Think Again

In this episode, Cyndi and Sher explore the gift of pondering—slowing down enough to let truth soak into our souls instead of slipping past like water on a wrapped sponge. With scriptures, stories, and a few laughs along the way, we talk about how pondering invites the Spirit to be our personal tutor, turning knowledge into wisdom and wisdom into joy. Today's episode is, "Think Again" and we are so glad you are here!

This Week's Challenge
This week, take one verse, poem, or thought that touches your heart and sit with it long enough to let it soak in—like a sponge—so the Spirit can teach you more.

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Show Notes

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Transcript

Episode 129 - Think Again

[00:00:00] 

Cydni: What I have been pondering Sher is that time where I was like, you know, I'm gonna share the scripture chapter with you because it made me feel so uplifted and happy, and I just wanted to share the peace that I felt from reading a chapter in the scripture. So I said, you should really read this one, and I sent you a chapter. You said, I'm going to read it,

Sher: . I just want everyone to know, I did read it. continue.

Cydni: Thank you. You're welcome. That made me feel more trust in our friendship, first off, but where the lack of trust might come is that I opened up the scriptures again to read the same chapter because I wanted to dig into it, and then I thought, wait, this is not the chapter I read yesterday, and then I thought I cannot continue reading because I have no idea what I told Sher to read at this point, but I sent you the wrong chapter. I sent you something completely out there, which is terrifying with the scriptures because sometimes it's like have some cake and find peace, and sometimes it's like, [00:01:00] and then all the righteous were burned and I did not know what I sent you, and I still don't know for sure.

All I know is I found what I actually read and then I was like, Hey Sher, good morning. How are ya? Hey, about that chapter I sent you the wrong one, and I've been pondering on this all day. Well, at least you tried. And at least, you read it. If ever someone had to ponder about why I sent you a chapter. It was then, and let me tell you, I really did. Welcome to the Cydni and Sher podcast. We're so glad you're here.

Sher: Okay. Cydni, today we are going to talk about pondering, and this is a necessary skill if we want to really learn. This last month we have been talking about how knowledge. With understanding and experience, plus adding the Spirit leads to wisdom. And we've also talked about how in order to create schools that lead to wisdom, our founders wanted to combine faith and learning together. They also [00:02:00] wanted teachers that understood that you need the spirit to help you truly gain understanding and wisdom.

And so they wanted teachers that reflected that, and we talked about that as well. Our founders understood that knowledge and wisdom, that when they're combined together, that is what brings more choices, more opportunities into your life. And when you have those opportunities, that is what can bring joy when you're the one that gets to take control, when you're the one that gets to make those choices. When you have the power that brings joy into your life, and when it's combined with God. It's fantastic. 

Ironically a few days ago, Cydni, I had this conversation with my student about choices and being able to make your own choices. And this is a kid who is from a generational gang family. This is pretty much all he knows is how to be a gang member, and he's really quite good at it.

 He recently just got [00:03:00] out of detention and he was telling me how he did so much better at school in detention. And the reason is because there was a strict consequence for not listening and participating in class.

And so he was on it. You know what I'm saying? He was listening to the teacher, he was doing everything the teacher said, and he started to realize that when you listen and pay attention, you actually can learn. And he was really excited to learn for himself that he's not stupid like he has in his head, that he can't learn, that learning's not cool, all the things.

And so he's just shut it all down. All his potential of being able to learn, he shut it down. But in detention, he realized that he still has that possibility and that he can learn. 'cause he really is a smart kid. He just hasn't applied it at all.

Cydni: I'm not from a generational gang. We are more generational pig farmer kind of people. Minus me not being a pig farmer at all. [00:04:00] Other people in our family have done it. So I'm not a generational gang member. However, I feel like this gentleman and I are in such a similar situation, though he is a student and I am supposed to be a mother right now, but I feel like I'm learning the same things. I kind of need that strictness and severe consequences like, debt collection calling that I forgot to pay a $25 bill. . And so I just wanna say I relate to him so much.

