The instructor in Elders Quorum talked about how it can be difficult to be obedient when society and the world become accepting of thing we consider disobedience. I am sure I am like many other people, I sometimes find the lessons in Elders Quorum to be difficult to sit through. Today was no different, sometimes I get annoyed with the biased expressions given in Elders Quorum, but today the lesson got me thinking about a different aspect of obedience. A side to obedience that I have never really looked at this way and one that doesn't come to mind when religious obedience is discussed. It got me thinking, not about our own obedience, but about the obedience of others. Do we recognize the obedience in others? I am not talking about the obedience others give to us, but the obedience that others show in general. I am referring to the positive reinforcement that we ca give to others for their obedience and good works. Many times I think we take for granted when others are doing 'good' and only react to when they do 'wrong'. Just watch the 'gossip' news and you will see this, the media always points out the mistakes of others. This idea reminds me of we are supposed to train our dogs, with positive reinforcement, give them a treat when they are obedient. If the only attention we receive are for the disobedience or 'wrong' things that we do then why would we ever be obedient or 'good'. I know that when we are obedient to God He blesses us and these blessings can be some of the greatest blessing to receive. But sometimes these blessings are difficult to recognize and can take time to arrive. How much more obedient will we be if we were to receive blessings from our peers for our obedience? I did not get the chance to bring this up in class for discussion, what are your thoughts on this idea?-Brian-
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If only I get could my dogs to be this obedient!
3 comments:
I agree with everything you said about giving positive reinforcement and thanking others for doing what was asked. That's something that I have tried to do with Spencer, and it has payed off. Whenever he gives me something, he always tells me, "Say thank you, Mommy." And I try to remember that whenever he does something I ask him to, that I give him some kind of reward, praise with words, treat or something like that. It's true that we never really think of those things during obedience lessons, but I'm glad you did. I will think of it from now on. :)
Oh, Brian what a great point something so simple but quite often very difficult to remember to do, I think that Thank you is the most abused two words in the English language, we say it with out really thinking about it what it means and the sacrifice that the obediant party might have made to be obediant. I could go on about this all day but will quit here, your post is certainly food for thought!
At work after a patient dies we send a survey out. If you were to judge us on these surveys we are not a very good agency. But the problem is people only return surveys when they have a bone to pick. Sometimes there is no reward for being good or obedient other than our own satisfaction that we did the right thing. Thanks for the interesting thought.
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