A Scriptural Warning Against Navel Gazing and Hand Wringing

In our Sunday School class today, the parable of the nobleman and the olive trees in Doctrine and Covenants 101:43-62 was brought to our attention to help teach about following the prophets.  I hadn’t paid much attention to this story before, but it strongly underscores some things on my mind lately. 

This parable is meant, in the strictest context, to illustrate to the early Latter-day Saints the importance of helping to gather and establish Zion, as opposed to their general reluctance to do so previously.  The story has a nobleman with a field of olive trees, which he gives to the care of a staff of servants who are charged with building hedges and towers around it for security.  The servants promptly overanalyze their orders, debating its merits; after all, they say, this is a time of peace, and couldn’t the money be better spent on humanitarian projects (D&C 101:47-49)?  While they discoursed with each other, an enemy did come in and destroy the trees. 

Like all parables, this one would seem to have a broader application, as well.  If the Lord’s intention in telling this story was to impress upon us his “will concerning the redemption of Zion,” we could extend this to mean Zion in general, as in each of our families, wards, stakes, and the church’s spiritual condition overall.

The Book of Ether and “The Power Cycle”

Students of the Book of Mormon are familiar with the “pride cycle,” that part of Helaman edited to warn us about society’s tendency to become morally slack in times of wealth.  An equally important observation is given in the second half of Ether, a sequence that might be called “The Power Cycle,” or even “The Politics Cycle,” as it shows us the ruin brought upon communities when selfish leaders claw their way to the top by any means necessary. 

Mormon edited the pride cycle; the power cycle is the work of his son, Moroni, who writes it as a cold, hard overview of a civilization’s tragic tunnel vision, its refusal to learn and remember its own lessons.  Time and again over hundreds of years, those in authority indulge in petty games of power, to the detriment of their people, who themselves often fall into general wickedness as their leaders fail to guide them in more spiritual paths.  Moroni’s commentary in these chapters gives us some of the Book of Mormon’s clearest inspiration (the rejection of the prophet Ether’s ministry is Moroni’s launching point for his famous sermon about the power of faith) and direct instruction (such as his declarations in Ether 8 that he’s writing all of this so that readers in the last days will “repent of your sins” and “be persuaded to do good continually“).

Perhaps most significantly for contemporary readers, no specific ideology is identified with any of the scores of unworthy leaders who hinder their people over time–one bad leader is often overthrown by another who turns out to be equally bad.  Let’s remember this on election days.

Though I’ve added and changed some elements, my notes below are based mostly upon Hugh Nibley’s work, “The Prophetic Book of Mormon,” from the book of the same name.

 

THE POWER CYCLE	Greed/wickedness/lust for power	Prophets minister	People repent?	Result of repenting or not
Round 1	7:4-7	n/a	Yes, 7:13	Posterity, 7:14
2	7:15-17	7:23-24	Yes, 7:25-26	Prosperity & peace, 7:26-27
3	8:2-19, 9:1-11	n/a	n/a	Genocide/destruction, 9:12
4 –Happiness 9:13-25	9:26-27	9:28-29	Yes, 9:34-35	Revival, 9:35
5—Happiness, 10:1-4	10:5-15	n/a	n/a	Finally, a righteous leader / people prosper, 10:16
6—Happiness, 10:17-29	10:30-34	11:1-3	No: prophets rejected, 11:5	“Great calamity,” 11:6
7	11:7	n/a	Yes, 11:8	“mercy,” 11:8
8	11:10-11	11:12	No: prophets rejected, 11:13	Ongoing wickedness, 11:14-16
9	11:17-19	11:20-21	No: prophets rejected, 11:22	n/a (status quo)
10	n/a	12:2-3	No: Ether rejected, 13:13,17,22	“Great war,” 13:15 “Ceased not,” 13:22 Robbers, 13:26 Theft, paranoia, selfishness, 14:1-2 Total destruction, 15:12-30

Aaron’s Vestments, The Armor Of God, And The Modern Temple

One day in the temple this summer, I wondered if there might be any useful correlation between the clothing associated with the modern LDS endowment and Paul’s “armor of God.”   The concurrence between modern temple clothing and the vestments worn by Aaron in the Old Testament are obvious and commonly referenced in LDS literature on the subject (including Boyd K. Packer’s The Holy Temple), but I’ve never heard anyone mention the armor of God in connection with the temple. 

