Virginia H. Pearce - Through His Eyes: Rethinking What You Believe About Yourself

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pearce, Virginia H. author.

Through His eyes : rethinking what you believe about yourself /

Virginia H. Pearce.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60641-242-8 (hardbound : alk. paper)

1. TruthReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsDoctrines. 3. Mormon ChurchDoctrines. 4. MormonsConduct of life. I. Title.

BV4501.3.P434 2011

248.4'89332dc22 2011001629

Printed in the United States of AmericaPublishers Printing, Salt Lake City, UT

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my mother, father, and husband,

who loved Truth

Acknowledgments

Because the ideas in this book have developed over decades of time, I am indebted to many who cannot be remembered or named. Some of these fountains of information were found in scholarly works and in the front of classrooms. But many more were those patient enough to share, listen and respond as I tried to figure out, understand, assimilate, and modify my thinking. They have stimulated and inspired me.

A profound thanks to my friends at Deseret Book who have encouraged and provided opportunities for me to express the thoughts in this volume. Sheri Dew, Cathy Chamberlain, Jana Erickson, Emily Watts, Laurel Christensen, and the members of the editorial committee have been such remarkable mentors and friends. They have been particularly patient with my personal circumstances during the past two and a half years and yet unfailingly encouraging.

I wish to acknowledge those whose skills have created a pleasing and readable product out of a lot of 8-by-11-inch pages of boring Times New Roman typeface. Sheryl Dickert, Richard Erickson, Tonya Facemyer, and Kayla Hackett, your decisions have interpreted and beautifully enhanced the message.

Most of all, I am thankful for the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintsfor Truth restoredand for the Holy Ghost who carries it into our hearts and minds.

Chapter One

The Closet

Dont own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.

Wendell Berry

Last week I cleaned out a closet. One closet, thats all. Still, it took me years to get to it, one full day to completely unload it, and more days than you would believe to disperse the things that wanted to return to their old spots. There were empty places on shelves and there was a kind of magnetic force operating to get the things to leap up and back into their familiar places. But I resisted. You see, I had a plan, and I was determined to return to the closet only things that were useful or had such great personal value that I chose to keep them. The operative word here is chose.

I picked up each item as I took it from the closet. Then I picked up each item again, thought about its use, and made a conscious decisioneither returning it to a new spot in the closet or putting it in one of four piles on the floor. I designated one pile for the garbage, another for things to give away to family members or friends who might use them, a third for Deseret Industries, and the fourth for things I wanted to put in other spots in the house where they could be more readily used.

When those four piles were gonedays and days after the initial explosion of energyI celebrated! And I felt very smart. You see, for many, many years I have failed to clean that way. I just didnt know that it would make such a big difference to pick up every single itemtake every single thing out of the closet, room, or cupboardthus forcing me to make a measured decision about what to put back in. Rather than take everything out, I would look at a cupboard or closet shelf by shelf, removing what I thought wouldnt serve me well. Then, when things got a bit roomier, I would move on. I failed to be thoughtful and thorough. Consequently, it was only a matter of months before I was back where I startedtoo much clutter in every given space.

Now, kind reader, you may be guffawing. Im sure this is a principle you picked up a long time ago and are wondering why it took me decades to figure out. Im certain there are books that told you this, or home organization lecturers, or mothers, sisters, or friends. But, if, like me, you didnt hear and hearken, just give it a try now. If you decide to deal with the clutter in a closet, begin by taking out every single thing and thinking about it before you put anything back in. Its just that simple. I warn you that this takes a bit longer than just removing a few items would, but the result is far more pleasing.

Now come with me down a different road, because this book isnt about overloaded closets. Its actually a book about cluttered minds and heartsones that are full of glorious truths, but that are also home to a few too many troublesome things that are neither true nor useful. Yes, Im talking about your mind and my mind.

I know of a missionary who noticed some of the clutter in his head. He reported that he got a new companion and, as they were riding their bikes along the first day, the elder was about twenty feet in front of him, right in his sight line. It was flat, boring pavement, and the new companion in front kept taking his hands off the handlebars and riding along with no hands. Our missionary observed this and then became aware of the thoughts in his own head: I could never do that. Hes a way better missionary than I am. This is going to be awful, working with someone who can do everything. It wont be long before he finds out what a failure I am. I cant do anything. I just wish this whole mission would be over...

Thats a lot of clutter in one mind and heart. There is so much clutter, in fact, that our missionary friend cant get to the really valuable beliefs that are tucked in somewhere in the rubble, beliefs like, I am a child of God with my own gifts and talents. My missionary companion is also a child of God with his own gifts and talents. When both of us bring those gifts to Him, He will magnify them so that we can both be good missionaries.

We all live with precious and true beliefs, but, not unlike our missionary friend, we also all have a certain amount of clutter that gets in our way. We have to be pretty brave to be willing to look inside and determine whether something is true or if it is just noisy and useless junk.

In what has become the first verse of Joseph Smiths history, he stated his desire to set down the facts of his life for public perusal. He described his audiencethe people to whom his history was and is directedas inquirers after truth.

***

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not neededit is a process of elimination.

Elbert Hubbard

***

I like everything about that descriptive title: inquirer after truth. It seems to imply humility, courage, faith, an allegiance to straight thinking, a kind of mental toughness. I believe it is a description I would like to own myselfthe kind of person I would like to beand I suspect you feel the same.