554. Multiply and Replenish the Earth

In the Bible, we read about the story of the creation. It’s one of my most favorite Bible stories to read about, and at the end of that week-long experience, God creates man and woman, and then he commands us to multiply and replenish the Earth. And I don’t know about you, but I think that is a commandment that I have highly misunderstood and underestimated. And the way I’m thinking about it today is creating a lot of excitement, a lot of joy, and I want to offer it to you. If you are in my close circle of family and friends, you’ve heard me get super excited about this topic lately, and so I thought I’d share it right here on the podcast. Welcome to Better Than Happy. Let’s talk about multiply and replenish the Earth. Here we go.

Welcome to Better Than Happy, the podcast where we transform our lives by transforming ourselves. My name is Jody Moore. In the decade-plus I’ve been working with clients as a Master Certified Coach, I’ve helped tens of thousands of people to become empowered. And from empowered, the things that seemed hard become trivial, and the things that seemed impossible become available, and suddenly, a whole new world of desire and possibility open up to you. And what do you do with that?

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Hello, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining me today. Quick disclaimer: I’m not a biblical scholar here by any means, not even an expert in the scriptures, but I have been thinking a lot about this commandment to multiply and replenish the Earth. And the way that I think about it today has me really fired up. It’s also super relevant to a lot of the challenges and problems I see in clients as I’m coaching them. So maybe you can relate to some feelings of being stuck or feeling unfulfilled or feeling like you want to live your life in the way God wants you to. You want to serve, you want to give, you want to take care of your family. You want to be a good person, a good wife, mother, husband, father, etc. But then you also have these other desires and interests, and sometimes it feels like those things conflict, and it’s all kind of messy.

I see this a lot in LDS culture. I see it, obviously, with people in general, but especially women. And so I just want to offer you the way I’m thinking about all of this today. Now, again, this is not to say that I have any kind of absolute truth. You get to decide how you want to think about it. What I always am trying to empower you to do is to choose how you’re thinking about yourself and your life and your faith, what you believe existentially, intentionally. Choose it intentionally, meaning choose something that helps you feel how you want to feel and become who you want to become, show up in your life the way you want to, and create what you want to create. So that’s what we’re going to do today with this commandment.

So, when I went through coach training over 12 years ago, a lot of people in that community of people getting certified as coaches, right? Or building businesses or whatever it is people were doing with it, had a lot of goals and ambition. And people’s goals and ambitions were things that came up a lot in coaching. So working on building a business, for example, was the most common goal in that community. It brings up lots of opportunity to need coaching, to notice your own insecurities, your own fears, your own limiting beliefs, and to have to get comfortable working through all of that can be very useful. So I was used to this community where people were setting big goals. It wasn’t always around business, but lots of big, ambitious goals, and it was really exciting and fun because not only were people achieving great things, but the growth that was happening, just the evolution of people in that community was really inspiring.

And as I started my own business where I focused primarily on stay-at-home moms or women who were members of the LDS faith or had similar values, right? I noticed that kind of ambition wasn’t there at all. I would teach classes on setting big goals and pushing yourself and challenging yourself, and then I would ask my clients, “So what do you think you want to do?” And they would say things like, “Well, there’s some pictures I’ve been needing to hang up in the hallway. I need to get them matted and framed and hang them, and I’m going to finally do that. This is the week or this is the month I’m going to get that done.” And I was like, okay. I mean, nothing wrong with wanting to get it done, wanting to get something like that done, but that isn’t what I had in mind when I meant something big and challenging, right? Or they’d say things like, I just got to start going to bed earlier. I want to go to bed earlier. I want to get up earlier. I want to read my scriptures every day. I want to be more consistent at drinking water or exercising.

These are all things that don’t get me wrong. I get it. It’s hard to be consistent and it can be super hard to get yourself to do what might seem like not that big of a task, like hanging pictures or mailing a package or things like this. I get it. But what I wanted was to motivate people, inspire people, encourage people to set a goal to do something that they had no idea how to do. Something that would require that they learn new skills and that they get really uncomfortable and that they maybe fail a lot of times. Something that you would have to be really bad at before you got good at it. Now, again, trying to be consistent with your goals, I can see why people think that falls in that category because it is super hard to be consistent with good habits sometimes. But again, what I really want is to encourage people, and especially women, to push themselves outside of their comfort zones to grow and develop.

