The Time to Learn Is Now

One of the speakers at church reminded me of one of my teachers in graduate school.  He taught part of our pharmacokinetics class.  For those that don't know, pharmacokinetics is mixture of pharmacology, physics, calculus and physiology.  It was tough stuff!  During lecture, I had the thought, "This is too complicated to try to focus on right now.  I'll just figure it out later at home."  But then, this teacher made us repeat the phrase, "The time to learn is now!"  We broke up into our assigned study groups and worked through a boatload of practice problems until we had a clear understanding of the concepts.

In regards to the gospel, "the time to learn is now".  The time to (try) to understand Isaiah is now.  The time to connect parables is now.  I am not good at this.  I get caught up in deadlines.  "I have to finish this chapter this morning so I'll just make a note of what I want to learn at a later time."  (If anyone has tips on how to overcome this, please share.)  I think part of my struggle is that the "aha moments" don't come easily or frequently.  In the 1982 April Conference talk True Greatness by Howard W. Hunter, he states, "True greatness is never a result of a chance occurrence or a one-time effort or achievement.  It requires the development of character.  It requires a multitude of correct decisions for the everyday choices between good and evil that Elder Boyd K. Packer spoke about when he said, "Over the years these little choices will be bundled together and show clearly what we value."  (Ensign, Nov. 1980, p. 21)  Those choices will also show clearly what we are."  It is the small, everyday decisions and study that help us to gain greater over all knowledge.  If you would like to learn more about this idea, I would urge you to listen to the talk "A Law of Increasing Returns" by Elder Eyring.  It is in my "Top 5 Talks that Continue to Change My Life".

Remember how I said I wanted to be a Janet Rowley type of scriptorian?  Frequently, when I have a lazy scripture study I will think, "WWSRD - What would Sister Rowley do?  Sister Rowley would figure it out.  She would investigate it."  I need to do better in this area.  I am grateful for the examples I have around me to help me learn how.

(For the record, I do not remember many details of pharmacokinetics.  However, I do know some great websites that will let me type in all the information and spit out an answer.)