By Leslie Householder
Have you ever tried to share an epiphany with someone, only to realize that not everyone appreciates what you’ve learned in the same way? I have. And I know I’m not alone. It was fun to discover that one of our Certified Mentors (Stephanie Francom) had been exposed to my work ten years earlier but rejected it the first time. She wrote:
Hey Leslie!
This is so funny. I was sorting through some things in my inbox today, and I found [an email].
I was part of an organization called Art of Womanhood, and apparently when we put on one of our conventions, your book was a part of it. It’s so weird that I didn’t even remember it — especially when I was the one who had to approve it. Haha
…Too bad I didn’t get involved with you and the principles to a greater level over 10 years ago! Oh well. Obviously I wasn’t ready for it yet. 🙂 …So many opportunities that I could have taken, but the timing was off. That’s wild!
Anyway – I just had to share.
Stephanie 🙂
Here’s a closer look at what happened ten years earlier. The organization she was a part of apparently had mixed feelings about my work:
November 17, 2007 [to Stephanie from her friend]
For those that may not know: a colloquium is a gathering of a group of people that reads the same book and gathers in a circle to discuss the book. We were to read “The Jackrabbit Factor” by Leslie Householder before we went to the Art of Womanhood convention. I absolutely love the book! For me it opened up whole new avenues of thinking. I felt like it was a parable to a correct principle and I was excited about the book.
I was very surprised when we got in our circle and some didn’t feel the same way! I listened very carefully to try to understand how and why they were thinking and feeling the way they did.
My conclusion is that we are all at different places in our lives and we learn precept upon precept. Isn’t that why many don’t except the truth and some are seeking it? That is why missionaries work so hard. They know that even though someone may not decide to listen now at least a seed was planted and when that person is ready then they will listen. Jesus taught much the same way and that is why he used parables. Those that are ready will understand.
Most everybody in the room had read, watched or at least heard about “The Secret”, which is the worldly view of the law of attraction. When they got to the part of the Jackrabbit book where they realized the book is talking about the law of attraction, …they automatically decided the book was evil. They closed up.
When I watched “The Secret” I was watching it from the perspective of trying to gain health, so I automatically pushed aside the worldly wealth part. It tinged at me but my husband and I quickly found scriptures that supported the idea of the law of attraction, so we knew it was a true principle. The film was just very worldly and was presented in a very worldly way.
I had watched the show on Oprah and felt very prompted to get the DVD (probably so I would understand why these women were closed to the idea, and probably because it was a “seed” for me). I had already learned how to “process” and how to “script” (which is learning how to get negative feelings out and positive in…). I had already been told by Heavenly Father that I would get well and to keep doing what I was doing. (He told me that at the Peter Whitmer farm in New York last year…great experience and just one step in my climb!)
I was already reading Lectures on Faith from the School of the Prophets and Unlocking the Powers of Faith by Garth Allred (so good!), so for me, “The Jackrabbit Factor” was just a parable to help me understand faith in a better way. Yes, FAITH! I absolutely loved the book!!!!!!
The problem with “The Secret” is that it has some truths but just does not have “ALL” truth, if that makes sense.
Here’s the kicker! When I got home from the convention, “Hidden Treasures” was waiting for me on my doorstep. (I had ordered it after I read Jackrabbit). So I read it. It is the icing on the cake, the star on the tree, the absolute best book I’ve ever read. (and I thought Jackrabbit was!)
I learned that you cannot break a law, you can only break yourself against it. I learned about the Law of Perpetual Transmutation, the Law of Relativity, the Law of Vibration, the Law of Polarity, the Law of Rhythm, the Law of Cause and Effect, the Law of Gender, and the Vacuum Law of Prosperity. I’m not going to tell you about these laws because you need to read the book, but I will tell you that I have a testimony that the book is true.
Sister Leslie Householder has been blessed with an insight and has been inspired with the right stories to help us understand “FAITH” when we are in the place “spiritually” to do so. Yes, I said “Faith” again. Isn’t it true that there is no room for worry to have faith be present?!
Leslie told me in an email (I asked her about “The Secret”) that she “wrote Jackrabbit for the mass market to help good people from any religious background discover the connection between their thought and their results. There are families all over the world who struggle to make ends meet, and I thought that if it brings just ONE mother home from work to be with her children, then it was worth the effort. A child will benefit. Hidden Treasures was written primarily for those who struggle to reconcile the ideas with gospel.”
Basically, she said that the principles in “The Secret” are true principles, and the author can’t help what people do with those. If they choose to put money above their intimacy with God, then that is their own downfall. She said that she “stopped putting any energy into trying to convince people against their conscience, because it’s just better that they follow their feelings and allow the Spirit to lead them to whatever answers they seek.”
That thought is exactly how we ended our colloquium!
Heavenly Father doesn’t mind that we have money as long as we are doing something good with it. Isn’t it true that the more money we have the more opportunities we have to spend it in good ways? But will we?
That is the real secret!
Happy Reading!
Love, [Stephanie’s friend]
Thanks for sharing this snippet from history, Stephanie!
And to think, we might have been talking together about these principles 10 years earlier! Honestly, I think I may not have been ready for you. I am a different person today as well, and have since navigated a lot of pitfalls that people can fall into, in their walk with these principles. I feel better prepared now to help more people, more wisely, than I did back then.
So, it’s all good. We all learn when we’re ready. I’m sure there are many things that I am still blind to, and so I look forward to the day when I will be ready to learn those things as well, line upon line, as quickly as I am able to bear them.
As stated in Gaining Knowledge of Eternal Truths:
We gain knowledge of eternal truths a little at a time; we can learn all things as fast as we are able to bear them.
“It is not wisdom that we should have all knowledge at once presented before us; but that we should have a little at a time; then we can comprehend it.”22
“When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave.”23
…“God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them, for the day must come when no man need say to his neighbor, Know ye the Lord; for all shall know Him … from the least to the greatest.” [Emphasis added. See Jeremiah 31:34].”25 (“Chapter 22: Gaining Knowledge of Eternal Truths,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2011), 261–70)
Click here to read Hidden Treasures FREE
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Related: Is it safe to learn from Leslie Householder?
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Related: The power of your thoughts – podcast (from a religious perspective)
Related: What Boyd K. Packer says about these principles
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