I looked up some scriptures and made the chart below.  My notes don’t seem to suggest any useful relationship–only three things had any kind of real parallel–but it was still interesting to research.  My private copy of these notes includes a final column for modern temple clothing items, which wouldn’t be appropriate to include here.  Endowed Latter-day Saints might enjoy trying to fill in that last part themselves, though.

Exodus 28	Item	Description	Order of wearing in Exodus 29:5-6	Ephesians 6	Item
28:4,13-30	Breastplate (including wreathen chains and Urim and Thummim)	Goes above the ephod and girdle (v 28)	4	6:14	Breastplate of righteousness
28:4,6-7,31-35	Ephod	Covers the loins	3	6:14	Loins girt with truth
28:4	Robe		2
28:4,39,40	Broidered coat		1
28:4,39,40	Mitre	Worn on the head	6	6:17	Helmet of salvation
28:4,8-12,39,40	Curious girdle		5
28:42	Linen breeches	“to cover their nakedness”
				6:15	Feet shod with gospel of peace
				6:16	Shield of faith
				6:17	Sword of the spirit

Job 1:5 On Parenting

Job 1:1 says that Job “was perfect and upright.”  Perhaps part of that is due to his exemplary parenting as shown in Job1:4-5: “And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.  And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.  Thus did Job continually.”

I see six aspects of Job as a father that are worthy of emulation here:

1. He “sanctified” his children, which probably means he performed priesthood ordinances directly for them.
2. He “rose up early in the morning,” showing his commitment to sacrifice his comfort and serve his children seriously.  This appears to be a formulaic commandment to disciples to prepare them and for them to show their devotion to the Lord in the scriptures (see fo example Exodus 8:20 and 1 Samuel 29:10). 
3. He offered burnt offerings for them, another example of his gospel-oriented labor for them.
4. He offered those sacrifices for all of them–there were no favorites and no empty chairs. 
5. Job said that he did these things because they might have sinned.  This was preventive maintenance.  No matter what their actual spiritual status may have been, Job wrestled spiritually for them as much as he could so that they might have all the4 blessings they might receive, for when they might need it. 
6. And Job did these things “continually.”  He didn’t let discouragement get to him, he didn’t let his own trials slow him down, and he never, ever gave up.

When I find verses of scripture that I really like, I’ve started looking them up on BYU’s excellent “Scriptural Index to the Latter-day Prophets,” where they show each instance of every verse of scripture being quoted in official teachings by church leaders, from Joseph Smith and other 19th century leaders in the Journal of Discourses, to more recent leaders in General Conference.  Strangely, Job 1:5 seems to have never been referenced in a major teaching setting. 

I hope that other parents will see counsel and comfort in this verse in the future.

Abraham 1:2

One of my favorite scriptures is Abraham 1:2, which I think lays out a great plan for a life well lived, a life of active holiness.  Here’s the text:

And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers.

 

There is an awful lot in there.  Consider the nature of the things Abraham set as his goals: he wanted emotional blessings (happiness and peace and rest), physical blessings (numerous posterity), mental blessings (great knowledge), and spiritual blessings (to be a follower of righteousness and a prince of peace). 

He tells us in this verse that he specifcally worked on these goals with certain activities that were designed to help him accomplish what he wanted, and that those exercises all boiled down to two things: keeping the commandments, and growing in the priesthood by utilizing it to perform ordinances for others (to “administer the blessings of the fathers”). 

Book of Moses Commentary Part V: What I Wish To Tell the Young Women of the Church

Moses 8:13-15 reads: “And Noah and his sons hearkened unto the Lord, and gave heed, and they were called the sons of God.  And when these men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of men saw that those daughters were fair, and they took them wives, even as they chose.  And the Lord said  unto Noah: The daughters of thy sons have sold themselves…”

This could have been written today.  The daughters of the sons of God were fair?  No kidding.  Everywhere I’ve seen, the local LDS young women tend to be among the most beautiful, the most talented, and the most wonderful girls there.  The sons of men wanted them?  Of course they did.  And still do.  Who wouldn’t?  Any guy in his right mind would want to be married to a Mormon girl.  And those fair daughters sold themselves into marriage with the sons of men?  I see it all the time.

I don’t know why so many Mormon girls marry non-Mormons, but I do know one thing: those guys may be perfectly fine, might even be really great guys, but when these poor girls become mothers and older women and see the priesthood and temple blessings they and their family are missing out on, and see the lack of unity their relationship has to deal with, it hurts them.  I’ve never known an LDS woman who married outside the church and never regretted it. 

