Last updated on September 22nd, 2024 at 08:37 am
September 15, 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?
followHim Podcast – Helaman 13-16 – Sister Sheri Dew:
- [Sister Sheri Dew] “I literally have made lists of people trying to think: ‘Is there anybody I really would trust more to give me counsel for my life?’ I can’t come up with anybody, and I’ve made long lists many, many times, sometimes on a long flight. ‘Okay, think of anybody you can think of Sheri.’ It doesn’t happen. I want to read this statement from President Hinckley if I could. He said it this way: ‘We have only the Lord’s agenda. There are those who criticize when we issue a statement of counsel or warning. Please know that our pleadings are not motivated by any selfish desire. Please know that our warnings are not without substance and reason. Please know that the decisions to speak out on various matters are not reached without deliberation, discussion, and prayer. Please know that our only ambition is to help each of you with your problems, your struggles, your families, your lives.'”
Eye.
President Nelson’s 100th Birthday Celebration:
- [President Russell M. Nelson] “The length of your life is not as important as the kind of life that you live. For each of us, even for a 100-year-old man, life passes quickly. My prayer is that you will let God prevail in your life. Make covenants with Him. Stay on the covenant path. Prepare to return to live with Him again. With joy in my heart, and a spirit of deep thanksgiving, I express my love for you, dear brothers and sisters. Humbly, I invoke a blessing on each precious one of you.”
Read.
“The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Daniel J. Levitin:
- “We tend to have a very difficult time ignoring information that has been shown later to be false. Suppose you’re trying to decide between job A and job B; you’ve been offered positions in both companies at the same rate of pay. You start making inquiries, and a friend tells you that the people at company A are very difficult to get along with and that, moreover, there have been a number of sexual harassment suits filed against the company’s management. … A few days later, you and your friend are talking, and your friend apologizes, saying that she confused company A with a different company with a similar name – the evidence on which your first conclusion was made has been summarily removed. Dozens of experiments have shown that the original knowledge – now known to be false – exerts a lingering influence on your judgments; it is impossible to hit the reset button. …
“Nicholas Epley says that we are unaware of the construction of our beliefs and the mental processes that lead to them, in most cases. Consequently, even when evidence is explicitly removed, the beliefs persist.
“Belief perseverance shows up in everyday life with gossip. Gossip is nothing new of course. It is among the earliest human foibles documented in writing, in the Old Testament and other ancient sources from the dawn of literacy. Humans gossip for many reasons: It can help us feel superior to others when we are otherwise feeling insecure about ourselves. It can help us to forge bonds with others to test their allegiance – if Tiffany is willing to join in the gossip with me against Britney, I can perhaps count on Tiffany as an ally. The problem with gossip is that it can be false. This is especially the case when the gossip is passed through the ears and mouths of several people, each of whom embellishes it. Due to belief perseverance, faulty social information, based on an outright lie or a distortion of the facts, can be very difficult to eradicate. And careers and social relationships can become difficult to repair afterward.”
💡
Create a schedule with 180 addresses delivered in some format by President Russell M. Nelson, from newest to oldest, to listen to in between each general conference. Start by listening to his most recent address, and then work back from there. His 100+ general conference addresses would be included in this schedule, as would his 23 BYU devotionals, numerous church magazine articles, and other broadcasts. This idea was inspired by the following quote:
- Church News Podcast Episode 205: Celebrating President Nelson’s century of service ahead of his birthday: [President Camille N. Johnson] “I’ve had the opportunity to look into the eyes of our Prophet, who I know to be the Lord’s mouthpiece on the earth today, and feel the love of my Savior through him. What I wish for all of my sisters around the world is to have an experience feeling the love of our Savior through the words of our Prophet. And while I realize that I have been uniquely blessed to be physically present with him, all of us have an opportunity to have that experience as we listen to and study his words.
“You know, President Nelson has given 112 conference talks. I’ve studied all of them. I’ve made it a personal habit to listen to President Nelson every morning before I leave for the day. It’s made a remarkable difference in my life. I leave the house more joyful and more optimistic because he is. It sets my resolve more firmly on the covenant path. I think celestial. I think I’m a better peacemaker. When I listen to President Nelson’s words each morning, it stills me for the challenges of the day.
“And so I invite my sisters, my brothers and sisters and friends of all faiths, to listen to President Nelson, to study his words. I trust that as you do, you will feel the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is clearly one of his primary roles as our Prophet to invite the Savior, Jesus Christ, into our lives as he witnesses of His reality. He’s outward facing, and yet — this is one of the qualities, I think, that I admire most about President Nelson — of course he’s outward facing, he’s a Prophet to the world; and yet, when you’re with him, he makes you feel like you’re the most important person there. When he looks into your eyes, it’s with all sincerity and graciousness that he addresses you, that he communicates his love and his confidence in you.
“You can absolutely feel prophetic direction coming in a council, where a matter has been discussed, he’s heard the wisdom of his two counselors sitting on either side of him, and then it comes, and it really is almost like a rush of wind. You can feel it. It fills up the whole room. This is prophetic direction. It’s remarkable. And yet, I can have that rush, that exhilaration, I can have the Spirit speak to me in that same way when I listen to his words and when I study his words.
“That experience does not have to be unique to me. It can be an experience that all of us have when we explore prayerfully, and inviting the Spirit into that exploration, the words of a mighty Prophet. And part of my testimony that he is who he says he is is from my study, hearing that, seeing that, feeling it. But you have to get in there. You have to get in there and study his words. And I fear that we’re looking for answers in places where we’re not going to find truth. I know we’ll find truth with the Prophet.” - I also shared this quote in General Conference Applied season 3 episode 24.