Back in the mid-1980s, when I was just a wee lad attending Sunday School at church, my peers and I used to sing a song about a foolish man and a wise man.
According to this Southern Folk Song, the "foolish man built his house upon the sand" while "the wise man built his house upon the rock." Then, when the "rains came tumbling down" the "house on the sand washed away" while "the house on the rock stood still." (1)
This Primary (2) tune concurrently instilled within me a very simple, yet most profound, life lesson!
As one leader has put it:
it is better to prepare and prevent than to repair and repent. (3)
"It is better to prepare and prevent
than to repair and repent."
—Ezra Taft Benson
For this reason, it makes sense for a construction company to build the strongest foundation possible for any superstructure they plan to raise. This usually means the use of steel-reinforced concrete laid atop any piles that have already been driven deep into the earth and anchored into bedrock.
This is the best way to prepare for the future and prevent damage or destruction from weather and natural disasters.
Similarly, the wisest course for the construction of your life is to build it atop a firm foundation of True Principles rooted in Universal Laws and otherwise follow the precepts and practices outlined in the SAL Theory and Model. In this metaphor, the SAL Theory and Model—resting atop the True Principles and Universal Laws upon which they are based—would represent the steel-reinforced concrete foundation slab of your life, existentially speaking.
But what do you do if you find yourself mired in a construction (or life) mess
because your foundation was built upon sand, wood, or straw... instead of bedrock, concrete, and steel?
The answer is repentance or RECTIFICATION.
In other words, the answer is you must go back to the beginning, tear up your old, faulty foundation, and begin anew to build it right on your next go-round before you attempt to construct a superstructure above.
Rectification is an outgrowth of reverence, and refers to repairing any and all mistakes made throughout the entire construction process, including the foundation—if the foundation was not properly laid to begin with.
No matter how effective you might be as a self-action leader, YOU will make a variety of mistakes and commit some sins throughout your life and career. Even the most refined, polished, and experienced professionals still fall short from time-to-time.
Truly, to err is human!
Some mistakes and sins are minor and cosmetic.
Others are much more serious and structural in nature.
For the sake of appearance and safety, credible builders with integrity make sure to take whatever time and effort is necessary to fix whatever mistakes they make throughout the construction process.
Similarly, when self-action leaders err in judgment or otherwise falter (and we all do) they don't ignore their errors and sins and merely press on; they stop, figure out what is wrong, and then go to work to remedy the problem before going on. In the eloquent prose of C.S. Lewis:
"We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn... then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this when doing arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake. ... Going back in the quickest way on." (3)
In 2013, while living in the Houston, Texas area, my wife and I bought our first home—a new house the construction of which we oversaw from scratch. During the construction process, we hired an independent inspector to look for building errors the contractor may have made. In the course of the inspection, several mistakes were indeed found. Because we had this inspection done, we were able to report outstanding issues and ensure they were remedied before our home was completed. Likewise, YOU—as a self-action leader—must continually be on the watch for issues that arise in the exercise of your SAL, relationships, career, and life.
Fortunately, the errors made in the building of our home were minor and easily fixed. Such is the case sometimes in life.
Other times, however, accidents, mistakes, and sins are more severe and create serious issues—ranging from extremely inconvenient to profoundly catastrophic. In light of this reality, consider the following historical example of a more serious situation that cost a great deal of time, effort, and money to repair.
The Salt Lake City Temple Foundation
One of the most frequently visited sights in the Western Hemisphere, and more specifically in the United States, is the temple belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Salt Lake Temple was completed in 1892. Since that time, hundreds of millions of people have visited this religious landmark over the course of its 135-year history.
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Salt Lake City Temple Under Construction
Circa early 1890s |
Begun in 1852, this unique religious edifice and historical leviathan of a man-made structure—made of solid granite hewn out of neighboring mountains—took 40 years to build. There were many reasons for its protracted construction. One of the main reasons was the initial lack of railroad access to the temple site from the mountain quarries from which the granite was being extracted. Another prominent reason stemmed from a series of foundational cracks that were not discovered until after much of the foundation had already been laid.
Brigham Young—the leader of the Latter-Day Saints at the time—was deeply distraught when his chief architect, Truman O. Angell, informed him of the cracks. Young's people had worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get the massive foundation laid in the first place that he could hardly bear the thought of tearing it up and starting all over again.
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| The Salt Lake Temple in modern times. |
Doing so would seemingly waste years of time, labor, and other resources. But Angell had made it clear to Young that the foundation in its current form simply could not bear the weight of such a massive granite structure. The only viable solution would be to tear the entire foundation up and start all over again from ground zero.
Young wisely chose to respect the Universal Laws of physics and construction and heeded Angell's counsel. The flawed foundation was painstakingly removed, and preparations were made for a new foundation to be laid.
It was discovered that the original foundation had cracked due to shifting mortar and the use of softer sandstone foundation stones. To avoid these problems with the new foundation, builders used solid granite—a much harder rock—and cut each stone to precise measurements such that they could be laid without the use of mortar. This new, better approach worked perfectly, and the construction of the temple's superstructure was able to commence upon a firm and reliable foundation that would last for centuries to come.
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My wife, Lina and me, were married
in the Salt Lake Temple on August 8, 2008.
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Young's decision to start all over again was doubtlessly a great disappointment and seeming setback to everyone working on—or with a vested interest in—the Salt Lake City Temple. Today, however, this remarkable and famous structure stands as a testament to the wisdom of those patient and persistent western pioneers who were willing to get their foundation right (the part that few people would ever see) so that hundreds of millions of people might someday gaze upon and admire the extraordinary and picturesque superstructure that would eventually rise over 200 feet above ground!Beginning in 2020—128 years after its original completion—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (always aiming to prepare and prevent rather than repair and repent) began an ultra-modern renovation of the Salt Lake Temple, including its foundation. A key component of this recent renovation involved an incredibly intricate and difficult modernization of the original foundation to add seismic retrofitting including a base isolation system designed to enable the massive structure to withstand earthquakes up to a magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale.
This expensive, mammoth, and time-consuming project took over seven (7) years to complete.
The general public was invited to an OPEN HOUSE of the newly renovated temple that ran from April to October of 2027. It was rededicated as a sacred religious edifice soon thereafter.
Rectification and Curing
After concrete has been poured and set, the next step is the curing process.
Proper curing involves applying water to the concrete's surface to keep it wet for as long as possible. This seemingly counterintuitive process ensures that the concrete dries slowly, which paradoxically ensures greater hardness and strength once it has dried completely.
In conjunction with producing harder, stronger, longer-lasting concrete, proper curing can also prevent cracks or fissures that could compromise the foundation's integrity and utility over time.
Similarly, rectifying your past mistakes serves to "cure" or strengthen your confidence, esteem, and security as a human being.
Elements or Steps of Rectification
There are seven (7) different steps—or elements—to RECTIFICATION.
But doing so is incredibly rewarding and entirely worth it. By fixing your mistakes to the best of your ability, you ensure that your integrity-based character is sure and strong—just like a steel-reinforced concrete slab that has been properly poured and cured. Then, free of any cracks, fissures, or other weak points, it's ready for anything time, nature, or the weather might hurl its way.
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