Being Teachable

Introduce The Topic

When I was a young man we had a lesson in my Teacher’s Quorum that I am certain was directed straight at me.  Since then, it has been a subject that has always been at least somewhere near the forefront of my thoughts.  The lesson was on being teachable.  I recognized then that I clearly needed that lesson, and I am often reminded that I still do.

With this is mind I have a recent experience I want to share with you.

A Visit to Jamestown

A few months ago some friends of ours we met while living in Alabama came to Virginia to visit us.  We asked what they wanted to do while here.  Their list included the National Zoo, a few days in the Outer Banks, and a trip to Jamestown.

While walking around and exploring the settlement, my friend asked me, “Why did they pick this spot?  Why was this the place they decided to land?”  For a few minutes we thought of several possibilities.  We knew there were tar pits nearby.  Maybe that was a resource they felt was important or could monetize.  We knew one of their first endeavors was setting up glass blowing, and glass products was one of their first exports.  Perhaps the wood in this area was was suited for heating up their kilns to the necessary heat.  I eventually had my own hypothesis, but I wanted to talk to an expert.

Luckily for me, as I was leaving the settlement, a park ranger and a volunteer historian were at the exit.  So I asked them, “Why this spot?”

The park ranger was very helpful, and had a list of reasons.  First, they were instructed to go up a river and not be right on the coast.  Second, this spot at the time was uninhabited.  Third, it is on an island and easily defensible.  And fourth, they could easily land their ships here without the need to construct a dock.  All seem like very sensible reasons.

Then I decided to bring up my own leading hypothesis and it got interesting.

I asked, “What did they do for fresh water here?  Did they dig wells?”

Now the historian jumps in, and scoffing he says, “You can’t build wells here!  At most they would last 6 months and then turn sour.”

And so I asked, “Then what did they do for fresh water?”

What they say next will blow my mind.  And my response will make the historian lose his.

They tell me, “When they first settled here, this was the first spot on the river that when they dipped their buckets from the ship they found fresh water.  This was the very spot the river turns from brackish to fresh water.”

My mind was blown.  That seemed to me like a very important reason for this being the spot they chose.  I told them, “You should lead with that reason!”

The historian starts yelling at me!  He says, “No!  They chose this spot because it was defensible!”

I replied, “Ok, so maybe they chose the first spot that was defensible that had fresh water.”

He gets louder, and actually with some vitriol, “No!  They weren’t worried about the Indians!  They were more worried about the Spanish coming up the river!”

I thought to myself, although that may be true, what does that have to do with fresh water?  I knew I needed to end the conversation though.  But unwisely, I persisted, “My point stands, they found a spot they could defend…. that had fresh water.”  He continued on about defenses, and I started leading my 9 year old son to the exit.  As I turned the corner, I could hear the historian say to the park ranger, “He just doesn’t get it!”  Thankfully as I’ve gotten older I’ve also gotten a little wiser, and it didn’t take too much will power to stop myself from going back.  As his voice faded away as we got farther away I could hear him still going on about cannon placement and the shape of the fort.

The Lesson

What happened here?  I have spent hour and hours since this event pondering what happened.  I could be totally off base about a civilization needing a water supply.  And certainly, there were many factors on deciding the spot for Jamestown.  But the facts surrounding the founding of Jamestown is not the point.  The real question is, why did that turn into an argument?

I know for sure this historian flew off the handle way too quickly.  If what I said was stupid, he could have been much kinder to a “naive” tourist.  But, what could I have done differently?  Was I too flippant myself?  Was I not being teachable?

So, I have a hypothesis.  (Although perhaps I should learn my lesson from Jamestown and keep my hypotheses to myself though!)

I think we are all susceptible of this happening to us.  Often when we learn something new, we dig into, we research it, we read various sources, different opinions.  We are an open mind accepting everything.  But then something happens.  We take all this information and then we start to draw our own conclusions.  And not always, but certainly sometimes, that conclusion becomes hard set.  Any new information that doesn’t fit our narrative is dismissed, explained away, or out right rejected.

I have a very simple example of this.  When my first child was very young I was astonished at how quickly he was learning new things.  Shapes, colors, letters, numbers, an ever increasing vocabulary.  I decided to teach him something that was wrong to see what would happen.  I showed him some animal and told him the wrong name for it.  Something with how we are wired, once we learn something, we often decide to stop learning.  My wife was so upset with me that for months she could not correct him.  He was adamant the elephant was called a llama.

How To Be Teachable

I want to share three suggestions to help you be, and stay, teachable.

1. The first I’ve already mentioned.  Be willing to accept new information.  Do not assume you already know everything about a topic.
2. The second is related to the first.  Listen with humility.  Even if your are the so called expert in the room, everyone has unique perspectives and insights that you can learn from.  This applies to your student life, church life, future professional life.
3. The third comes from Isaiah.  One of my favorite phrases comes from chapter 29, verse 21, in talking about the last days he says, “That make a man an offender for a word.”   Do you ever take offense at a word?  I see this happen all the time in so many different ways.  For example, when somebody accidentally uses the wrong word but you know what they mean, you do not need to derail the conversation by pointing it out.  Looking for ways to be technically correct, or winning a discussion on points, accomplishes nothing.

Most Important Things To Know

The Doctrine and Covenants has several passages about teaching and learning.  I will read just one passage that can help us know some of the worthwhile things we should study.  Doctrine and Covenants 88:77-79.

77 And I give unto you a commandment that you shall ^ateach one another the ^bdoctrine of the kingdom.

78 Teach ye diligently and my ^agrace shall attend you, that you may be ^binstructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;

79 Of things both in ^aheaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must ^bshortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the ^cnations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a ^dknowledge also of countries and of kingdoms–

80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to ^amagnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the ^bmission with which I have commissioned you.

To me it sounds like we should be studying absolutely everything.  But with the aim of fulfilling our purpose on earth.

But out of all the things you can learn more about, I have three I think are worth extra focus.

1. Know you are a child of God.  Learn who Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really are.  Study what their attributes are.  Learn who you really are and what your relationship is with God.  Know that he loves you.  He loves you enough that he sent his son to be our Savior.
2. Study The Book of Mormon.  Know the stories.  Know the people.  Study the doctrine that is taught.  No book will help you with Item #1 more than The Book of Mormon.  And in fact, no book will help you better for item #3 as well.
3. Know that Jesus Christ is your Savior.  Not just that he is THE Savior, but that he is YOUR Savior.  Study why we, why I, and why YOU, need the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Know what he did for us, and what that means to you personally.  And don’t just study the “what” of the Atonement, but learn HOW to apply it in your life.  Learn what you can do to bring the power and the healing of the Atonement of Jesus Christ more fully into your life.

Conclude

Never be weary of learning more.  Stay teachable.  Stay humble.  Study the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Not just the what, but also the why and how.  A vast knowledge of the Gospel topics does nothing for you unless you also have a testimony of it.  To have a testimony of it, you must also live it.  And never weary of that either.

It is my testimony, and my experience, that as I immerse myself in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and learn more about The Plan of Salvation, about the Savior’s role in that plan, and about how this plan blesses me personally, I am happier.  And I share this with you because I want you to be happy too, and I believe as you learn more about your Savior, you will have a perspective that can bring you happiness too.

I say these things….

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