Being fed spiritually is similar to being fed physically. My favorite restaurant is the "Roof," located on top of the Joseph Smith Building. It is my favorite, because it is an all-you-can-eat buffet. There is something about Mormons, when they get around free food, or buffet food, that they think they must eat it all. That is sort of what is happening here at BYU this week.
A smorgasbord of classes are spread in front of you and you can hardly contain yourself.
There are as many strategies for partaking spiritually as there are for partaking physically. Some years we have tried to go to a class every single hour. That is 10 classes a day for four days with an additional six classes on Monday. Imagine listening to 46 presentations that are tailor-made to lift you up spiritually and fill your soul. Other years we go to fewer classes and it seems like we spend more time eating and shopping then we do in class. That is the magic of Education Week. You can make it what you want it to be.
Our strategy this year is to try as many new teachers as we can.
Everyone connects to a different teacher for a variety of different reasons.
Since my wife and I have two of our daughters with us this year, we started Wednesday in a youth class. It might be strange for two old people to attend Andy Horton's youth class on controlling your thoughts. Since my daughters are as interested in the guys around them as they are with the message, they probably were not too hip on us following them. Even though the class was tailored to the thousands of youth that are attending this year, we were able to find many gems that will help us. Controlling our thoughts is something we must all do regardless of age.
I wished that everyone in my ward could hear the presentation by Celeste Elain Witt. She stated that very few of us can remember even one talk given in Sacrament Meeting that had an impacted in our lives. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we do not focus enough on preparing and presenting moving messages for church that can move us spiritually. No talk should ever be given without Christ as the focus. It is through the message of Him that real healing can take place.
Iwas a little nervous to attend a presentation by Colleen Covey Brown. I wondered if she kept the Covey in her name because she was riding on the coat-tails of her successful father, Steven Covey. I see that so often, so I was a little apprehensive. Her topic was journal writing, which is not one of my strong points. I must have 20 journals, which I have started and wrote a page or two and then put aside because I got so busy. I tell you, Sister Brown was absolutely amazing and certainly can stand on her own as a presenter. Her simple solutions were encouraging and has motivated me to start a new journal. Maybe I will actually fill this journal up, thanks to her wonderful class.
Wednesday is almost over and now I am sitting where I started — on the top bleacher in the Smith Field house — listening to David A. Christensen teach several hundred youth at 9:30 at night. The faithful youth of the church are simply astounding. Of all the things they could be doing during the week before school starts, they are sitting at the feet of a good man, feeling the spirit as he teaches them how they could make their good lives even better. I am not sitting next to my daughters this time because tomorrow is the youth dance and I am hoping some of these great young men will be checking out my super great daughters. I have amazing daughters, and I am a protective father, but looking around, these young men pass the test.
Although I still might swing down to the dance tomorrow night just to make sure my daughters are alright!
(Darrell Robinson is from South Jordan, Utah. He has been married for 25 years and is the father of six children ranging from age 19 to 1. He is a professional educator and loves to spend time with his family.)