Today in Sunday School, we talked about Noah, and how people lacked the faith to act on prophetic advice that would prepare them for dangers that were coming, dangers that they could not see nor anticipate. The teacher made an analogy about his high school football days when the coach would have them watch game film of their upcoming opponent to prepare them to compete against them. I thought about the analogy for a while and raised my hand (I’m one of those really annoying can’t-keep-my-mouth-shut kind of Sunday School participants): “The game film is actually much like the scriptures. It shows us patterns from the past and gives us the examples of what works and what does not. A living prophet, then, would be like if the coach watched a film of what WILL happen and explains to the team exactly what should be practiced and prepared in order to meet the opponent and all that will occur.” And I mentioned this talk that I only vaguely remembered, but now I want to study.
The talk is “The Past Way of Facing the Future” by Elder L. Tom Perry, from the Sunday morning session of the October 2009 conference. He said, “The lessons of the past . . . prepare us to face the challenges of the future.” Upon reviewing the talk, it wasn’t quite what I had remembered, but he relates some specific accounts from the lives of pioneers and other historical events, and then harvests important lessons from them that we should learn and remember. And as living apostle, sustained as a seer, he must speak of principles pertinent to our future.
You can read the talk here, listen to it here, or watch it here. Visit here to learn more about General Conference Book Club.
Referring back to Noah, what things to you find in Elder Perry’s talk that would help us to build our own arks or be protected from the coming floods or calamities?
Diapers and Divinity 
I loved him talking about the Manti temple–that’s where I married! As far as “ark building”, I had an interesting converstaion with my brother & his wife who have kids older than mine. My brother told me about how horrifying it was to walk into his son’s junior high and think that his kids come into this environment everyday. We talked about the importance of using everyday occurances and conversations to have teaching opportunities with our kids. (Intentional parenting, I think you would call it.) We talked about how you have to start all this when your kids are YOUNG in order to get the lines of communication open and develop trust while it is easier. Thinking about the world my kids are growing up in makes me want to put them in an ark for real, but since the prophet isn’t telling us to do that, I’d better listen up for any advice he sends our way!
Just checking in. I listened to this this week. Another excellent one. I love his story about the ship builders.
I loved this concept from the story of the Norwegian shipbuilders: [We don’t know how to do it right, so let’s do what we know how to do well, and make it work.]
I just realized that sometimes there’s no right way,just our own best way, and that’s good enough, especially when our work is dedicated to the Lord. I think I’ll blog more about this later…
I love Jan’s comment here. I am wishing that she would expand with some examples. 🙂
This is a good talk. The past can teach us a lot – it makes us stronger, more faithful. It makes me think of how important journaling is. When we can remember promptings we’ve had, they can help us. I don’t know if that makes sense. Let me explain…we moved 800 miles from “home” a couple years ago. I know we were supposed to. Because I can remember that moment when I knew, I can think of it on days that are hard and I want to run back home. If I don’t write about that, and think about that, then I will eventually forget it.