So here’s what I wish to tell the young women of the church: don’t sell yourself short.  Don’t settle for anything less than a temple marriage.  And don’t be tempted by anyone outside of that goal who might want you for himself.  There absolutely will be many, many boys and young men who will want to be with you, and many of them will be good guys.  But they won’t be the right guys.  Your eternal happiness is worth holding out for the very best man.  It was true in Noah’s time, and it’s still true today.

Book of Moses Commentary Part IV: Fathers Must Teach Their Sons the Gospel

[Previous installments here, here, and here]

Quick, who can spot the pattern in these two verses?

“Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begat Enos, and prophesied in all his days, and taught his son Enos in the ways of God, wherefore Enos prophesied also.”  Moses 6:13

“And Jared lived one hundred and sixty two years , and begat Enoch; and Jared lived, after he begat Enoch, eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.  And Jared taught Enoch in all the ways of God.”  Moses 6:21

This formula is certainly used or suggested elsewhere in scripture: in the Book of Mormon, for example, Nephi starts off by telling us that he had been “taught somewhat in all the learning of my father,” (1 Nephi 1:1), just as Enos begins his story by declaring that he, “knowing my father was a just man–for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord…” (Enos 1:1), and King Benjamin had three sons whom he also “caused that they should be taught in all the language of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding; and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers…” (Mosiah 1:2). 

(Maybe this post should have been called, “Fathers must teach their sons the gospel…and, apparently, literacy skills.”)

The relative silence in the scriptures about the training that comes from mothers, or towards daughters, shouldn’t be construed to mean that no such teaching takes place, nor should this emphasis on father-to-son teaching be taken to mean that no other teaching is important in the family.  After all, the Book of Moses reminds us that as Adam and Eve started having children, “Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.”  (Moses 5:12)  Adam may have had some personal priesthood interviews with Cain, Abel, Seth, and his other sons, but certainly the first family also had plenty of family home evenings where the teaching was more generally dispersed. 

April 2009 General Conference: 3 Month Review

We have a tendency to take a General Conference of the Church and discuss it, analyze it, work on applying it, and cherish it in every way we know how…for about three weeks.  Then we forget it until the next Conference six months later and by then, that last Conference might as well have never happened.  So instead of posting my notes on April’s meetings along with everyone else, I want to put mine up now, three months afterwards, halfway between that Conference and the next one. 

I hope that we might all be reminded of things we missed before, or have renewed motivation to live up to the teachings given.  Just this week at a home teaching meeting, a man in my ward mentioned that President Monson had taught in the priesthood meeting that every Melchizedek priesthood holder should be studying the scriptures every day.  I didn’t remember that; it wasn’t in my notes.   I looked up the talk and there it was.  The prophet did say that.  I was grateful to my friend.

When I take notes, immediately after each talk I write a title for that talk in the right margin of the page.  This is my way of summing up the most major point or topic.  My titles for each talk are given in parentheses after each speaker’s name.  It’s always fun to compare my titles to those later published online and in the Ensign.  Here are some highlights from my notes:

Saturday Morning

Elder Hales (“Overcome Debt & Addictions w/ Provident Living”)–The most impressive thing here was just the subject.  Along with Elder Perry’s “Let Him Do It With Simplicity,” this is the second consecutive Conference to begin with a talk about providing for ourselves better by scaling back our materialism.  That fact alone speaks volumes.  Perhaps the best things here were his admonition to “joyfully” live within our means, and the subtle chastisement that debt is money that we could have used to serve others.  Application: Have I reduced my longing for physical possessions through Elder Hales’s prescribed cure of service, obedience to the commandments, tithes, fast offerings, and a family budget?

Elder Christofferson(“Covenants”)–

Book of Moses Commentary Part III: The Mahan Principle Extended

When I taught a lesson to the youth in our church last year about the Word of Wisdom, I asked them why we don’t drink or smoke.  “Because it’s unhealthy,” they droned, parroting the expected answer by rote. 

“Nope,” I said.  “That has nothing to do with it.  Let me ask you this: is drinking alcohol, for example, a terrible thing that immediately brings misery?”  “Yes,” they replied, this time sounding pleased to be giving back the obviously righteous response. 

