Update June 2009

If you are interested in receiving the Upward Reach Foundation "Update" go to our website and click on Newsletter/SignUp.

To enlarge the Update double click on the image.

A little feedback...

As most of you know we are making lots of changes from being the Mental Health Resource Foundation to becoming Upward Reach. With all the changes we would really like to get your feedback and suggestions on a few things. The first thing is the new cover for the pamphlet. Secondly we'd like some feedback on our website that is under construction. We also started a network group on Facebook. Here is the link.

Here is the new website UpwardReach.org.

Here is the new cover. What do you think?
(Double click to enlarge.)

BYU Education Week 2008 Part II.

The final two presentations given by Dr. Rick at BYU Education Week are now available, Self Fulfillment and Self Mastery. Click on the name of the power point and it will link you to the website.

BYU Education Week 2008.

Dr. Rick was given the opportunity to present at BYU Education Week this last August. He spoke on 4 different topics and has his power point presentations available for you to take a look at. Come check out his first 2 topics, Self Worth and Self Reliance.

The Hidden Treasure of Self-Love.

Everyone has asked themselves at one time or another what is the greatest goal a person can achieve. Of all the wonderful things life has to offer which is the supreme gift? Which one ought to be our eternal pursuit? The world might have us believe money, power, and riches are respectable final tributes to take home to our God. Religion might suggest that going to church every Sunday, dressed in Sunday best, is our ultimate aspiration, or to be perfect in faith, service, repentance, and knowledge. Well, if we believe these gifts are the greatest, we are wrong. The scriptures are very clear in identifying the greatest achievement any of us can pursue: LOVE.

Throughout the scriptures, great significance is placed on love. In 1 Nephi 11:22 the Tree of Life is described as "the most desirable above all things" and means the "Love of God." Remember the profound remark that Paul makes: "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10). The Lord tells us in Galatians 5:14: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Additionally, in the New Testament John says, "God is Love" (1 John 4:8).

So valuable is love that the Lord has intentionally hidden some of its characteristics. Throughout time, Christ has hidden treasures from the Saints. He requires us to "seek" them if we are to have them. The idea of "hidden treasures" is suggested by a scripture found in D&C 89:19: "And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures . . ." The most obvious example of hiding knowledge occurs in the New Testament when Christ uses parables. There are some parts to the Gospel that we can only understand if we "seek" by keeping the commandments and feasting upon the words of Christ. A correct understanding of self-love is one of those hidden treasures. The following can help you find this hidden gift.

The Love Formula
Loving your neighbor as yourself is a principle taught in many scriptures, including Matthew 19:19, Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:30,31, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8, D&C 59:6, and D&C 112:11. Mark's version says this:

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12: 30-31).

As illustrated below, the Lord is teaching us in this scripture that there are three commandments telling us who to love. 1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. 2. Thou shalt love thy neighbor. And the hidden treasure: 3. Thou shalt love thy self.

Part of the "Love Formula" suggests that the love we have for our neighbor should be patterned after the love we have for ourselves, ". . .love thy neighbor as thyself." That is, the way in which we love ourselves should be the "blueprint" or "model" for which we love our neighbor or brother. This scripture also assumes that one already has love for themselves. Self-Love is the hidden treasure.

In 1 John 4:20-21, we learn another element of the Love Formula that suggests to love God we must love our neighbor first.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

If we examine the Love Formula carefully one gets the feeling that an essential ingredient before one can love God is to love self. In review, the cornerstone for the Love Formula is loving self. The next step is patterning one's love for his neighbor after this love for self. Finally, after learning to love our neighbor, and only after, are we capable of loving God! If the Love Formula is true how important is it for us to have a wholesome self-esteem and love for ourselves?

In the play Hamlet (Hamlet, Act I, sc. 3.), Shakespeare has his character Polonius saying to his son Laertes, "This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." The Golden Rule also teaches about using self-love as a model to loving others, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." One might ask, "How do I really live the Golden Rule?" Do you really "love yourself" as well or as effectively as you love your neighbor or your God, as is suggested in the Love Formula?

Elder Dean L. Larsen states,

". . . It is necessary to accept ourselves with a self-love that is neither vain nor selfish, but rather one that is tolerant and understanding, one that we might feel toward an old friend . . . Part of enduring to the end is related to our attitudes toward ourselves. When we have a high enough regard for ourselves, we can overcome setbacks and still go forward." ("The Peaceable Things of the Kingdom," Feb. 1986, The New Era, pg.3, emphasis added. © Copyright by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Used by permission.)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said,

“Since self-esteem controls ultimately our ability to love God, to love others, and to love life, nothing is more central than our need to build justifiable self-esteem.” The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book 1997 Pg. 306

The behavior of focusing on one's self is for many members of the LDS Church very difficult to accept and even more difficult to perform. I submit to you, the commandment to Love thy Self may be one of the Savior’s commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed.

Dr. Rick