Larry W. Tippetts teaches from his book “Receiving Personal Revelation”:
Over three decades ago, while doing graduate work on how I might help students become better learners, I was impressed with the body of research suggesting that writing increased students ability to clarify their thinking. Additionally, writing enhanced their ability to retain what they learned. I began to experiment in my classroom with a variety of methods designed to write down their thoughts and feelings more. The initial results were encouraging, but I learned that I could not teach convincingly what I did not do in my own life. So I began to couple my personal scripture study with writing more frequently in my journal. As I disciplined myself to listen carefully to the spiritual impressions that came while pondering and studying, I learned that it requires practice to recognize and record those impressions. I often felt frustrated because my written account did not seem to do justice to what I was feeling or learning. But over the years I became more and more proficient, and my ability to help students increased proportionately. Many institute students who struggle to write in the first weeks become more comfortable by the end of the semester.
From Student Journals—The Value of Writing
“I have found that when I write in my journal I am less likely to give into temptation, to get in a bad mood or do anything foolish. I am happier, stronger, more focused, kinder, and closer to God.” (Tanner)
” ‘Get in your mind, then get it on paper, then get it into your heart.’ I like that sequence. It makes a lot of sense to me. I want my journal to be a central part of my life.” (Jamie)
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In 1998 I received a strong prophetic confirmation of what I had been doing in my classes. Elder Richard G. Scott delivered a powerful message and a clear charge to religious educators entitled “Helping Others to Be Spiritually Led.” In that address he encouraged us to teach our students that “we often leave the most personal direction of the Spirit unheard because we do not record and respond to the first promptings that come to us when the Lord chooses to direct us or when impressions come in response to urgent Prayer” (CES Symposium, 11 August 1998, 10-11). Multiple times during the talk, Elder Scott asked teachers to do three things for our students:
- Help students recognize when the voice of God is speaking to them.
- Encourage them to write it down.
- Teach them to apply it in their lives, which would then result in more revelation.
Throughout this book, (‘Receiving Personal Revelation’) Larry Tippetts gives opportunities to practice applying this three-step program. He writes: “It is one thing to have an insight or inspired idea about how to improve your life. It is another thing to write it down, and still another to act on it, to live in harmony with that insight naturally. That process takes time, and having the insight recorded in your journal, where it can be reread and pondered. provides a place to give it time to fill your heart (be “written in your heart”) and become a part of your being.
Continuing, he writes: “I believe we are given numerous spiritual promptings each day that we fail to realize and act on. To habitually neglect those occasions when the Lord is nudging us will grieve the Spirit and decrease the likelihood that we will hear the voice of the Lord in the future. However, as we develop a sensitivity to those whisperings and act on them, we will steadily grow and mature in our spiritual life.
~Larry W. Tippetts, Receiving Personal Revelation (American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications Inc.) 2017, p.36-37