“Not likely,” I answered.  “I don’t know know for myself, but I imagine that getting drunk must be a lot of fun, since millions of people volunteer to do it in their spare time.  So why don’t we drink alcohol, then?”

At this point, perceptive people will chime in with something like, “Because the Lord said not to.” 

“Exactly,” I say.  “That’s the difference between whether or not something is a sin.” 

I approach subjects this way because I worry that when we demonize everything that we want people to avoid, we give those things a power that they don’t deserve; we glamorize them and set them up as the standard objects of indulgence when rebellion will rear its ugly head.  A little more honesty strips them of that power. 

I’m reminded of some people I’ve known who might fit this cautionary pattern: the high school-age boy who suddenly stopped being a role model of righteousness because he tried and suddenly realized the pleasure of popular sins (“Hey guys,” a typical discussion around that period might go, “our leaders were totally wrong about how awful sin is; it rocks!”), or the girl described as the “sweet spirit” of the singles ward who got tired of being passed over and changed her wardrobe and standards; as soon as she started sleeping with guys–surprise!–she had a serious boyfriend within a month. 

The phrase “Mahan principle” was coined by Hugh Nibley to denote the discovery made by Cain in Moses 5:31 (“I may murder and get gain.”). 

Book of Moses Commentary Part II: The First Two Laws

As soon as Adam and Eve had been cast out of the Garden of Eden, Moses 5:1-4 tells us, they set about the work of providing for their temporal needs according to the order given by God, started raising a family, and called on God. 

Verse 5 says that God responded to their prayers by giving them commandments, to which the text explicitly goes out of its way to inform us that Adam was obedient. 

Immediately after stressing Adam’s obedience to the commandments (presumably, yes, all of them), verse 6 begins the well known story of Adam being visited by an angel who teaches Adam the meaning of his ritual sacrifices.

I find it intriguing that the Book of Moses mentions that very early after the Fall, Adam is described as learning obedience, quickly followed by learning sacrifice.  Note that the footnotes to verse 5 direct us to the Topical Guide entry for “obedience,” and the footnotes for verse 6 lead to the entry for “sacrifice.”

Book of Moses Commentary Part I: In Praise of Adah and Zillah

[For an introduction to the Book of Moses, please read this.]

Genesis 4:19-24 tells the story of Lamech, who had “slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.”  Other Bible translations I looked at word this declaration to say that Lamech killed the young man because the young man had inflicted an injury on Lamech.  A footnote in the NIV Study Bible explains these verses as a cautionary tale about revenge. 

But where Genesis moves on to another story in the next verse, the Book of Moses continues further.  And that’s where his wives Adah and Zillah shine.

Moses 5:49-59 adds material that says that Lamech killed the young man (named Irad, this text tells us) because the young man had learned the secret oaths that Satan had taught Cain, and which Lamech had also learned, but Irad had exposed those oaths, spreading them to the general public. 

But that’s not my focus here.  What impresses me most about this story is the reaction of Lamech’s wives to his confession to them of his infernal conspiring and homicidal treachery. 

How To Raise Up A Family To The Lord

I just saw that Gene R. Cook’s Raising Up a Family To the Lord must be out of print: Amazon.com only has marketplace copies, Barnes and Noble doesn’t list it at all, and even Deseret Book’s Web site only offers an audio tape and a couple of translations. 

That’s too bad, because it is far and away the best book about parenting that I’ve ever read.  Cook, a general authority in the LDS Church, wrote the most specific, organized, detailed, inspiring, and practical family guide ever set down on paper.  What most especially impresses me is that he published this book two years before the church’s famous Proclamation on the Family.  Talk about prophetic!  Actually, Elder Cook’s book is the best manual for implementing and living the Proclamation that anyone could ever ask for.  That’s why it’s so tragic that it seems to have fallen by the wayside.  It should be in every home.  Couples should study it regularly.  I’d love to see it become popular, or even come back into print. 

As it is, some of those used copies at Amazon are going for as low as three dollars.  It’s worth a million times that. 

I used my notes below as the text for a lesson once when I was elders quorun president, and got a few laughs because the notes are so long.  Yes, Elder Cook covers all his bases, and does so in exacting detail.  But don’t get the idea that these notes are exhaustive–they don’t convey the wonderful spirit of his dozens of personal stories that carry the testimony of his principles into our hearts.  Not much of what he writes could be considered “commandments,” anyway: mostly ideas for us to adapt and use in our own circumstances. 

