What the 2014 Olympic Figure Skating Taught Me About The Gospel

By A. W.

The 2014 Winter Olympics have just ended, and I very much enjoyed the figure skating competitions. This year, there was apparently some controversy when a more experienced skater, Kim Yu-na, won a silver medal while a skater from Russia, Adelina Sotnikova, won the gold. Several commentators were clear that Yu-na was the better skater – so why did Adelina win? Because she selected a more difficult program and skated it well. Not perfectly, but well. 

Yu-na set her goals lower, and while she accomplished them, her program was not as challenging as Adelina’s. Each woman decided what elements she would strive for, and Yu-na did not aim as high as Adelina.

High standards make us stand out. Image from lds.org. 

This was a reminder to me about the importance of setting high standards for myself, and of course, high standards can be challenging. As an example, a number of years ago, our church leaders asked families to set the goal of reading the scriptures to or with their children; we were promised that if we would do so, our children would learn to love the scriptures. Not scripture stories, but the actual scriptures themselves, with the actual King James wording. And not watching animated movies, but really reading them together. My children were very young, but I decided to work toward accomplishing the goal of reading the scriptures with them. In addition to reading Green Eggs and Ham and other childhood classics, we started with the Old Testament.

I have to admit there were days when it was a difficult slog. With my work schedule, there was not a consistent time to do reading, so sometimes we read in the car, and sometimes over breakfast. We decided to do one chapter a day, and some chapters are very long! But some are also very exciting and there were times when we read more than one chapter to finish a great story. We often had to stop while we were reading to explain difficult concepts and hard words. To my astonishment, my young children learned words like “Abrahamic” and “covenant” and “sacrifice.” We talked about symbols and sins and miracles. We talked about how people in the Bible had the same problems and fears that we have. When we shivered through storms and visited beautiful gardens, we talked about rainbows and other gardens long ago, and what those mean to us in our lives today. And many years later, I am happy to report that my children did truly learn to love the scriptures and have stayed close to the gospel. I think the many hours we spent together reading and talking about how the scriptures apply to our own lives brought us closer together as a family. I think we have been better prepared to face challenges after considering the challenges faced by Moses, Abraham, Daniel and so many other great people.

Working through the scriptures with my little children was a challenging goal. It was often hard to do, but it taught me that while I may not always accomplish a challenging goal perfectly, I certainly will not succeed if I settle for lower standards that might be easier to meet, but that will not permit me to grow into the person that my Heavenly Father wants me to be.

And I will bring [them] through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

- Zechariah 13:9