Sher: This is what I thought was interesting about this whole conversation. Is I told him. That, you know, you can make good choices here at this school and learn without the threat of getting thrown back into your jail cell.

you could just do this on your own. And he actually kind of chuckled that wasn't even in his thought process. It's just like exactly what you just said. He needed a strict consequence in order to make a good decision his knowledge and understanding was good choices can only be made if the negative consequence is greater, [00:05:00] and you know, Cydni, we don't have to live like that. None of us have to live like that. We can have the spirit with us always, and we can understand truth and have discernment and wisdom combined with that peace and joy in our hearts.

We have that potential. We don't have to have a negative consequence like the debt collector calling and one of the ways that we can invite the spirit into our hearts and to have all these wonderful gifts of peace and joy is to ponder what we learn.

Cydni: I love that you just said these wonderful gifts because one thing I found I loved was the idea that pondering is a gift. I have seen people talk about spiritual gifts and including pondering in that, and I have not until this episode considered that pondering is a gift, even a spiritual gift. Which means it's something we can seek and practice. 

Sher: fantastic. 

Cydni: you like that word fantastic today. Fantastic. Yeah. 

Sher: And President Nelson has given [00:06:00] us some good advice of how to practice this. President Nelson said, I plead with you to make time for the Lord. So there's our first clue right there is just to make time.

So I'll continue on. Make your own spiritual foundation firm and able to stand the test of time by doing those things that allow the Holy Ghost to be with you. Always never underestimate the profound truth that the spirit speak of the things as they really are and of things as they really will be. It will show unto you all things what you should do.

What President Nelson is telling us is to make time in your day for the Lord and invite the Holy Ghost into your life. This is what teaches us truth and wisdom. I think something key there is to make sure we take the time to invite the Spirit in. That's our action step. That's the practice. We need to practice doing that.

And this is why we wanna talk about pondering today because this is one of the ways [00:07:00] that we can invite the Holy Spirit to be with us. President wlan said pondering, which means to weigh mentally, to deliberate, to meditate can achieve the opening of the spiritual eyes of one's understandings. And this Cydni is what we wanna talk about today, is getting the Holy Ghost to open our spiritual eyes to understanding, 

Cydni: that reminds me of my favorite quote of this entire episode for myself that Scott d. Whining said in a speech in 2020. He said, clearly the power that comes from pondering is the power to receive revelation.

Sher: Why is that your favorite? 

Cydni: You can't ask a question that I'm not prepared to answer. Sure. Stick to the outline. It stuck out to me because I have a desire to understand and receive revelation on a deeper level in my personal life.

So I've been studying revelation more and I have a desire to [00:08:00] recognize what I'm truly receiving. Inspiration and guidance and revelation, and I thought to myself, what a key ingredient to something I want that I'm missing taking time to ponder. Basically, it's as if I'm opening a door to a teacher and saying, Hey, miss Cher, I have a question.

I ask the question. I slammed the door before I receive an answer, and I thought to myself, I love this quote because it shows what I'm missing is something that's within my hands to change and to start receiving. So it gave me a lot of hope for something that's important to me, which is learning how to receive revelation.

Sher: I love that. And we're gonna get to that because that is one of the key things is having the spirit with us is our own personal tutor sent here from God. How powerful is that? That is such a beautiful gift. And one of the ways again, we can do that is just by pondering, , just taking a time out and thinking about holier things.[00:09:00] 

I mean, it's not like you're trying to learn some mathematical equation that no matter how much I study it, I will never understand why I'm looking at it. , 

Cydni: heaven. No. I would never try to learn math. I know my place. 

Sher: We need to all stay in our lane and math is not our lane. But that's what we have this access to. What an amazing gift sent here from our Heavenly Father. You know, Cydni, one of the things that happened on the same day that I had this conversation with my student about how the concept of just making good choices , just for the sake of making good choices, was just like, not even fathomable to him. I accidentally walked into an education meeting and so all these teachers were sitting around these tables and some person was up there, blah, blah, blah, about some education thing that was sent down from some university so that some dude that's a professor can now get paid for the research that she did. Wherever. Okay. Okay. 

Cydni: But tell us how you really feel about this. 

Sher: I'm trying to restrain all my thoughts. You're trying to like, fluff it up, not make it sound so, [00:10:00] mm-hmm. Like aggressive and horrible. Yeah. You did not make it sound that way. Good. Oh, good. I'm so glad.

