and treated fairly and if it were a family of natural and adopted children they were loved the same. And yet they still let the fact that they were adopted ruin their lives and color their outlook on life. And then I had other friends who were adopted and you could never tell until they told you, they didn't let it affect them. In both cases they were treated well and given love and everything a child could want. The difference was their own personality. We always have a choice on how we are going to react to things, it's up to us to choose. Likewise, Abraham was brought up to offer human sacrifices to idols and his own father tried to offer him up as a sacrifice. Abraham rejected these teachings and instead desired the blessings of the Priesthood that he knew were out there.
Just like Abraham, we too have a choice and do not have to be products solely of our upbringing. We can make a choice if we had a bad childhood or even a good childhood. We can make the choice to not let it affect us and turn to our Savior to find peace in His rest. The choice is ours. Until tomorrow.
Great comments. I often think about "nurture vs nature" and the most important thing (I think) that we can teach our children is that they do have agency and that the decisions they make are theirs and theirs alone, which also means the consequences for their actions are theirs and theirs alone.
ReplyDeleteI see this contrasted in the way I was raised (my dad's response to "I'm bored!" was "It's your choice to be bored." or "You're so annoying!" - "It's your choice to be annoyed.") - we understood that we had agency and could choose what we wanted. As a result, two of my brothers freely left the church, and my other brother and sister and myself stayed in the Church. And we are all completely sure that what we chose is what we want.
My husband, on the other hand, was raised in a house where you weren't really allowed to make your own choices. Dad said go to church, so you went to church, whether or not you wanted to. Dad said believe in Jesus, so you at least said you believed in Jesus, whether you did or not. He struggles with feeling like he is his own person and feeling like he can make his own decisions because of this.
I wonder if Abraham's father (despite being apostate) taught Abraham that he was free to make his own choices.
Agency = my favorite part of this life.
Having watched my siblings children choose to leave the church over the years I've come to the conclusion that there are three types of spirits--first, the kind that can be put in any family situation and they will be righteous (such as Abraham); second, the kind that will be unrighteous no matter what situation (such as Cain, or Laman); third the kind that it matters what situation he/she is put in, if good they will be swayed to that, if bad they will be swayed to that. Probably not completely true or scientific, just my anecdotal observations. But it does come down to agency, which we get to fully exercise here on earth. What a difference it will make in the next life.
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