I've spent a lot of time in the last several years learning about principles and how to find them. Stephen Covey said, “Our behavior is governed by principles. Living in harmony with them brings positive consequences; violating them brings negative consequences.” I also read from Elder Richard G. Scott, “It is worth great effort to organize the truth we gather to simple statements of principle.” and from Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, “The most important [thing] you can do...is to immerse yourselves in the scriptures. Search them diligently... Master the principles.”
I wondered, "what are these principles and where do I find them? And once found, how do I use them in my life?" I wasn't liking the results I was getting in my life, so a study of principles ensued and I'm excited to share what I found!
We can find principles in everything we're reading, watching and learning. They're all around us!
Once place we find principles is in the literature we are reading. As we look for principles in the things that we read, we grow and become better and have principles from which to live our lives. As we read, we come across the principles that the characters live their lives by. They may not (and usually don't) make an outward statement of the principles they are living, but we can make a pretty good guess by their actions and the results that they get. Sometimes they are true principles, sometimes they are false.
Javert in Les Miserables, for example, lives his life based on the principle that "once someone is a criminal, they will always be a criminal and can't change". That is a false principle and we see that the results of living by it brought him nothing but frustration and sorrow. We know that it is never too late for us to repent and change and that we are progressing and changing every day of our lives.
Or from Jane Eyre, "doing the right thing by God is always the right thing to do even if society and circumstance allow doing the wrong thing". That is a true principle. Even though she risked loosing her love, she found peace doing right by God.
So how do we know when the principles we find are true principles or not? We can run the principles through a few tests and ask a few questions to determine whether the principles we see others living are true.
To be a true principle, it will be a natural law, a law from God, and it will be true at all times for all people. What was true for Jane Eyre would also be true for the ancient Egyptians as well as for us in our day.
Here are a few benchmarks we can look for to judge the principles we find by:
From Elder Richard G. Scott:
• Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances.
• A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and compelling circumstances.
From Audrey Rindlisbacher of the ten Boom Institute:
Characteristics of True Principles:
• Foundational idea upon which behavior is based (it’s not an application)
• True for all people, all the time
• Creates greater freedom for the individual and society
• Enlightens the understanding, enlarges the soul, expands your mind, brings new connections and ideas
• Empowers and gives hope
• Increases desire for good—in thoughts, behavior, environment and relationships
• Generates growth, enlivens
• Increases health and wholeness
• Creates win/win situations
Audrey’s Principle Checkpoints:
• God and/or Natural Law
• Your scripture or standard of truth
• Conscience
• Common sense
• Your experience—long term
• The experience of others—long term
One of the most important places for us to find principles is in our scriptures. Of course when we find them in the scriptures (or in the words from the prophets) we don't have to evaluate them as true or false, they are always true. I find that it helps me and is really powerful to find principles and then rewrite them so that they apply, ("liken the scriptures..".). It also helps to write the principles in a "If...then..." format.
"If I do something, then something else will happen."
Author John Hilton III teaches us this in his book, "Please Pass the Scriptures: From Reading to Feasting" chapters 9-10. He gives us three tricks to use with principles. He says:
• Principles can be easier to find and apply when you write them in an “If ....then” statements.
• Rewriting principles in your own words helps you find, remember, and apply them. A great place to write principles you find is in the margin of your scriptures or other books.
• If you ask “What is the author trying to teach?” it can help you find principles.
For example, if I would like to be more physically healthy, a principle would be: "If I eat healthy foods, then my body will be healthy." That is the principle, we can go down the check offs and know that it is truth. The application is then how people choose to live or apply that principle. So for the food principle, some applications could be: not eating meat, not eating dairy, or not eating gluten. So while the application looks different for each of us, the principle is the same for all of us.
Another example would be the principle "parents are responsible for the education of their children". Applications of that could be home school, public school, private school, charter school, trade school, etc. Whatever they, the parents, feel is the best way for their own children to be educated. So while the applications are different for everyone, the true principle is the same.
Here's are some examples of principles in the scriptures...
In Helaman 3:27 we read: "Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name." So we can rewrite the principle to be "If I call upon God's name with sincerity of heart, then the Lord will be merciful to me." We then can apply "calling on God" it many different ways.or
Helaman 3:28 "Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God." would be "If I believe on the name of Jesus Christ, then the gate of heaven will be open to me." Then we each can decided what "believing on the name of Jesus Christ" looks like to us and how we want to apply it.
As I've made a study of principles I have found many that I try every day to live in my life. I have seen myself change and am seeing different results in my life. I have truly found what Stephen Covey promises, “Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way.”
For additional learning, here is a video from the ten Boom Institute on finding principle in what we read:
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