In a recent video, President D. Todd Christofferson told a sweet story from when his son was a toddler to teach about discernment.
The Graham Cracker Story
One early Saturday morning, as young parents, President Christofferson and his wife, Kathy, were awoken by their one-and-a-half-year-old son.
Their son came into their room holding one square graham cracker and crying. He wanted two crackers and asked them to help him find another one in the kitchen.
“We were like a lot of couples with young children: sleep-deprived,” President Christofferson remembers. “So, my wife says, ‘Well, give me that one, and I’ll get two for you.’
“So, he hands her the graham cracker, and she puts it under the cover and breaks it in two and hands it back to him. And he’s very happy. He runs off pleased that he now has two graham crackers.”
President Christofferson notes that his young son didn’t have the critical thinking capacity to recognize it was the same cracker:
“He knew something about numbers, the difference between one and two, but not about volume.
“And, so it is that over time, with experience, with education, with learning, we should further develop that capacity, if you will, to analyze things and to search it out in our minds, as the scripture says.”
The Best Way to Use Our Critical Thinking Skills
President Christofferson goes on to explain that as we mature spiritually, we learn to ask thoughtful questions about sources, including:
- “Where does it lead?”
- “What are the outcomes?”
- “What are the ‘fruits’?”
- “What does this approach lead to?”
- “Where does it take us?”
He teaches that growing our capacity for critical thinking can help us “evaluate the merits of different propositions and philosophies and outcomes.”
But our own efforts to think critically must be combined with the power of the Holy Ghost. “Developing and refining that kind of [critical thinking] capacity in ourselves—combined with the Spirit and taking it to the Lord, being sensitive to the spiritual guidance—we can avoid deception,” President Christofferson says. “We can choose the correct path.”
Many people across the world appreciated this message and shared their testimonies in the comments. One Facebook user wrote:
“I love that this is being emphasized more. Feeling and intuition are important but not to the exclusion of analysis and reason. The heart and mind are meant to be dual witnesses of truth. Thank you so much for sharing this!”
Another commenter on YouTube shared:
“I really appreciated this message. Elder Christofferson reminds us that the Lord never asks us to choose between faith and honest thinking. Moroni teaches us to seek the Holy Ghost. Doctrine and Covenants tells us to ‘study it out’ in our minds. Paul says to ‘prove all things.’ And Moroni 7 teaches us to judge by the fruits.
“To me, those principles invite us to seek truth without fear. If something is from God, it will draw us to Jesus Christ, produce good fruit, and stand up to sincere study. Faith and honest inquiry are not enemies—they are companions on the path to Christ.”
Watch President Christofferson’s full video in the player below.
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