On Friday, we (husband and the kids and I) went to see a movie called “Small Foot”. It is a story of a yeti who lives in the tops of the mountains with many other yetis. Their village is led by a chosen yeti who they call the “stonekeeper”. He wears a robe made of small stones. Each stone has a “truth” on it. They dictate what the village must do to survive and to be happy. These stones are supposed to represent commandments and scripture I think but I chose to view them as “beliefs” generally. One stone says that the “smallfoot” (human) doesn’t exist.
Another stone says to never question the stones. In fact, there is a song at the beginning of the movie where the main character Migo sings about how perfect his life is. At one point it shows a few yetis talking to some yeti children and questioning the stones. Migo comes over and sings to them:
“Don't listen to them, they're questioning the stones,
and we don't do that, okay?
If there's a question, causing you to go astray
Just stuff it down inside until it goes away
Got it? Good!”
Migo, this same obedient and gullible yeti, accidentally comes across a “small foot”. He runs to tell the village what he has seen and they all panic because he is essentially saying that one of the stones is wrong. The stonekeeper tells him that he did not see a small foot because they do not exist. The stones say so. Migo can’t deny what he saw. So they banish him until he can “admit” that he was lying.
[Slight tangent:] This part reminded me of Joseph Smith. He claimed to have seen something that others thought was impossible or didn’t exist. He said he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ but most people didn’t believe him…especially the local religious leaders. In fact, they told him not to speak of it to anyone. They ultimately "banished" him in a sense but Joseph would not deny what he saw.
“I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation.” (JSH 1:25)
This could have been Migo’s speech (with a few tweaks here and there). It is very close to the story. [End of tangent].
Okay, so lets go back to the stones. I was torn while watching the movie. There are extremely obvious symbols and parallels here. It mostly appears to be pointing at religion as the culprit. But I wanted to enjoy the movie so I chose to view the stones as old and closed minded traditions of the past. I also chose to view them as false beliefs we all carry around with us.
Our beliefs (thoughts we keep on thinking) are made into “stones” by many different experiences:
Parents pass down their stones to us
Media (news) influences our thoughts and creates fears we didn’t have before
Friends
Religion
Books we read
Movies
Culture
Some new beliefs we have and receive from some of these sources are good, however I am going to focus on those that create fear, worry, doubt, lack of confidence, selfishness. Many of these beliefs are “philosophies of men" which will ultimately lead us down a dark path.
We must shed our heavy robe of false beliefs to be truly free. We must be willing to be wrong. We must be curious enough about our current “beliefs” (which are not all religious as I will show in a minute) without beating ourselves up if we find we were wrong.
Here are a few examples of false beliefs and traditions:
“My white skin makes me superior”
“Women shouldn’t have the same rights as men.”
“Prophets are perfect and infallible.”
“I can’t be happy until _____________.”
Those things are simply lies and traditions that people heard from others or maybe just in their own mind and they believed them.
Here are some of my own personal false and limiting beliefs that I am still trying to shed:
“If I am not getting revelation or having spiritual experiences it is because I am doing something wrong.”
“I am not enough”
“I can’t really love others until I have all my “stuff” worked out.”
“If I am being “still”, I am wasting my time.”
“It’s a lot of work to think of others.”
“It’s hard for me to discern God’s voice to me, but even if I can I am often too scared to obey.”
“I wear a size small shirt still.” ;)
“I should able to do this on my own.”
“If someone helps me, I am weak.”
“I can’t _______________.”
There are thousands more. You get the idea.
You may read this list and say: “Those are not false beliefs. I think some of those thoughts and I think they are true.” That is okay. These are thoughts that I have looked at and determined that they are limiting me and I choose to believe they are lies. I am trying to shed these thoughts and not act on them.
Maybe I am wrong about these things. These are easy for me to admit now because I have already done the work of being curious about their truthfulness and been willing to be wrong. A few of them took some time to heal from and let go of. I asked Jesus to help with that process. (See a post about that here.)
One day I was sitting in my family room reading scriptures and writing in my journal and thinking about my husband's choice to "leave the church". The pervasive thought was "He didn't do it right. He didn't do his search for truth the "right way"." As I was sitting there thinking these things a small voice came into my head and said. "You are wrong. You don't know what he did and experienced." That was surprising to me. I thought I knew but I was wrong. I chose to remove that stone from my robe.
Another false belief I think we have is about the nature of God. We inevitably misunderstand him. In Isaiah 55:8 God says: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” So because we can’t comprehend His unconditional love for us (no matter what we do), His all-knowing, ever-present, completely forgiving, meek and powerful character, we imagine Him (even if it is just subconscious) with traits we are more familiar with like our own or those of our family. I know I have a robe of false beliefs about God and myself. I have several stones or false beliefs about how He sees me and what He thinks when I fail.
I believe that our prophet, President Nelson is encouraging us to question our own personal stones. He is encouraging us to ask questions, seek mysteries of God and be taught by the Lord himself.
In his April 2018 address, he said:
“I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.”12
Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!”1
In his address to the men of the church at the Priesthood session in April 2016, President Nelson said:
"I urgently plead with each one of us to live up to our privileges as bearers of the priesthood. In a coming day, only those men who have taken their priesthood seriously, by diligently seeking to be taught by the Lord Himself, will be able to bless, guide, protect, strengthen, and heal others.”
President Nelson himself is constantly questioning "stones" and traditions of the past. In a recent interview, his wife, Wendy Nelson described him this way:
"He thinks outside of the box. If it’s not outside of the box, he’s not that interested in it. He is not interested in cutting the ham to fit inside of the pot anymore…just because it was tradition. Man. And he’s not just about if it was tradition, let’s do something different. It’s “Let’s look at why we were doing that.” And that is what has caught his attention again and again. When he sees things and says, “What are we doing that for? What are we spending the widow’s mite on that for?”
He is saying, “What is really needful?” If we are really preparing the church and the world for the second coming of the Savior, he’s sincere about that. He doesn’t want us spending money, time or energy on anything that isn’t focused on that. It’s pretty stunning. He is only reporting to the Lord and he is fearless with that focus.”
I love this interview. Here is a link to the full video.
President Nelson is questioning may of the so-called stones and procedures of the church. He is a great example of this concept. We have to shed things that keep us from holiness. That includes our “unbelief” as well as our fears, and our need to be accepted by others, or rely on the arm of flesh.
In the middle of the movie “Small Foot” some other questioning yetis, sing a song called “Wonderful Life”.
I love this song. I must shed my limiting beliefs and look closer to find what beauty God has for me here. If you find you are relating to this story but more in a “Faith Crisis” kind of way, you may be interested in these posts about my own faith crisis and the story about my husband’s faith change, as well.