Last updated on October 20th, 2024 at 10:57 pm
October 13, 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?
- “I love this insight from Elder M. Russell Ballard about the importance of couples praying together. He said: ‘There is great power in prayer. … I’m wondering if many of you … couples have lost that essential moment of kneeling together at the end of the day, just the two of you, holding hands and saying your prayers. If that has slipped away from your daily routine, may I suggest you put it back – beginning tonight!’ (“The Sacred Responsibilities of Parenthood“, March 2006 Ensign) …
“I really value this counsel on couple prayers from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. He said: ‘[When Sister Holland and I were younger], at night we were exhausted. … We could hardly stay awake [during our couple prayer]. … We just decided that there’s no requirement that this has to be a prayer at 11:00 at night when you can hardly form the words – we just moved it up. … We just took a time and said we’re going to pray together earlier and it won’t be flopped against the bed or almost asleep by the time you get into the conversation with the Lord just out of fatigue. And it … materially changed our lives and our ability to make that evening prayer a meaningful experience with the Lord.’ (“Face to Face with President Eyring and Elder Holland“, March 4, 2017) …
“Elder Holland has also given similar advice for our personal prayers. He said: ‘If you wait until midnight, when you are exhausted, and then say your prayers, it might be only a half-hearted effort before you tumble into bed. Consider moving that prayer up to earlier in the evening, when you are alert and attentive and can make it more powerful. Prayer time ought to be quality time, not just time that happens to be left over when everything else is done.’ (“To ‘Hear Him’ Is the Essence of the Restoration”)”
Eye.
The Sunday sessions of the October 2024 General Conference:
- “In the Space of Not Many Years“, Elder David A. Bednar: “May I suggest that if you or I believe we are sufficiently strong and stalwart to avoid the arrogance of pride, then perhaps we already are suffering from this deadly spiritual disease. Simply stated, if you or I do not believe we could be afflicted with and by pride, then we are vulnerable and in spiritual danger. In the space of not many days, weeks, months, or years, we might forfeit our spiritual birthright for far less than a mess of pottage.
“If, however, you or I believe we could be afflicted with and by pride, then we consistently will do the small and simple things that will protect and help us become ‘as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us].’ ‘Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble.'”
Read.
James Clear 3-2-1 Newsletter – October 10, 2024:
- “Two is twice as good as one, but one is infinitely better than zero.
“One minute of making sales calls is infinitely better than zero minutes.
“One minute of meditation is infinitely better than zero minutes.
“One minute of writing is infinitely better than zero minutes.
“Sure, it might be ideal to spend an hour doing these things, but one minute gets you in the game. Now you’re learning. Now you’re improving. Now results are possible. One doesn’t seem like much, but it’s something real. At zero, you’re still dreaming.” - This reminds me of something I shared in General Conference Applied season 4 episode 0: “Rather than trying to take action on all [general conference] invitations (and thus, not taking action on any of them since that’s very overwhelming), take action on those invitations which will help you become more like Jesus Christ.”
💡
Each time I meet someone new and learn their name, silently ask myself this question: “Now that I know this person, how can I help them in the future?”
- Inspired by this quote from chapter two of ‘The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference‘ by Malcolm Gladwell:
“These people who link us up with the world, … who introduce us to our social circles – these people on whom we rely more heavily than we realize – are Connectors, people with a special gift for bringing the world together.
“What makes someone a Connector? The first – and most obvious – criterion is that Connectors know lots of people. They are the kinds of people who know everyone. All of us know someone like this, but I don’t think that we spend a lot of time thinking about the importance of these kinds of people. I’m not even sure that most of us really believe that the kind of person who knows everyone really knows everyone. But they do. …
[Then Gladwell shares this example of a Connector he met.] “Roger Horchow … is a successful businessman from Dallas. Horchow founded the Horchow Collection, a high-end mail order merchandise company. … Horchow is slender and composed. He talks slowly, with a slight Texas drawl. He has a kind of wry, ironic charm that is utterly winning. If you sat next to Roger Horchow on a plane ride across the Atlantic, he would start talking as the plane taxied to the runway, you would be laughing by the time the seatbelt sign was turned off, and when you landed at the other end you’d wonder where the time went. …
“When I met him, I became convinced that knowing lots of people was a kind of skill, something that someone might set out to do deliberately and that could be perfected, and that those techniques were central to the fact that he knew everyone. I kept asking Horchow how all of the connections in his life had helped him in the business world, because I thought that the two things had to be linked, but the questions seemed to puzzle him. It wasn’t that his connections hadn’t helped him. It was that he didn’t think of his people collection as a business strategy. He just thought of it as something he did. It was who he was. Horchow has an instinctive and natural gift for making social connections. He’s not aggressive about it. He’s not one of those overly social, back-slapping types for whom the process of acquiring acquaintances is obvious and self-serving. He’s more an observer, with the dry, knowing manner of someone who likes to remain a little bit on the outside. He simply likes people, in a genuine and powerful way, and he finds the patterns of acquaintanceship and interaction in which people arrange themselves to be endlessly fascinating.”