A rich man and his servant were out hunting ducks one day. While waling the rich man said to his servant, I do not believe in God and you do correct? Why is it then that I have so much and you have so little? The servant told his master that he would need to think on that question and would give him an answer later. A short time later the master sighted two ducks, killing one and wounding the other. He instructed his servant to go after the wounded one first since it still had the chance to escape and that the dead one was not going anywhere. After retrieving the ducks the servant told his master that he had an answer to his question. He said that the he had so little because Satan was trying him since he, like the wounded duck, might still be able to get away from him and that the master was dead already and was not going anywhere.
There is no doubt that these are the last days. There are debasing temptations all around us. Similar to the servant in the story, Satan is after anyone who might get away and is using every means to try to get him or her.
He is not stupid he knows that our formative years are when we are young. He knows that if he can plan one addictive tendency in the hearts and minds of our youth then he just might be able to claim him or her.
The Church knows this as well. This is why it puts such an emphasis on the youth. Over half of the Church encouraged programs are geared towards the youth. In addition to regular church attendance we also have:
• Mutual
• Duty to God/Young Women in Excellence
• Scouting
• Youth Conference
• Seminary/Institute
• Youth Camps
• Family Home Evening
We could spend days talking about each of these items though as many of you probably guessed I am only going to speak on one of these items.
What is the purpose of Seminary?
I asked that in class one day and one of my students said that it was pointless. That makes this person’s day worse due to losing sleep. The individual mentioned that they have many home and school obligations already and being forced to attend seminary was negatively impacting this person’s school performance.
Obviously this was not the answer I was looking for. I will circle back to this comment in a moment, though first I want to provide some comments from our general authorities as to what they think the purpose of Seminary is.
Teaching the Gospel: A Handbook for CES Teachers and Leaders [1994], 3
“The objective of religious education in the Church Educational System is to assist the individual, the family, and the priesthood leaders in accomplishing the mission of the Church.”Brother Joe J. Christensen, Associate Commissioner for Religious Education, Aug 1978
“…the purpose of the seminaries and institutes is to assist the home in cultivating and nourishing the divine nature of the youth of the Church.”What is the mission of the Church? The mission of the church is to help fulfill Christ’s mission. Christ told Moses “For this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).
How do we do that; well it first starts in the home. As Brother Christensen said, seminary and institute are there to assist the home in cultivating and nourishing the divine nature of the youth of the Church.
How does it do that?
First let’s talk about what is involved in Seminary.
1. First it involves our youth to sacrifice their time and sleep.
2. Second it provides an opportunity for spiritual enrichment each day
3. Third it promotes personal scripture study at home
4. Fourth it encourages the learning and memorizing of scriptural passages that the Church leadership has determined would provide us benefit in times of trial.
Now like the analogy that a person can lead a horse to water but cannot make them drink. Parents can encourage or even force their students to wake up and go to church. What they cannot do is get them to have the desire to stay awake in class and listen to the lesson and hopefully open themselves to the Spirit.
Now back to the comment that my student made. It is true that there is a certain amount of sacrifice that goes with attending Seminary. The sacrifice is not just on your end, but is on the end of your parents, priesthood leaders and teacher.
In one of our lessons we discussed the situation of how two people can experience the same event and yet feel completely different about it. It all comes down to understanding and desire.
First you need to understand why we have seminary and what it is for. We have discussed the purpose of seminary though I believe that there is more to it. Our youth are at a cross-road in their spiritual development where they have to wean themselves off of their parents and gain a testimony of their own. Gaining a testimony requires sacrifice and faith. These programs of the Church have been designed specifically to help our youth stretch themselves and gain faith through sacrifice.
Second is desire. Without desire a person is only going through the motions. If there is no desire then the person is not really receiving any benefit other than blessing of obedience. Desire is what drives us to gaining faith.
By increasing our understanding and desire we gain in faith and then can develop a testimony.
In 1992 Elder Wirthlin gave a talk in the October conference comparing our testimony to a fire. He started off talking about how many years ago in the Ukraine large packs of wolves roamed the country side and travelers had to build big bonfires and keep them going throughout the night in order to keep the wolves at bay. He them compared the wolves to the temptations of Satan and the fire to our testimonies. In order to be able to start a fire one must have kindling and a spark. The spark is faith and the kindling is the exercising of our faith. Kindling alone will not keep the fire going. We also need logs of all different sizes. The purpose of these logs is to keep the spark going so that the flame stays strong. The logs come in the form of attending church, saying prayers, reading scriptures, attending seminary, giving service and so forth. By choosing not to participate in these any of these we are limiting the number of logs that we have to throw on the fire and thus increase our chance of letting the wolves in.
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