Intellectual Scribbling

I look at my children and I see how very intelligent, talented, and capable they are. Even though they are very young and just beginning their lives within this pocket of mortality, the spark of what is inside them can be easily seen. I see the unfolding of personality; something that was already there, not anything that I created. Though I am one variable (hopefully a strong variable) among many that help to give shape and direction to that unfolding. The potential can be seen in their heartfelt, tender efforts to learn and to produce, though they wouldn't use that term of course. When Tiera is drawing that is what she is doing. She is drawing with a desire to keep doing it and she has the expectation that she will get better as time goes on (and she will-she is already very good for her age-of course I am biased in her favor as I should be). As her father, I recognize the brilliance in her efforts and know with patient anticipation that she will produce much more if she continues. It is the same for all my children.

Of course we are all like our children in the eyes of our Father in Heaven. True, we have developed more than our infants, toddlers, and small ones, but the metaphor still brings home the vastness of who our Father is and what our Father knows and what little we do know and how much more we still have to develope, even though collectively we have, as mere mortals, produced so very much (under inspiration of the Father of course). The generation and production of knowledge and technology, especially since the restoration has been phenomenal. I would suggest though that despite this impressive history of intellectual, technological, and artistic advancement we are still as children who are but involved in intellectual scribbling. I do not doubt that as impressive as our progress has been that there are still so many great things still to be produced. We are like children who have learned how to ride bikes. Who didn't think is was so cool to know how to ride finally. But wait, there are cars to learn to drive later on. And how many, or how few of us, actually have learned to fly airplanes. There is progress to be made that cannot even be fathomed yet. As Elder Scott once said, we do not what it means to be like our Father, but He does, and will guide us there if we let him (it's a paraphrase). I have mixed in this personal developement at the end of speaking about knowledge and technological development. But these lines of developement are not unrelated. As time moves on we will intellectually scribble along as well. We have barely scratched the surface.