Number one reason, because of how good it is for our mental health. We are actually designed to strive for things, to be challenged, to grow and evolve, even into our adult years. I think we all understand this with young kids, right? We encourage our young kids to try out sports and to try new things. And then at a certain point, we all stop doing it. I don’t know why we stop doing it because it’s good for us at any age.

So as I started thinking more about this scripture to multiply and replenish the Earth, and I’ve heard other people talk about their interpretation of it, especially people who are Christian and who believe in the Bible, but not necessarily of the same faith tradition as me. So they maybe they understood it differently or were taught about it differently. I noticed that in my faith tradition, right? In the LDS faith tradition, I was always taught or understood that meant that we were supposed to have children. The way that we multiply and replenish the earth is by having children, which I still think that is part of what that scripture means. But there are many people who cannot have children for all kinds of reasons or will never have children for all kinds of reasons, right? They’re unable to, they don’t end up getting married, whatever, all kinds of reasons that would prevent someone, even someone who desperately wanted to be able to fulfill that commandment in that way, that they may not be able to. And I don’t think that means they’re not able to fulfill the commandment. And even for those of us that do have children, I think that’s only the beginning of that commandment. I don’t think it’s the end of it at all.

If you think about it, there are so many things on this earth that could use multiplication and replenishing. So many areas where having human beings contribute, innovate, make it better, make it more efficient, could really serve us. And we’ve seen this throughout all of our lifetimes, right? There’s no end to it. It’s not like everything’s good now. We don’t need to contribute more. We will always need to contribute more. There will always be more opportunity to make the world a better place. And each of us, created in God’s image, is here to contribute to that in some way, to contribute to making the world a better place. That is part of the plan when we came here to Earth.

So I think when God commanded us to multiply and replenish the Earth, he wasn’t just talking about keeping the human species alive. He says the Earth, the whole Earth. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it this way before, but when I started thinking about it this way, all of a sudden my mind was blown and I started seeing proof everywhere that this might be really what God intended.

So why do so many women in LDS culture especially not have ambition and goals? I shouldn’t say that they don’t have it. Some of them do have it, but they’ve been pushing it away. And some people are just more ambitious than other people. So I’m not talking about that you should be more ambitious than you are. I’m just talking about that there might be a part of you that you pushed away and buried that is trying to knock on the door. And if you feel unfulfilled, unsatisfied, or like you’re lacking in purpose. And maybe it’s because you’re raising a bunch of kids and there are other things that you kind of want to be doing, or maybe you raised kids and you loved that, but now your kids have left the house and you’re left feeling kind of lost. Or there can be a million other situations, right? What I’m saying is, you, my friend, and I, are meant to multiply and replenish the Earth. That’s why God reminded us to do that.

So why does that feel like such a challenge? Why do so many of us not even know what we want to do? Well, it’s because we have disconnected with our own wants and desires. That’s one reason. We spend so much time thinking about what everybody else around us needs, how to keep them happy, how to best take care of them and serve them. This is coming from a good place. This is coming from wanting to take care of our loved ones, from wanting to do what God wants us to do, from wanting to serve. It’s coming from a good place. And I think we should be doing all of that. I just don’t think it means that what we desire, what we’re interested in, what we’re curious about, what we kind of want to be doing, doesn’t matter. I think that matters tremendously. And I think if we can get back in touch with that, or better yet, never lose touch with that, if you’re in a phase of your life where you haven’t lost touch with it yet, that would serve all of us so much better. So much better.

So how do you stay in touch with that part of you or get back in touch with that part of you? You just pay attention to what you’re interested in, what you’re curious about. You feel this ting of like, that would be awesome, when you hear somebody talking about something that they do or something that they’re learning or something that they’re creating. What kind of is interesting to you? It might be something you’re very passionate about that totally lights you up, or it might be just something that kind of makes you go, huh, that’s interesting. Sounds interesting, right? So it doesn’t have to be a major passion that you’re totally aware of. For a lot of people, it’s a little subtle knock on the door that you got to make room for. You got to hear out. What are you willing to be uncomfortable for? I think that there’s this misleading idea that if you were following your passion or your curiosity or something that you’re interested in, then it would feel really good. But the truth is, parts of it would feel good, but there would be a lot of things you might need to do in order to do the part you enjoy that would be very uncomfortable or downright not fun.

