The Eighth Day Of Creation An Inspirational Talk About Creativity

Ken Weber
September 25, 2010

Day one: Create the heavens and the earth. Let there be light! Separate it from the darkness. Call the light day and the darkness night.

Day two: Separate the waters into seas and clouds. Call this area of separation the sky.

Day three: Gather the seas together to let dry land appear. Let the earth put forth vegetation.

Day four: Place lights in the heavens to separate the day from the night, and to be signs for the seasons, the days and the years.

Day five: Create the sea creatures and the birds of the air.

Day six: Create all the creatures that walk upon the earth…and, oh yes, create man!

Day seven: Rest. Bless this day, and prepare for the eighth day of creation with my children.

This is a hypothetical schedule that God just may have drawn up before beginning creation. However, man would have been much more than an afterthought. On that eighth day of creation, man was to have brought himself to perfection and become co-creator with God, sharing and creating with God. Yet something happened. Man separated from God, and the seven days of creation were nullified. So, throughout history God and man have been trying desperately to re-create these seven days.

In creating, however, man has been trying to create by affecting his surroundings. Yet before we can learn to create other things, we must first learn to create ourselves, developing and maturing the positive aspects of our personalities and our hearts. So, how do we go about doing this? Just how do we create ourselves?

Well, first we need an example, someone who is the type of person that we desire to be. Among the first two people that come to my mind are Jesus and True Father. They have given their lives to us in the form of love, concern, hard work, and in their own blood. They have also given us their trust.

In their examples they have shown us the type of people we can and should be. We should be loving and also disciplined: yet the love and discipline must be well balanced. One should not outweigh the other, because the domination of one over the other would destroy the value of them both. We should be dynamic and outgoing, and at the same time this should be balanced with caution and reason. We should be concerned with people, people as individuals, groups, families, nations, and people of the entire world. We should be sure of ourselves and our abilities, and at the same time realize our limitations. These are just a few examples set for us.

However, there is another example that we can follow besides them. Let's see if you can recognize this person by his qualities. He listens well, not only to what you are saying but what you are feeling, and because he doesn't jump to conclusions, the decisions he makes are sound and just. He always generates happiness and love unselfishly not just to one or two people but to everyone. He knows how to be either a good follower or a good leader. He's dependable. He's creative and knowledgeable. He's strong spiritually, yet he's gentle. He has a good sense of humor, and so on.

This last person, my last example, has no name because he is many people. He is the combination of the positive elements of everyone. Yes, we can and should use Christ and Father as examples to follow. But we should use each other as examples also. It's by having give and take with each other that we grow and mature.

Each of us has admirable qualities that others should emulate. So, use each other as examples. If you see a quality in someone else that you like, ask yourself what it is that makes you like this quality. Maybe it's a quality that you should have. Be open to what other people have to offer you. By having give and take we can create ourselves and grow.

Now, a great deal of our work in the church is geared to the question, "What can we give others?" But as individuals, and as a group, we must also be willing to receive and accept things from others. This would really be a hectic world if everyone was giving and no one was receiving. In relationships with people, their feelings are important, but don't forget that your feelings are important also. Don't sell yourself short. Maintain a good balance between the respect that you have for others, and the respect that you have for yourself. If we gain a deeper understanding of how we can have a God-centered love for others and ourselves, Jesus' commandment to love your neighbor as yourself could take on an even deeper meaning. If you don't love yourself, how can you learn to love others, and how do you expect God to love you?

Once we have brought ourselves to maturity and have formed our personalities, we then have the freedom to reach out and begin creating in a more external sense. Yet, looking at the world around us it is often discouraging to see the "creativity" that does exist. So many bad ideas have been successful that it often seems as if we are defeated before we even start. Yet, as Alfred Whitney Griswold once said, "Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom."

Better ideas. They're something that we all have. They are the things that our church is founded on.

Well, we have these ideas. Now how do we express them to other people to make the ideas desirable? Advertise? All right, let's advertise. Take an idea, any idea that you want other people to take note of. Now think of how you would express it. When you have done this put yourself in the shoes of the other person. What is he going to think of the way you express this idea? Is he really going to be interested, or is he even going to want to listen? If you were this person, what would you be looking for? Does the expression or your idea have value to this person? Does it fill a need that this person has?

If not, you had better improve your sales technique. You see, true salesmanship, or any form of true creativity, involves love, concern, and an interest in whatever your idea is for. If you are more interested in selling your idea than filling a person's need, your idea won't sell. If you are more interested in bringing a person to you than your are in going to him, you aren't going to win his heart.

When Jesus commanded his disciples to follow him, he had to sell himself right then and there. He had to instill in his disciples the feeling at least that he was capable of filling their needs. He had to instill faith and trust into them.

When True Father asks us if we are able to do something, what is it that causes us to shout, "Yes!"? Among other things, it is the faith and trust that we have in the example he is setting. It is also the knowledge that he is willing to sacrifice himself for us. It is also the faith and trust that he has in us.

Now, lets again take a look at the idea that you want to express. Does your idea have value? Does your idea fill the need of someone? Then show that it does. Become an example of this idea by your actions. Sacrifice for this person and serve him, showing that you care about his needs, not that you are tying to sell him something that he doesn't want. Demonstrate your faith and trust in his knowledge and feelings. People have a right to think that their knowledge and feelings are valuable, because they are.

And what about love? Do you love the person that you are relating to? Many people think of love as a private thing to be displayed only if no one else is looking: "Psst… Hey, I love you…" But, if you love someone, it's nothing to be ashamed of. You should feel free to show your love no matter where you are and no matter who is watching: "HEY FAMILY!!! I LOVE YOU!!!"

However, by expressing love, I don't really mean shouting it from the rooftops. I mean openly demonstrating your love and concern by serving this person unselfishly. Also, I do not mean that this love should be one sided. You should consider that this person also has a desire to love. He also has things to offer. Encourage him to love. Encourage him to give out. Be a parent to this person, not a preacher. Set standards for him. Bring the heart of God to him so that he can understand it and in so doing become a reflection of God's heart himself.

These are only the beginnings of the creative process. Entire volumes of books have been written on creativity covering many things that I have not covered here. But these are the beginnings of creativity, the foundations of constructive creativity. First we must create ourselves and our personalities. For this we need examples such as Jesus, True Father, and each other. Second, we must learn to create in a more outgoing sense. We must learn to fill others' needs with the things we create. We must learn to express love through our ideas. Our ideas should help others to understand and become a reflection of God and His heart.

Using principles such as these, we can begin restoring the seven days of creation. We can again build the foundation that was lost in the fall. By our doing our part in this, with God's help, God will soon be able to add another day to His schedule for creation.

Day eight: Now my children and I may truly begin to create… TOGETHER!