It Builds Character

I really liked the talk from Conference about building character. It often seems that we have endless lists of good qualities that we need to have before we pass on to the next life. I think that there's really only one: charity. Charity is the last quality listed in any long list found in the scriptures. It is the ultimate good quality to have. However, I don't think that it is merely some conglomeration of a bunch of other good stuff. Charity is one word that describes perfection, yet we lack the resources in our language to fully describe it, hence the long list of other qualities. If we fully understood the word "charity" then we wouldn't really need the long list before it to really define what it is. Language is a funny thing. The more I've studied it, the more I realize how imperfect it is sometimes in describing the things of God. Only a language of God could fully do that, so that it why He speak to us through revelation and the Spirit.

In D&C 121:45, this process is described as "distil[ling] upon thy soul as the dews from heaven." What an interesting way to phrase that! To distil means to "precipitate in drops" or, interestingly enough, "to appear slowly or in small quantities at a time." (Merriam-Webster dictionary) That's exactly the way that knowledge of a doctrine comes. The more we are obedient, the more "drops" we receive. And what happens when we've received enough of those "drops"?

We never thirst again. I'm still thirsty, so I have work to do! :)