So for me, 12 years ago when I discovered the tools of coaching and human development, human behavior, the way I teach it now, it was so exciting to me. I was so passionate about it. I loved helping people. I loved learning about it. I loved talking about it. I loved creating content to share it with others. I wanted to do that. But there were a whole bunch of things I had to do in order to do that. Like I had to figure out technology that I had no interest in learning. I had to learn how to build web pages. I had to and still have to write a whole bunch of emails. I have to sometimes create videos for social media. That’s not fun for me. There are so many things like that are not fun, but I’m willing to do them. I’m willing to be uncomfortable because of the parts that are fun, that come as a result of doing the other things. That’s what I want you to ask yourself. What are you excited enough that you’d be willing to be uncomfortable for? That might contribute to multiplying and replenishing the earth in some way. Contribute to what people need, contribute to the environment, contribute to any cause that you want to contribute to that is good. That’s what we’re designed to do.

Now, I want to be clear. If you’re doing things because you think you should, it’s not going to feel the same, and it’s not going to have the same effect. The things that we think we should do, we end up doing out of guilt and obligation. And we don’t get the same sense of fulfillment and motivation and get lit up about it. So I’m not saying that you can’t do things because you think you should. I’m just saying that if you’re going to truly multiply and replenish the Earth in the way God created you to, you’re going to need to find things to do just because you want to. Some of you tell yourself that you can’t do the things you want to do because you should be doing all these other things. And you don’t have the time or you don’t have the money or you don’t have the resources or you’re too old or you’re too young or you’re not educated enough or whatever, and then you limit yourself. This is going to impact you negatively. I promise. You already know it. It already does that, right? But what if you are actually meant to multiply and replenish the Earth in the way that you want to? Not every part of the Earth, not everything. We’re not all good at everything, but you have certain things that you’re interested in that you either have skills in or have the capacity to develop skills in, and that’s the area where I want you to multiply and replenish the Earth.

So what are you willing to be uncomfortable for? Now, I’m using the term uncomfortable, but I think at times it’s even stronger than that. I think it’s actually downright painful at times, right? Because if you’re going to multiply and replenish the Earth in these big ways that I’m talking about, then you’re going to be bad at things before you’re good at them. You are going to fail sometimes, or you’re going to try things that just don’t yield the result that you want. And that might be extremely painful. What are you willing to be in pain over? Those are the areas where I want you to think about multiplying and replenishing the Earth.

So, I’ve touched on this a little bit, but I want to circle back to one of the things that is preventing many people, especially women, from living their lives in this way. And that is an overfixation on trying to manipulate and control the people around you, probably your kids and your spouse, but maybe it’s other people that you’re very close to. Those are the main ones I hear. So when we become overly fixated on what they need, how they feel, what they want, what they prefer, we don’t have any capacity left for what we want and what we desire. Now, I’m not saying that it wouldn’t matter to you that you don’t want to be aware of what your kids and your husband want. But guess what? Sometimes you going out and multiplying and replenishing the Earth in the way that you’re meant to is going to mean that your kids and your spouse are going to have to sacrifice. Yeah, that’s right. They might not get as much time with you. You might not be as available to them. I think this is God’s plan. I think they’re supposed to also be uncomfortable at times. You’re not meant to sit by their side fulfilling their every need.

Now again, it’s interesting to me that a lot of women struggle with this. If I go pursue this thing, if I build this business, if I go back to school or if I contribute to this cause or explore this hobby, whatever it is, then it’s going to take time away from my family. And is that bad? And that’s a personal question that you get to answer. But interestingly enough, if they get a church calling that asks them to put a lot of time and effort, they don’t question, “Is that bad for my family?” It’s okay to do it in that case? Just something interesting to consider. Now again, I want you to be interested in what your family wants, of course. But what I find is that most people don’t give enough weight to what they want. So what your children and your spouse want or desire of you in terms of what you give to them, your time, etc. Let’s say it should count as maybe like two points, two points per thing that they desire, whereas what you want should count as 10 points. It should count more. It should be more relevant. Ultimately, you make the decision that feels right to you, but what you desire matters.

Another reason people struggle with this is because of scarcity. Scarcity is something that comes up around money and time, but not just that. It comes up in so many ways and it doesn’t just create problems with your finances and your time. It’s creating problems in literally how you’re living your life. So if we think, hey, if I go explore what I’m interested and what I’m passionate about and I spend some time developing myself and contributing and setting big goals, then it’s going to take away from other people. That’s scarcity. But this is something I learned from Myron Golden. He talks about this topic of multiplying and replenishing the Earth, and he talks about be fruitful, right? That’s what it says in the scriptures. Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the Earth. So what is a fruit? A fruit is an organism that has seeds inside it. It’s a living thing. And what happens when we humans eat the fruit? If I eat an apple, I release all the seeds inside the apple. And those seeds go on to create not just more apples, apple trees. So eating of the fruit is something I do for me to nourish me, to fulfill me, to sustain me.