So, as they were talking about test scores and trends, all I could think of is, okay, so what are the kids missing? They're missing God. That's what they're missing. They are missing God. All of this other crap is just like a little tiny bandaid as the dam is getting ready to burst but if we turn to God, we and our country would be able to have the Holy Spirit again. And this would teach the kids truth and our society would turn around and I know that I'm saying this about the education system, which honestly, I truly love because I love being a teacher.

But I cannot stress how important it is for those of us that have truth and have the gospel, and have the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we share it and we take the hard questions from our youth. Don't run away from them. Listen to them and help them understand. Help them gain that wisdom. 

Cydni: When you said that, I did have the thought that God is [00:11:00] love and love is God. So what are these kids missing? If you are someone who doesn't believe in God the way that she and I believe in God, it is that the kids are missing love and they're missing love and they're missing empathy, and they're missing compassion, and they're missing feeling important for who they are. And it reminds me of a Neely Maxwell quote that he said The States and the governments are trying to fix so many things, but it really starts in the family and in the community, and everything else is just like straightening the chairs on the Titanic.

Sher: Sometimes it does feel that way. It feels that we are just straightening the chairs as the ship is beginning to sink. But it doesn't have to feel that way. And the reason we don't have to feel that way is because we do have the knowledge and the wisdom and the understanding that God takes everything. For His good. Whatever happens in life, God will somehow change it and form it and use it for a greater and better purpose.

And we [00:12:00] can find a lot of comfort in that. And that is one of the truths that we can learn by pondering and having the spirit with us in two Timothy chapter three, verse seven, Paul talks about the last days and what it will be like. He says we will be ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And my thought was when I read this. Why is this happening? And it's because we have taken the Spirit out. We have all this information at our fingertips more information than we have ever had in the history of the world, are literally just at our fingertips.

When we don't have the spirit, we don't know how to properly place, and use that information in the way that it's intended for. So by pondering on what we learn, it will help us bring the Spirit into our life so that scripture that I just read isn't talking about us, that we will learn and we will understand and we will understand [00:13:00] truth and be able to gain that wisdom.

Cydni: What came to mind when I read it was an image of a sponge, you know, like that people use for cleaning not sponge cake. I just was worried people were gonna think of sponge cake. 

Sher: I didn't even think that. Maybe it's because You were doing the scrub motion, 

Cydni: Oh, yes. So for those who can't see my scrub motion and are hungry as well. Mm-hmm. I'm talking about a household sponge, but what comes to mind is a sponge that's still in a wrapper and you're just pouring water on top of it, and the water's just. Slipping right off, but the potential there to soak up all that goodness and be a good little sponge used for good isn't there because you have that wrapper on the wrapper being probably distraction and overload and not taking time. To ponder or having the Spirit with you, . I love that analogy. Thank you. There's a lot that goes on in my head. Sometimes it's pictures of sponges. 

Sher: Well, that was a good one. Okay, let's talk about what does [00:14:00] it mean to ponder The word ponder is more than just thinking. It's slowing down, reflecting, and then again that word invite, inviting the Spirit into our lives, president Woodland said to soundly, plant good seeds in your heart requires prolonged intense unremitting pondering. It is a deep, ongoing regenerating process which refines the soul. I love that quote so much because it shows that you do need to work at it.

We need to practice in order to get the gift of pondering. Because it is a deep ongoing regenerating process which refines our soul. Oh my gosh. I'd never thought of that before.

That taking time to ponder is regenerating our soul. Like our soul needs it. . It wants to communicate with the Holy Ghost. That's something our spirit understands and longs for. 

Cydni: That makes sense too. If you think about the opposite, if you're scrolling on social [00:15:00] media, that mindless scroll, that brain rott, that we just are so addicted to how drained you feel. So then the opposite would of course be so energizing. And refining. 