Still, any family, of any faith or none at all, would benefit greatly by working these ideas into their home life over time.  I’ll say that the more any family resembles the ideal outlined by Elder Cook, the more happy and healthy they’ll be. 

Please forgive the inconsistent spacing in my notes:

 

Raising Up A Family To The Lord

by Gene R. Cook

 

* See outline of basic priorities on pp. 13-16.

 

I. Most important things: instill habits of personal prayer and scripture study in children by modeling them

as a family; also, convey spiritual values to children through daily living in the home.

          A. Do not rely on church programs to mold children– they merely support the home.

          B. Involve children in home teaching responsibilities; expose them to faithful models (“second

witnesses”) in church.

                    1. “Family duties” to encourage include:

                              a. Weekly family home evening.

                             b. Family and individual prayers twice daily

                             c. Bless food at each meal.

                             d. Make time for family activities.

                             e. Family scripture study

                             f. Have mealtime discussions

                             g. Discuss gospel while working together.

                             h. Use special holidays and occasions to teach the gospel

                              i. Teach tithing and offerings by example.

                              j. Teach the gospel through bedtime stories.

                             k. Hold private interviews.

          C. Teach children these doctrines BEFORE they turn eight:

                    1. Repentance

                    2. Faith in Christ

                    3. Baptism

                    4. Gift of the Holy Ghost

                    5. Pray and “walk uprightly before the Lord”

                    6. Observe the Sabbath Day

                   7. Labor in faithfulness and not be idle or greedy

                   8. Seek for the riches of eternity

 

II. Teach Your Family By The Spirit

          A. Pray with children as soon as there is trouble

          B. How to invite the spirit:

                   

I Give A Morningside At Seminary

For years I’ve secretly harbored a desire to speak to a group of seminary students.  I’ve subbed for a couple of classes, but that was several years ago.  Last month, though, my dream was realized: the student council at our school’s seminary asked me to give a morningside (a devotional speech). 

I’ve wanted to do this because there are things I’d love to say to the LDS kids at my school that I just can’t in the classroom.  After working with me for a year or two, most kids figure out that I’m Mormon and conservative, but neither is something that I advertise: they have no place in my teaching.  I’ve always said that my job is to teach people how to think, not what to think.  I’ve heard other teachers talk about slipping references to their political or religious beliefs into their classes, and I find it grossly unethical.  Proselyting authority figures are unacceptable. 

But at seminary, I could advertise a little in a perfectly appropriate environment.  And today was the day.  I was very excited as I got to the church at 5:45 this morning, and met the teachers there.  As I started my remarks to a chapel full of about 120 kids, I talked about Elder Perry’s “apostolic endorsement” of my American Lit. class in General Conference last Fall (which I also joked about with Elder Perry when I met him at a missionary training for local leaders last month), and joked that this doesn’t mean that English is more spiritual than their other classes…but when was the last time their electives got the seal of approval from an Apostle? 

I then reviewed my conversion story, which ties into seminary, and my testimony of the Atonement and the Book of Mormon (which also testifies of the Atonement).  I told them that the Book of Mormon, this little blue book that we give away for free by the truckload, is a miracle, more wise than every other book I’ve ever read put together, and more important than every artifact in every museum in the world.  I reminded them that an English teacher was saying this!

Scripture Study With Young Children

For years, my wife and I have had regular Book of Mormon study with our older children, but as our younger children have grown, we’ve tried different ways to do scripture study just with them.  Last year, we finally struck upon a method that works very well.  Though they’re each a year older now, they were two and three when we started.

We base our study on the Church’s Old Testament Stories picture book (which can be ordered on the Distribution Center site here).  For the “chapter” we’ll do on a certain day, one of us starts by reading a couple of verses from the KJV that are related to the story, then the other parent “fleshes out” that introduction by reading the whole picture story with the kids.  We trade roles each day: I’ll read the actual scripture verses and she’ll read the story one day, the next day we switch.  During the reading and/or after, we try to point out the spiritual lesson in the story.

We close with a Primary song and prayer.  The whole process takes only about five minutes a day, and we’re finding that it’s a productive way to begin family scripture study with the very young.  After we finish Old Testament Stories, we’ll move on to New Testament Stories, then Book of Mormon Stories, etc.

Heroes Of The Desk

Last week, I read this great post at Faith Promoting Rumor about how one person organized a desk to optimize its practical and inspirational values as an aid to scripture study.  It made me realize that my own work area is hardly conducive to maximized effectiveness in anything. 

