From yesterday’s post: ‘Taught by the Holy Spirit’, Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote:
On one occasion during the shakedown trials—the time when a submarine is put through all its paces to make sure it has been built according to specifications before it is delivered to the navy—a nuclear submarine was at full submergence status going at flank speed as the most critical test of acceptance trials. Everyone knew that if they went very much deeper, the pressure of the ocean on the outside of the hull would collapse the bow and the crew aboard would be lost.
The helmsman noted that there was a slight upturn on the submarine, so he tilted the planes downward to correct that. The submarine started to become level. At that time there was a power breakdown, so the submarine continued at flank speed going deeper and deeper, and there wasn’t any way to change the pattern of the planes. Panic, understandably, broke out among the crew members because they knew that in a few seconds their lives would be taken by the water rushing through the crushed bow. There was, however, a petty officer in the engine room pulling himself along the floor. He reached into a cabinet and turned a switch, activating an alternative power supply that saved everyone’s life.
Later on, during an investigation of the incident, the petty officer was asked, “How did you know what to do?” Can you imagine him pulling the manual out and starting to read? He said, “I don’t know, I just did it.” As they questioned him further, he said, “No, I know why I did it. We went to prototype school, and we went through these exercises that trained us how to react when an emergency came. It was so much a part of me that I didn’t realize that it came from training.”
That is how to live successfully in this world today. Learn how to live the commandments when there is no pressure on you. Develop standards and obedience by making correct choices repeatedly and you will develop the character that will sustain you when pressures of Satan come into your life. The principles of the gospel will have become such a part of who you are that they will produce miracles. ~Richard G. Scott, 21 Principles (Salt Lake City:Deseret Book, 2013), 50-51