Sher: And pondering is so crucial for our learning, so we're not just the sponge with the wrapper still on it. We wanna be able to soak it in and regenerate our souls without pondering. We just have these facts, but then you get the wrong truth out of it. So I'm just gonna give you a stupid example here just before this podcast. One of our students has an ankle monitor, so he has a certain time period that he needs to be on the bus and back to his house or his parole officer is going to be making some phone calls and tracking him down. So the bus was super late. Everyone has the proper facts that this is what's gonna happen to this kid. But the person who has the phone number to the parole officer had just left to go to a meeting, so she wasn't [00:16:00] there. So we all have the facts, right?

So this is the text message. I will just say, Joey, does Joey need to call his parole officer when leaving the school? The answer we received back is, is he refusing to get on the bus? Because nobody bothered to tell her that the bus was late. So she's thinking he's running amuck through who knows where. Okay, so she said, is he refusing to get on the bus? The response back to this was, no, he's worried because he needs to call his parole officer. The response back was, why isn't he getting on the bus? And then the reply was he is getting on the bus. So the response back was, we get this long, detailed schedule of where this kid needs to be once the kid gets on the bus, and then what he's doing with mom and then meeting the parole officer. Clearly there was a misunderstanding, right?

We had all the facts. Everybody knew the protocol of what is supposed to happen, but there was a. Misunderstanding with the bus was late. That was the only piece that was [00:17:00] missing from that. Just the bus was late. so finally I couldn't take it anymore and got on the text thread , and explained The bus is late. That's the problem. So that changed the whole thing, right? But how many times do we do this? In our own life? We have facts, but because we're not inviting the spirit, we're not pondering, then we completely get the wrong answers so inviting the Spirit to be with us by pondering will help us to discern and put the facts in its proper order. So that's all we needed in this text thread, is we just needed the proper order. It just got too confused and the Spirit can help us sort it all out.

Cydni: For me, that illustrates that when you have the spirit with you, it gives you time to practice the pause and to be a little bit more compassionate and to seek truth instead of just assuming immediately.

Sher: I agree. And Cydni, we've also learned something very important from doing these podcasts that if it's okay, I'm going to share with all of our listeners. 

Cydni: And by share you mean you're gonna throw us under a bus. Yes. That's not late. and we [00:18:00] deserve this. 

Sher: We really do. We have learned that without pondering knowledge that you have learned, it slips away. An example is we prepare for the podcast episodes and we do a lot of research preparing for it. Then we do the episode, and when we're done, we quickly. Move on to the next podcast episode . So we never take time to ponder what we've learned occasionally when I have to go back through our notes for whatever reason, I am often so surprised by what. We've already learned, but I didn't retain any of it. I'm like, we did what? We talked about What? When did we do this? Like I literally don't remember any of it because we have not pondered any of our learning, and we need to do that because pondering is what bridges. Gap between information and knowledge and takes it over into wisdom. We need that bridge. And we are not taking the time to do that.

So everything we've learned for the last two and a half years has just kind of trickled right down the [00:19:00] river because we haven't done anything with it other than blab for an hour and then. We move on to the next thing. 

Cydni: our hearts are in the right place. We truly are prayerful. We're studying, we're spending our time making sure we're prepared and we could speak to the topic and then we just move on to the next one. But as much as we have an example of not doing this correctly, I have to say this week I tried and probably on accident. I didn't mean to be efficient. It just happened, but I tried it the other way and I must say the outcome is significantly different.

And what I mean by this, I was driving to the dentist and I was listening to a Maya Angelo reading where she reads from a poem called The Mask. And I love her poetry and I love hearing her. Read her poetry, and I love when she shares the story behind why she wrote it. And this one was just touching my heart.

I was wiping away little tears as I headed [00:20:00] to the dentist, and that's probably why they feel like I'm scared when I go into the dentist and I'm crying. But it's because I've usually listened to something that made me cry first. Since I was a few minutes early, I pulled up the poem. And I read the part that just touched my heart so much, and I read it three times then I said it to myself and then I accidentally without meaning to sat on it for almost an hour because I couldn't talk with those tools in my mouth. So maybe this is what it's gonna take for me to actually learn something is going to the dentist every day and not being able to talk or move because they say you gotta sit in it.

Sit in what's touched you, and I know you're just wondering. So I'm going to tell you. It's a poem about a maid that was enslaved. She's sitting on the back of the bus and she's giggling every time the bus hits a bump. When it swerves, she's just giggling and people are just thinking she's a mad woman.

