“Tenacity and Persistence: How Two-Year-Olds Teach Us”
Darrel Hammon
When our oldest granddaughter was almost two-years-old, we spent two
week at our daughter’s home in Utah, taking care of her while her mother was at
Young Women’s camp. Her father had to work; so, we were able to be with her
during the day. I learned a valuable lesson during our week with her. The
lesson was tenacity and persistence.
For me, I had to realize that she wasn’t quite two yet. But the little
woman was tenacious and persistent! Having tenacity or being tenacious means
literally having the persistence to carry through with something. Sometimes
there is a conclusion; sometimes there is not a conclusion. But the key is to
persist with tenacity.
When we travel, we often bring travel bottles of shampoo and things so
that we do not have to carry large quantities of the items. One of those items
is a special type of shampoo that I use just a couple times a week. For travel,
I put a small amount in a bottle. The bottle I happened to use for this trip was
one of those bottles with a safety screw cap that you have to press down and
then turn. It is sometimes difficult for even me to open.
Well, my granddaughter found the bottle and tried opening it. She tried
and tried and tried, every which way possible. But she was unable to open
it—thank goodness. But she was tenacious and persistent about it. When I
attempted to intervene, her simple words were “No, Emi do it!” And she was adamant. She was not going to have Grandpa
do something she could do on her own—or so she thought. Not once did she ask
that I open the bottle for her. She just kept twisting and twisting, turning
and turning, the bottle cap, trying with her little might to open the
bottle. She didn’t try for just a few
seconds, but her twisting and turning continued for some minutes. Finally,
though, she did decide that she couldn’t do it by herself. She placed it back
where she got and left. I know if I had given it to her again later in the day
or the next day or any day during our visit, she would have tried to open the
bottle. That’s tenacity! That’s persistence!
So, where do we learn persistence and tenacity? In the April 2000
General Conference, President James E. Faust said: “President Grant had a favorite quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson
which he lived by: ‘That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do;
not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is
increased.’”
I memorized that quote many years ago and quote it often, more so for
myself than for anyone else. Over the last couple of years, little Emi has
become amazingly more proficient with her fingers, and she can open lots of
things, some things her mother wishes she wouldn’t have—like glue and glue
stick. Her persistence, her tenacity, will carry her through her entire life,
and she will accomplish much.
Our power to do something increases if we keep with it. Often, in our
society, people give up way too early before they are able to accomplish a
task. Working through something will inevitably help us gain greater insight
into that which we are doing. But we must understand a simple concept: being
humble enough to accept our weakness and then work diligently on it to make it
our strength.
The ancient Prophet Moroni once wrote: “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble;
and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble
themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether
12:27).
We all possess weaknesses. According to Moroni, President Grant, and
Ralph Waldo Emerson, we need to persist in overcoming our weaknesses through
working hard, being tenacious, and being persistent. When we do, our weaknesses
will become our strengths.
So, we must continue forward like little Emi, twisting and turning and
trying to figure out how that cap comes off because it does come off, but it
takes a bit of work to do it.
Be tenacious! Be persistent!
No comments:
Post a Comment