So even if you just go after something because it sounds fun to you, because it sounds rewarding to you, because it’s going to nourish and fulfill and sustain you mentally, emotionally, intellectually, you will then release the seeds that God has planted within you, the seeds of his creation. You will be able to multiply what you take in ways that you may not even be aware of at this point. That’s how God created us to be like fruit. And he put seeds of his creation within each of us. And as we partake of the things that we’re interested in, it releases those seeds of creativity to be available in other ways. Such a beautiful plan, right?

Another thing that I see get in people’s way is this huge dilemma over, wait a second, is this really what God wants me to be doing? What does God want me to do with my life? How do I know what his desires are? I coach a lot of people who say, I have this desire, but I’m pretty sure God desires something different for me. And I say, well, how do you know? Now, I’m not discounting the fact that you have access to personal revelation and God can speak to you. I believe that. But you also have a human brain that doesn’t really want you to go multiply and replenish the Earth. It doesn’t want you to try things that are new, unknown, scary, uncomfortable, things that you could fail at, things that you might have to experience negative emotion over. Your brain doesn’t like that. It doesn’t want to do anything hard. It wants to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and save energy. And this commandment to multiply and replenish the Earth goes against all three of those things.

So your brain will take all kinds of what could be useful tools and use them to try to plead its case that we shouldn’t go do anything new or hard or scary. And it does this with religion as well. It does this with your belief in God. It says, you know, maybe God doesn’t want you to do that. And what it really means is that sounds hard and scary. I don’t want to do that. Part of me doesn’t want to. Another part of me really wants to, but part of me doesn’t want to, right?

I don’t know what God wants for you. I want you to be open to figuring that out, but I’m just going to tell you what I believe. I believe that most of the time, what God wants for me is to do what I want because he gave me those desires in the first place. He gave me those interests. You know how I know? We don’t all have the same interests. How does that make any sense? I love speaking on a stage. I’m a crazy person. I love giving talks. I love speaking on a stage. Most people hate that. They avoid it at all costs. They run away from having to give a talk, right? Why do I love speaking on a stage? Why did God give me that desire and that interest? I don’t know, but I think if I love it, it’s something I should be pursuing or I can pursue if I choose to. It might be one way that I can contribute to multiplying and replenishing the Earth, which will fulfill me and sustain me like eating an apple, and also release the seeds of creativity and multiplication that God has placed within me.

So what do you desire? What are you interested in? It doesn’t mean you have to go do everything that you’re interested in, but pick something that will challenge you, something that feels really difficult, something that’s impossible, at least impossible for you because you’ve never done it before. Maybe it’s impossible because nobody’s ever done it before. Those are the kinds of things that will multiply you and those around you.

So, in summary, reconnect with your desires and ask yourself, in what way do I want to first of all, grow myself, be creative myself, right? God, ultimate creator, created you in his image. You are a creator. So what do I want to create? Is it art? Would you call it art or would you call it something else? Is it spreadsheets? Is it organizing things? Is it data? What is it that you’re good at creating or that you’re interested in creating, that maybe you want to get good at? And then how do you multiply your goals, multiply your dreams? I love that it doesn’t say addition, it says multiplication. Multiplication means big. Think bigger, aim higher, and replenish, replenish yourself as you go. Take care of yourself and contribute to the replenishment of humankind and of the Earth in the process. That’s what that commandment includes along with having babies if you want to have babies. Just saying, maybe we’ve underestimated it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Come and find me. I’m on the social media. You can leave me a comment on YouTube, anywhere that works for you. Thanks for joining me today, everyone. I’ll see you next time on another episode. Take care.

Oh wow, look at that. You made it to the end. Your time and attention is valuable, and I don’t take it lightly that you made it this far. In fact, it tells me you might be like me; insatiably curious about people and life and potential and connection. Maybe you have big dreams but a small budget and no time. You’re tired, but bored. You’re content, but dissatisfied. Sound familiar? Come to a free coaching call and see for yourself what’s possible: JodyMoore.com/freecoaching to register. That’s JodyMoore.com/freecoaching.