Last updated on March 17th, 2024 at 09:50 pm
March 10, 2024
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (💡) I developed.
What?
- “Well, I start my mornings on my knees. And while I get ready in the morning, I actually listen to the words of President Russell M. Nelson. It’s the very best way for me to start my day, is to hear His voice and His reassurance of the promises that are available to us if we follow the Prophet — the Lord’s mouthpiece and the watchman on the tower.” (President Camille N. Johnson)
- Also shared in General Conference Applied season 2 episode 23.
Eye.
“What Is so Amazing about Grace?“, November 10, 2009, BYU Hawaii Speech, Sister Camille Fronk Olson (Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University):
- “The catalyst for me occurred about 25 years ago, coming in the form of a student’s observation about her former LDS ward. I had been teaching released-time seminary for about five years when a student I had taught when she was a sophomore came back to visit me when she was a senior in high school. After a few pleasantries, she informed me that she was no longer attending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; she told me she now attended a Protestant church in the area. I felt as though she wanted me to react with alarm when she made this announcement, so I remained calm and simply said, Oh, that is interesting, what led you to that decision? Her answer shook me from my calm demeanor because it was not at all what I expected. She said, When I attended my LDS ward, we talked about being honest, the importance of reading scriptures and getting married in the Temple, and the importance of a living prophet, but I never heard much about Jesus Christ. In this new church I attend, Jesus is the heart and soul of all their sermons. My first reaction was denial. In my thoughts I was arguing that she wasn’t listening when she had attended the LDS Church because certainly the Savior is at the heart of all that we believe and understand. In an attempt to validate these assumptions, I asked all of the students in my five classes the next day what they thought of this girl’s observations about her ward. To my amazement, the great majority in every class agreed with her, concluding that we didn’t speak, teach, or mention much about the Savior other than in our hymns and at the end of prayers and talks. I made a silent vow that day that I would never teach a lesson or give a talk without making a connection between the topic or scripture block and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My motivation in the beginning was to prove to my students that we did indeed teach of Christ and rejoice in Christ. That reason, however, changed rather quickly. In seeking to find connections to the Savior and His Atonement to present in class, I discovered a deeper, more meaningful scripture study experience. Instead of looking first for ways that the passage applied to me, I sought to understand what it taught about the Redeemer. Students responded to our class discussions differently after I consistently made connections to the Atonement. There was a feeling of reverence in the room. After class, students often reported that the scriptures we had explored that day were the very ones that they needed in their personal challenges. Perhaps most dramatic, I noticed a change that was occurring in me. My reverence for the Redeemer increased beyond anything I had previously known. I also found a new sense of confidence that motivated me to action. I wanted to do and say whatever the Lord wanted me to do and say and felt an added energy to actually do it. Too often before this experience, I had looked beyond the mark, or the target upon which to focus. Looking beyond the Savior, I stumbled trying to explain tangents and ancillary principles, getting caught up in faddish topics scintillating stories instead of remembering the foundation of faith in Christ and repentance through the Atonement. During Ezra Taft Benson’s presidency, he often reminded the membership of the Church about the revelation given to Joseph Smith about the Church being under condemnation because of the Book of Mormon. And [the church] shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written (D&C 84:57). Many thought he meant that we needed to read the Book of Mormon more often. Although frequent study of this great book of scripture is always a great habit, my experience with finding connections to Christ in all scripture suggested there was something more. Shortly after President Benson passed away, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve reviewed the many speeches that he gave on the subject and concluded that the President of the Church had something more specific in mind. In my opinion, he wrote, one of the principal reasons our Heavenly Father had His prophet direct us into a more intensive study of the Book of Mormon is to help us counteract [the] modern tendency to try to diminish the divinity and mission of our Savior…. In too many of our classes, in too many of our worship services, we are not teaching of Christ and testifying of Christ in the way that we should.”
- Also shared in General Conference Applied season 2 episode 23.
Read.
“The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life” by Robin Sharma:
- “‘Nelson Mandela wrote, ‘As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.’ … ‘Mr. Mandela came into this cell as a hot-headed, angry, hostile and militant young man. It was who he grew into here in this prison that made him the icon we all now revere. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu taught us, ‘suffering can either embitter us or ennoble us.’ … ‘All the best men and women of the world have one thing in common,’ said The Spellbinder: ‘extreme suffering. And each of them evolved into their greatness because they chose to leverage their circumstances to heal, purify and uplift themselves.’ … ‘To lead is to inspire others by the way that you live. To lead is to walk through the fires of your hardest times to step up into forgiveness. To lead is to remove any form of mediocrity from infiltrating the quarters of your life in a dazzling celebration of the majesty that is your birthright. To lead is to turn your terrors into triumphs and translate each of your heartbreaks into heroism. And more than all else, to lead is to be a force for good on this tiny planet of ours. Today, you get to accept this grand call to raise the standard by which you live out the remainder of your life.'”
- Also shared in General Conference Applied season 2 episode 23.
💡
Any time we encounter a situation in which the natural man or natural woman in us wants to raise our voice (especially with our children), that’s a good indication that we should actually speak more softly. This will probably require us to get close to the person so that they can hear us.
- Inspired by my interactions with my children this week.