Ain't ya got no smarts?

No, I haven’t gone off my rocker and forgotten about using double negatives and colloquialisms.

My brothers and I used to tease one another with the above phrase.  When one of us would do something rather stupid the other would say. “Ain't ya got no smarts?” Then the reply was. “ I got a lotta know, but no smarts.”

I thought this might be a good subject for a Blog to my grandchildren. 

My parents used to quote scripture to us occasionally and particularly this quote from Proverbs chapter 4 verse 7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge.  Wisdom is the correct use of the knowledge that we have acquired.  There is a lot of useless knowledge floating around these days. Also not all of us have the same store of knowledge that we have acquired.
 
Our first parents gave us the opportunity to learn the most important thing we are here on earth to experience.  They partook of the fruit of the tree and became as the gods, knowing how to discern between good and evil.  Now to quote a TV commercial from Chuckarama, “The choice is yours”. The choice really is ours.

To further address this topic I recently read this quote from president Joseph F. Smith. 

“Christ inherited his intelligence from his Father. There is a difference between knowledge and pure intelligence. Satan possesses knowledge, far more than we have, but he has not intelligence or he would render obedience to the principles of truth and right. I know men who have knowledge, who understand the principles of the Gospel, perhaps as well as you do, who are brilliant, but who lack the essential qualification of pure intelligence. They will not accept and render obedience thereto. Pure intelligence comprises not only knowledge, but also the power to properly apply that knowledge.”

So, just the acquisition of the pool of knowledge that is available to us is not enough.  We have to have pure intelligence or “smarts” to be able to properly live our lives to the full potential.

We have to be able properly use the knowledge we acquire in this life.  We can be members of Christ’s church and have gospel knowledge, but if we are not wise and use pure intelligence or "smarts" we will fall short of our true potential.  Eventually we will be with those who are “weeping and wailing and gnashing our teeth”.  

I recently listened to a father’s blessing given to me when I went into the Navy.  My father had never given a father’s blessing to any of his children that I knew of.  I think that I was the first of his children to ask him. He was a patriarch in the church at that time, but was not familiar with father’s blessings.  It was not well known throughout the church at that time, nor was it frequently practiced.  We learned about it from our bishop Oscar McConkie when we were in his ward my first year of medical school. In the father’s blessing I was told that I would be wise in my generation. 

I do not know if I have lived up to that promise.  Most of us do not live up to our potential, but we should never stop acquiring knowledge, wisdom and understanding.

There is a German poem, “Lirum Laurum Löffelstiel”, which I will not reproduce here, but the essence is that small children ask a lot of questions. “Why is the rain wet? Why is the grass green” etc.  We need to be like the small children and ask a lot of questions. There is not a day that should pass that we do not learn something new or improve our life.

So with Jacob chapter 6 verse 12, I say,” O be wise; what can I say more?”

Love,

Grandpa