I fought and cried with my own desire to learn how to ride a bicycle for days. Although my brother learned how to ride in one day and I took significantly longer I never doubted that I was intelligent.
I excelled in classes with only a couple teachers treating me less than the exceptional student I saw in my self. When I had my first academic difficulty as a senior in High School it was in an AP course. I gave myself the benefit of the doubt because it was an AP class and because I was certain that the teacher was just a jerk. I looked for any opportunity to sear his reputation to save mine in my own eyes, but wouldn't admit that it jarred my own sense of my intelligence.
I've had a few more knocks on my intelligence in the following years. I acknowledge this to you, because I feel keenly afraid of exposing my hubris with what I am hoping to do in these posts. I'm afraid of trying something that I believe requires a great deal of intelligence, and perhaps I will leave the task wanting.
I intend to write about what matters most. When discussing good things, or better, I would like to point to the best. I have intentioned to write talks on noble topics for years and failed to follow through on those intentions. Jesus said in Luke 14: "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?"
I do not propose to save souls with my words. I intend to save my own and to work out my salvation by working out a thorough understanding of the doctrines of Christ. I do believe that I have sufficient to finish that task--and keep this impersonal enough that others may find some of what I say useful.
There are others who were called without a chance to count the cost. I believe that some costs are innately within our reach.
