A gospel of knowing God and His plan
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The importance of the quest for gospel knowledge in the Church was reaffirmed in a family anecdote shared by Elder Gerald Causse of the Seventy during his address Saturday afternoon.
"One evening, when my wife and I were away," Elder Causse said, "our children's baby sitter, intrigued by the prayer she heard them saying, asked them this question: 'But what is the difference between your religion and mine?' The reply from our 8-year-old daughter was immediate, 'It's almost the same, except that we study a lot more than you do."'
Then Elder Causse said, "Far from wanting to offend her baby sitter, my little daughter just wanted to underline in her own way the importance that Latter-day Saints attach to the search for knowledge."
The most important knowledge is understanding the nature of God and the Plan of Salvation, he said, and that knowledge from Heavenly Father is adaptable to any level of understanding, even to children.
"In reality," he said, "the fact that a principle can be understood even by a child is proof of its power.... Far from diminishing its impact, purity and simplicity of expression allow the Holy Spirit to witness with greater certainty to the hearts of men."
The Savior, he said, exhorted His disciples to be like children.
"Little children have a marvelous disposition to learn," he said. "They have total trust in their teacher, a pure spirit and great humility — in other words, the same qualities which open the door to the Holy Spirit."
As for teaching in the Church, Elder Causse said, "The quality of a lesson is not measured by the number of new pieces of information that you give your students. It comes from your capacity to invite the presence of the Spirit and to motivate your students to make the commitments."
