Next week, we’ll be starting the new manual for the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church. I, personally, am very excited, as I really love this year’s prophet, President Spencer W. Kimball. Although President Hinckley has been the prophet for the entire time I have been a member of the church, I read The Miracle of Forgiveness early in my membership and found it quite inspiring. Since then, I have read and reread it on a frequent basis. I love President Kimball’s up-front, straight-forward way of speaking, and have a strong testimony that he was called as a prophet of God.
The first lesson we will discuss in our Relief Society and Priesthood classes will be about finding our way back to God, and I’ll address that next week, prior to the lesson actually being taught at church. This week, I’d like to urge you to take a brief peek at the preliminary section, entitled “The Life and Ministry of Spencer W. Kimball.” This historical section outlines the details of the prophet’s life.
Why should we read this section? Well, other than finding out what the mysterious ‘W’ stands for (Woolley), we also learn many details that will help us as we consider the stories in President Kimball’s life. We learn about his history and his family. We learn about the first time he lived outside of the Salt Lake Valley, among a group of people who were not all Latter-day Saints. These stories both give us a context for Spencer Kimball the man, and give us a context for the ‘from the life of’ sections that precede each chapter.
For instance, in chapter 13 (I told you I was a nerd; I’ve been reading the manual over the Christmas holidays and loving it), we learn about President Kimball’s heart operation in 1972. The short version is that the doctors told President Kimball that heart surgery in a 77 year old man would be a chancy operation.
As a weary President Kimball responded, ‘I am an old man and ready to die,’ President Lee interrupted. He rose to his feet, pounded his fist to the desk, and said, with his prophetic power, ‘Spencer, you have been called! You are not to die! You are to do everything you need to do to care for yourself and continue to live.’
“President Kimball replied, ‘Then I will have the operation.’
The manual tells us here that the outcome is well known, but to those of us who are converts or who were not alive at the time, the outcome may be fuzzy. We might surmise that President Kimball lived. However, if we had read the history, we would already know that President Kimball not only survived, he survived for thirteen years. This further makes the recovery even more miraculous.
Of course, the gospel lessons that President Kimball preaches are timeless. Do we have to read the history of one man to understand the events in his life and the statements he made? No. But as we read, as we learn more, I think your testimony will grow stronger. And who couldn’t use a stronger testimony? You will see a life that you may well want to model your own after. And who couldn’t use more positive role models? You will learn a little more about a great spiritual leader. And who couldn’t use a bit more knowledge?
All of these are great reasons, but since I’m a mom, I’ll give you my most-used response: you should do it because I said so.
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