But Maya Angelou taking from another poem [00:21:00] that's out there that's also called The Mask. She talks about the mask that we wear in public and wanting to live a certain life and not being able to, which she was not able to.

And in the poem she says, when I think about myself, I almost laugh to death. My life has been one big joke, a dance that's been walked, and a song that's been spoke. I was so touched by this poem and I have read hundreds of poems and quotes in the last two years as you and I have prepared, and I don't know if I've ever sat and pondered on one of them for that long.

Without the dentist being involved. And this one I can recite without even much editing on your part, but other ones that have touched me equally as deep, I'm going to struggle to bring them to mind if we ponder and if we do the meditation. To Think on these things and make space for the spirit to teach us., Just like President [00:22:00] Warland said, it becomes a seed or like the sponge, if you let the water soak in, it becomes part of your DNA. It becomes part of who you are, your core beliefs and your testimony. 

Sher: this is so important to do because as you said earlier. the Holy Spirit can be our own personal tutor. The Holy Spirit can teach us at our own pace and can guide us. The Holy Spirit we'll give thoughts and impressions to our mind that help us understand the gospel and truths. Because the Holy Spirit is our own personal tutor, we all receive inspiration and wisdom in different ways, and this one took me a while because I've always thought. I'm not really good at pondering because I always think of pondering as I need to sit down and just ponder, and I'm not doing anything else but pondering.

But then I think about, oh, I need to wash the dishes, or I think about something I just saw on the internet, you know, whatever. But I realize that it's okay to ponder in different [00:23:00] ways. One of the reasons I like mowing the lawn is because when I mow the lawn. I ponder, I always put on some nice music or maybe a nice podcast.

But the point is, while I am mowing the lawn, I will listen to the spirit and I take that time to ponder and that's okay to do things like that. Driving, like you just said, that is a good time to ponder I always found it interesting that in all my years of teaching, that everyone kind of has a joke that,, I got this awesome new idea for my lesson today while I was getting ready. And I really think the reason is because. At least for me anyway, as I'm getting ready for school, I'm thinking about what am I actually teaching that day? And that is when the Holy Spirit has time to jump in and say, Ooh, did you think about this? Or try it this way, or How about this idea? Because you're taking time to ponder what you're gonna be doing that day.

And I don't think that's an accident that happens to so many people is because they're actually pondering about. [00:24:00] What's gonna happen that day? And that's what we're saying is take that time however it is for you. Maybe you are the person that likes to sit quietly and just take time to ponder.

That's fantastic. I'm using that word for you again. Fantastic. . Do things your way, , figure out what works for you and then do it so we can learn from the Spirit. And for me, these small little pauses are when learning actually sticks and the Spirit can teach me. 

Cydni: elder Ashton taught by pondering. We give the spirit an opportunity to impress and direct. If we use the gift to ponder, we can take the eternal truths in the scriptures and realize through personal revelation how to incorporate them into our daily lives.

Sher: Oh, I like that. 

Cydni: I like it too. And I love the car idea and something, I read was to try to schedule time for pondering, which is very difficult in my opinion. I don't know. Is it to you? I just [00:25:00] feel trapped on a schedule. I don't wanna schedule something. It feels cagey. 

Sher: You don't have to Cydni. 

Cydni: Well, I did. Oh, kind of. I did it in the car because I have pickup for carpool. I keep my scriptures in my car now and I go 10 minutes early to pick them up and while I sit there, I do not allow myself to do anything, no music, which is really hard for me. No scrolling. I just read the scriptures and it's been fantastic.

Sure. Do you get the fantastic I did. I like it. Okay. Keep using it. It's been fantastic because. There are times where I read a lot more than I expected, and there's been times where I'm so stuck on one verse Then you can incorporate questions like we've talked about the schools they ask such impressive questions to the children to get them to think. There's no reason not to do that to yourself. Ask questions, get curious about it, and let the Spirit guide direct and [00:26:00] teach you. 

