Why is it important to obtain a good education in this life? Do you think the Lord cares whether or not you graduate from high school, college, or even graduate school for the highly ambitious? Can’t all this learning be put off until after you’ve had a bit of fun?
In the booklet For the Strength of Youth put out by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known by the nickname Mormon Church), teens are encouraged to work hard for their education and to find joy in learning. We are taught that the Lord truly does desire for us to learn all we can in this life.
“The Lord wants you to educate your mind and improve your skills and abilities. Education will help you to be an influence for good in the world. It will help you better provide for yourself, your loved ones, and those in need” (For the Strength of Youth, p. 9).
In our world today good jobs really don’t come without having first received a good education. Even if the job you’re looking at wasn’t the area you studied in college, many companies are more concerned that you have a degree. Receiving a good education should not be taken lightly.
An education does require sacrifice on our part. It demands a lot of time, brainpower, effort, and at times money. These sacrifices will only add to our character, not to mention the blessings we will be given. Those things that are truly worth having do not come easily. Think to yourself what means more: the shirt you really wanted and were given just because, or the shirt you really wanted and you worked hard to earn the money to buy it yourself. We need to think of our education much the same way.
“Be willing to work diligently and make sacrifices to obtain learning. Education is an investment that brings great rewards. You live in a competitive world where a good education opens the doors of opportunity that may otherwise be closed to you” (For the Strength of Youth, p.9).
In 1991 Gordon B. Hinckley, then president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced a new program centered entirely around helping those members of the Church who cannot afford to go to school the opportunity.
“Where there is widespread poverty among our people, we must do all we can to help them to lift themselves, to establish their lives upon a foundation of self-reliance that can come of training. Education is the key to opportunity” (Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Perpetual Education Fund,” Ensign, May 2001).
This program is called the Perpetual Education Fund. For many the education this program provides is the difference between utter poverty and being able to take care of a family. Have you ever thought about how many people out there would love to trade places with an individual who doesn’t really care about school? If only we could all have that intense desire to better ourselves, to do all we can do in order to provide a better life for our families as well as for ourselves.
As youth, as teens, your education may not seem all that important. If that is the case please begin to pray for a change in attitude. Now is the time to learn. In the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ, we are taught to “learn wisdom in thy youth” (Alma 37:35).
Again in the Doctrine and Covenants, a series of revelations given to the modern-day prophet Joseph Smith, we are taught about why it is so important to keep learning.
“And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another…of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms— That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you” D&C 88:77-80, italics added).
We all have a purpose in this life, a plan our Heavenly Father would ask of us, to help bring His work to pass. We must do all we can to help make ourselves into the person He knows we can be. Many would rather live in a state of ignorance, but ignorance is not bliss. It does not make a happy person. Finding joy in learning will take you much further in becoming a happy, whole individual.