So I moved the computer screen off to the side to give me more room in front of me, added a bookend on the far side to hold the books I’m currently reading, and where a messy pile of scratch paper had been before is now a row of the binders I frequently use: my church binder foremost, as well as my Chinese study binder, my family history binder, my goal tracking binder, and my school materials binder. 

My favorite addition has been the display of several small pictures.  Where the post linked to above favored just three role models of gospel study, since my work area serves to meet all my areas of interest and responsibility, I put up pictures of people who inspire me in multiple areas.  These aren’t just people I look up to, but people I hope to emulate in some way.  (The closest I’ve come to this in the past is when I put a picture of my family on my steering wheel, so I can always have a reminder in front of me of what’s important, though I’ve told some it’s so that, in case I’m in a horrific car crash, I can kiss them goodbye one last time as my head slams into the steering column…)

This is still a work in progress, but tells me a lot about myself.  I have 15 pictures up now, from left to right:

1. Thomas Jefferson: America’s Renaissance man–gifted author, libertarian leader, musician, naturalist, bookworm, etc.  I’ve been inspired by occasionally dipping into the Portable Thomas Jefferson, and when I was in Washington D.C. six years ago, the Jefferson Memorial was my favorite landmark. 
2. Bruce Lee: another renaissance man–besides being a breathtaking martial artist, he was a groundbreaking fitness entusiast, a ballroom dancing champion, an entrepreneur, a provocative author and talented sketch artist, as well as a philosophy major at UCLA.  Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is one of my favorite movies. 
3. Hugh Nibley, whose profound enthusiasm for teaching, study, research, cultural criticism, classicism, languages, and unwavering loyalty has strongly influenced me in those directions as well.
4. Bruce R. McConkie, doctrinal student extraordinaire.  McConkie bashing on blogs gets on my nerves, as he was such an undeniably serious, devoted disciple of the Lord, who put his erudition to the best possible use: serving God and helping others do the same.  I’ve written about this extensively before. 
5. Lance Armstrong: I loved cycling when I was younger, and desperately want to get into it again.  Not only is this guy the paragon of cycling, but his endurance–physical and emotional (he beat cancer)–is legendary. 
6. Jesus Christ.  Duh. 
7. Ronald Reagan: His “A Time For Choosing” speech in 1964 is still the best articulation of conservative principles ever.  The Great Communicator’s skill at motivating America with humor, enthusiasm, and patriotism is lovingly enshrined in memories of my childhood.
8. Mark Steyn: The best essayist in the world today, his wit, grasp of the world’s politics, and keen stockpile of cultural references over the last hundred years makes his prose a tour de force, a joy to be reckoned with.
9. Rafe Esquith, author of Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire; I wanted a teacher I could relate to up there, and Esquith’s standards, energy, and focus on the classics, even when I don’t do exactly what he does, still inspire me to pour on the passion. 
10. James Joyce, my favorite author.  He embodies my love of whimsical prose, art, and all things Celtic. 
11. All 16 presidents of the LDS Church, from Joseph Smith to Thomas S. Monson: how could I choose?  Do I display Joseph Smith for his realistic example of consecrated discipleship?  Spencer W. Kimball for his life of humble service?  David O. McKay as the zenith of living life to the fullest with the gospel?  So in they all go.
12. Lord Baden-Powell, founder of Boy Scouts.  I need to get outdoors more often and build more practical skills.  I love the Scouting organization, and am grateful to be involved in it, as a parent of a Cub Scout and as a leader in our Boy Scout troop. 
13. John Swartzwelder, reclusive libertarian author of more episodes of The Simpsons than anybody else (three seasons’ worth).  A master of ironic humor and outdated references (most good Mr. Burns episodes are his), he also penned such timeless satires as “Homer’s Enemy,” “Bart’s Comet,” “The Day The Violence Died,” and “Homer Vs. The Eighteenth Amendment.”  He hasn’t written for the show for years, since he’s been focusing on writing novels…one of many reasons why the show isn’t funny anymore.
14. Anthony Daniels, tied with Steyn for title of world’s best living essayist.  A gifted wordsmith of unparalleled insight into current affairs, he writes under the pen name Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal, among other places. 
15. Neal A. Maxwell.  Touching discipleship + (scholarship x alliteration) = a devout role model