Peace & Contentment Through Temporal Self-Reliance

Why do you think we are so often counseled to be temporally self-reliant? While the answer might seem quite simple, I believe there is something much deeper than we may initially think. Consider these two examples.

The first comes from Gordon B. Hinckley’s childhood, which is shared at the beginning of Chapter 13, Peace and Contentment Through Temporal Self-Reliance. President Hinckley recalled, “My father had an idea that his boys ought to learn to work, in the summer as well as in the winter, and so he bought a five-acre farm [about 20,000 square meters], which eventually grew to include more than thirty acres. We lived there in the summer and returned to the city when school started. We had a large orchard, and the trees had to be pruned each spring. Father took us to pruning demonstrations put on by experts from the agriculture college. We learned a great truth—that you could pretty well determine the kind of fruit you would pick in September by the way you pruned in February.”

The second story, published in the Reader’s Digest, was shared by Marion G. Romney in his October 1982 General Conference talk. “In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don’t know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved. …The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the … sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets. Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the ‘something for nothing’ lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.”1

Look at the contrast between these. The last sentence in each story teaches the profound impact of choices. The seagulls never learned, and subsequently never taught their children, how to look for food, where to find it or how to get it, living instead meal to meal from someone else’s resources – sacrificing “their independence for a handout.” But President Hinckley’s father taught his children how to work, encouraged them to become better educated and taught them that their efforts greatly affected their outcomes – “that you could pretty well determine the kind of fruit you would pick in September by the way you pruned in February.”

The lessons of hard work and education President Hinckley learned as a child clearly influenced his life. He taught, “There is no substitute under the heavens for productive labor. It is the process by which dreams become realities. … We cannot deny the need for work with skilled hands and educated minds if we are to grow and prosper individually and collectively. … Education is the key to opportunity.”

President Hinckley also encouraged us to live more disciplined lives by living within our means and freeing ourselves from debt. He said, “Get free of debt where possible and have a little laid aside against a rainy day. The time has come to get our houses in order. … One has neither independence nor freedom from bondage when he is obligated to others. … I urge you to look to the condition of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage.”

Our future will not be very bright if we have not learned to avoid debt. Unfortunately, we live in a world that says, “You can have whatever you want. You deserve it! And you deserve to have it now, whether you can afford it or not.” Ezra Taft Benson warned about this type of thinking nearly 40 years ago. He said, “The subtle, carefully planned techniques of modern advertising are aimed at the weakest points of consumer resistance. As a result, there is a growing feeling, unfortunately, that material things should be had now, without waiting, without saving, without self-denial.”2 This is totally opposite from what President Hinckley’s father taught him about working in February to enjoy fruit in September! If our Februarys are filled debt, we will eat a very unpleasant fruit in September.

The devastating effects of debt can ruin individuals, families and even nations. I love this quote from J. Reuben Clark Jr. about interest! “Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours. … Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.”3

Another way we have been taught to be self-reliant is to have several months of food stored. Many years ago during a Relief Society lesson on self-reliance and food storage, one of the women shared how blessed their family had been because they followed the prophet’s counsel to have a year’s supply of food. She had always felt the counsel was given so they would be prepared in case of a natural disaster. For her family, however, their food storage was used when her husband was laid off from his job and couldn’t find employment for many months. She had faith to follow the prophet’s counsel and the blessing was very personal for her.

Following the counsel of our prophets to be temporally self-reliant brings peace and contentment. It also allows us freedom and liberty. With that freedom, we will be in a position to help others in need. We have also been counseled to be spiritually self-reliant. The same things that help us become temporally self-reliant help us become spiritually self-reliant. Spiritual education comes as we study and ponder the scriptures and the words of the living prophets. Work comes through devoted service in the Church. And we free ourselves from bondage as we repent and draw closer to the Savior and acknowledge our dependence on Him. With strong testimonies and deep conversions, we are then able to better help others in need. Robert D. Hales so beautifully said, “The purpose of both temporal and spiritual self-reliance is to get ourselves on higher ground so that we can lift others in need.”4

May we strive each day to improve our lives both temporally and spiritually. For as Dieter F. Uchtdorf has taught, “The temporal is intertwined with the spiritual. God has given us this mortal experience and the temporal challenges that attend it as a laboratory where we can grow into the beings Heavenly Father wants us to become.”5