Area Presidency Message
The Legacy of Self-Reliance: Lessons from My Grandfather
“Self-reliance is not an event or a single achievement, it is a lifelong quest. It is something that we need to constantly be working on.”
Growing up in Brazil, my father always told me stories about my grandfather—how he immigrated from Germany to Brazil at a very early age and did not have the opportunity to study. My grandfather worked as a painter in the local community. He took a lot of pride in his work and would always do his best to exceed his customers’ expectations. As a result, he always had a lot of work available to him. Through his work, he was able to provide a good living for his wife and their five children. They were not rich. Life was still challenging, but they had their own house and covered the basic needs of life. They were happy.
This was the environment in which my father grew up. In a similar situation, my father was not able to finish high school, but had learned from his father to always do his best. He worked as a driver and later as a salesman for an insurance company. He would always work hard to meet sales goals and receive higher commissions. Through his hard work, he was able to provide a good living for our family. However, I know there are two other aspects of my father’s life that helped him to become self-reliant: my father always paid an honest tithe, and he always put God first in his life. I remember reading the scriptures and praying together as a family, getting up early in the morning to go to seminary, attending church together with my brother and sisters, handing our tithing envelope to the bishop. Through these small and simple experiences my father was teaching us the importance of being not only temporarily self-reliant, but also spiritually self-reliant.
Self-reliance is not an event or a single achievement, it is a lifelong quest. It is something that we need to constantly be working on. We need to always do our best and especially be honest with our employer or customers. What does it mean to be honest with our employer? To me it means that during my work hours, I will do my job and not play games on my phone, for example. If I am selling tomatoes in the local market, I will always sell the best ones and not purposely put rotten tomatoes in the bottom of the package. What happens when we do play online games during work hours or put rotten tomatoes in a package? We may have a short-term benefit, but we will not progress in the long term. The Lord cannot bless us if we are not honest. A scripture that comes to my mind is found in 2 Nephi 9:28–29: “When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.
“But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.”
There are no shortcuts for lasting self-reliance. It takes time, it takes sacrifice, it takes planning, and it is not easy. Let us take every opportunity that we have to learn. We do not know when, where or how the acquired knowledge will be needed. This is a principle that I have learned from my wife and it has greatly blessed our lives both temporally and spiritually. By observing my wife develop her talents, I noticed that the abilities she has cultivated have created opportunities for her to serve other people besides our family. So, we can conclude that as we become self-reliant, we will bless our lives as well as the lives of those around us.
Why is it important for us to be self-reliant? To me the answer is very simple: if we are not self-reliant, we will limit our opportunities to help and to serve others.
Doctrine and Covenants 14:11 reads: “And behold, thou art David, and thou art called to assist; which thing if ye do, and are faithful, ye shall be blessed both spiritually and temporally, and great shall be your reward. Amen.”
Here the Lord was speaking to David Whitmer through the Prophet Joseph, but we can also put our own names into this verse because we have also been called to assist. We have all been invited to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. In the same way that it was promised to David, if we do our best to assist Him, He will take care of us both spiritually and temporally.
We must take control of our destiny. Our choices today will determine our future. We must be wise with our choices; we must work hard; and most importantly, we must let God prevail in our lives, as we have learned from our beloved prophet.1 As we put God first in our lives and do our best in our responsibilities, we will be greatly blessed.
Elder Ciro Schmeil was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April 2020. He was born in Ponta Grossa, Brazil. He is married to Alessandra Machado Louza. They are the parents of two children.