Sher: the reason this matters so much is because truly this can bring peace and joy into your life. Knowledge without pondering is just facts. And as we have learned, , that can lead to misunderstanding and misinformation and fake news or whatever term you wanna use for today. But knowledge with pondering and inviting the Spirit in Brings wisdom and that truly can bring joy into your life. Abigail Adams said, and you knew I couldn't go without bringing in something from history, right? So Abigail Adams said, learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. Now, the reason I really like that quote so much is because she is teaching us that it is so important to put in. Effort to learn and not only just put in effort, but to put in effort with enthusiasm. And then to do this diligently, schedule it in you're gonna do this with effort [00:27:00] and in enthusiasm at carpool while you're waiting for your kids to come out. And then take that time to ponder so the Holy Spirit can teach you. It is a gift from our Heavenly Father. he's given this to all of his children. We just need to take the time to practice and to use the gift that can be ours. Don't rush past learning. Take time to ponder, to allow the Spirit to teach you. You're not in a hurry. Relax, slow down and listen. Okay.

Cydni: A talk I listened to in preparation and then I pondered on a hundred percent. I did. That's fantastic. Cydni. The title alone, I love his title is Go to light, be Filled with Light and Share Light. The great thing about Richard Houseman is he is an insect guy, so that actually comes from fireflies and he explains that they communicate with each other and warn each other and direct each other by their little bombs lighting up.

So that's in there, but you could get into that one on your free time [00:28:00] and then ponder it. But he also shares some facts about monarchs, and he says that beautiful orange and black monarchs butterflies are equally beautiful when they're caterpillars, but they're bright colors also. Very attractive to predators. The words he uses are massive, bro. I don't even know what he's saying. Half the time, I'm like, what in the heck are you saying? So I'm trying to like simplify it to my level, which is like third grade. he talks about a defense mechanism that they have. If they eat a certain sap, And they fill their bodies up with it, it makes them very bitter to eat.

So predators have learned not to eat them because they're so filled up with this sap that makes them so bitter. That sounds kind of funny. So everyone get out there and be really bitter and everyone will leave you alone. I did have to ponder truly why this stuck out to me so much, and here's my answer. When I sat and let the spirit teach me, it's because if we go to light and [00:29:00] we seek light, then we are filled up and we are protected. We become more beautiful. We become human lighthouses and God will protect us in different ways. Maybe not the way we always hoped for, but we become stronger.

We are filled with light, and then we can share the light. So I believe that's what the Spirit was trying to teach me. And maybe there's more to learn, but I loved the idea that if we fill ourselves up with wisdom and truth and light, then we will be able to give wisdom and truth and light. We challenge you this week. To ponder, take time to ponder. We challenge you to learn a scripture or a poem or a quote that has touched your heart and let it soak in like a good little sponge. 

Sher: This brings us to our final thoughts. Knowledge alone isn't enough to gain wisdom. Knowledge becomes wisdom Only when joined with the spirit through pondering. Our founders knew Faith and learning together lead to freedom, [00:30:00] opportunity, and joy. Modern prophets remind us that pondering opens our spiritual eyes and allows the Holy Ghost to tutor us personally with without it. Facts just slip away or get misused with it. Truth settles in our hearts. Guiding us towards better choices and lasting peace . This is our prayer from Cydni and Sher How knowledge, lemme start all over this month, in this month's episode, we, or the, in the, 

Cydni: I think you should just continue talking. All right. I, I will just take it over, Sher okay. I will. Okay, 

Sher: fine. 

Cydni: I'll just leave. I'm packing my things up right now. 

Sher: Bye. To Del to deliberate.

Cydni: Deliberate. 

Sher: Thank [00:31:00] you. Look at his judging eyes.

Cydni: He's like, you're didn't even go on a walk yet. I know. He's like judging me hard. How do I say it? So he talks about that they have, what's it called when you have like a defense? A defense? Is that a good word for defense? Mm-hmm. Is defense? Mm-hmm. Is defense. Yeah. Okay. Probably. But that was a whole different yellow. Sorry. My kid's like, where are you? Gimme a ride home. What? What do you do around here? Okay. My computer died, so all the signs are pointing to shut up. Okay. Okay. 

Sher: Have a good week. Bye.