You would think it was the forth quarter of the last frame of the World Series.   Independence is a great and essential skill and one that should certainly be encouraged. First, we should understand who we are. Before we were born, our spirits dwelt in Heaven with our Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, who is our elder brother. We were faithful to him during that period of our existence. Had we not been faithful, we would have followed Satan as did one-third of the hosts of Heaven. This would have prevented our coming to this Earth as mortal beings, which was necessary if we were ultimately to attain eternal life and return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. We were faithful, and we are here in mortality with all the potentiality of exaltation. As mortal beings now, we have our free agency to choose whom we will follow, either Satan or the Savior. People often times thing they know someone because they grew up around that person, but actually have not had much contact with them to see how they have developed, what they think, what they think about and the new skills they have learned to help them deal with the World. Remember that you are free to act for yourself—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

Emotional literacy blends emotional sensitivity, understand, and savvy. It means knowing what you are feeling while you are feeling it, and being able to both contain and openly express it.  Our mortal environment and its influences upon us may be somewhat different from those of our premortal existence. If you are constantly aggravating a person to get a reaction, pumping them for information, or hacking into their electronic letters to figure them out, you will actually not get to know a person that way. In fact, they may even be aware of your efforts and might be planting information for you to discover. In the process, you could be annoying a person to the point that they do not like you, have detached from you and no longer view you as someone they admire or want to get to know. While a person is growing up their interest and behaviors change, while you may have done all the development you will do. After a while, the person you are spying on will also see they do not really know you, nor what you are capable of and will want nothing to do with you. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

From teen years to becoming a young adult, a person wants to know who they are and what they stand for. Some people may find that they want perfect apple pie life, which means a nice house, nice car, family and to make an honest living. It is also during this time that a developing adult may start looking into different forms of spirituality, and as they get involved in these new waves of belief and belonging they may stick with their new beliefs and further develop them. If a person can see that along their journey you have not been a good influence, they may want nothing to do with you. Being children of God, we are created in his image. In other words, our physical appearance is similar to his, just as it is to our Earthly father. Therefore, recognizing that we are created in his image, that this human form of flesh and bone is the tabernacle for our spirits in this mortal life, the we have had the wisdom to make proper choices in the life before this, and further that it should not be difficult to catch the vision of the responsibilities associated with such blessings and responsibilities. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

Empathy helps keep us from getting numb, heady, or overly detached. It begins with and reinforces vulnerability. Many of you are already set in your ways, become involved in criminal activity, and ruined your reputation, home, and family. Meanwhile, people who are still developing yet and have not gotten the career they wanted nor have had a chance to form a family are trying to live right so they can become the ideal vision of themselves. The Lord defined some very basic differences between men and women. He gave the male what we call masculine traits and the female what we call feminine traits. He did not intend either of the genders to adopt the other’s traits, but rather than men should look and act like men, and that women should look at act like women. When these differences are ignored, some unwholesome relationships develop, which, if not checked, can lead to reprehensible, and tragic sins. Infidelity and promiscuous sex activity destroy the basic, vital institution of the family, which in turns destroys all that is good in life, and brings disgrace to ourselves. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

An important step in developing greater emotional literacy is uncovering whatever some you might have about your lack of such literacy. Many boys—and men—have been taught, however indirectly, not to lean in the direction of better knowing their emotions, as if doing so is something only for girls and women. Unfortunately being emotional is still commonly equated with being female, and being rational with being male. However, each of your emotions is worth getting to know very, very well—its nature, is purpose, its expression, its containment, its value, your history with it, your use and misuse of it. Acknowledging the fact that this mortal body is the tabernacle of the spirit and that the spirit was fathered by our Father in Heaven, it behooves us to show respect for our bodies by not abusing them through the use of harmful and destructive substances. Some of us have a responsibility to completely abstain from the use of such things as alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. To turn toward your pain is to face it and take your conscious awareness into it, sensing it from inside and letting yourself truly feel and be wit it without trying to distract yourself from it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

Relating to your pain as an explorer relates to new territory is an enormously important step in our personal evolution. Honesty and sincerity are the basic virtues of a noble character. It is impossible to associate adulthood with dishonesty. To be just with one’s self, one must be honest with one’s self and with others. This means honesty in speech as well as in actions. It means to avoid telling half-truths as well as untruths. It means that we are honest in our dealings—in our buying as well as in our selling. You cannot emerge from your pain unless you enter it, and this beings with turning toward it. An honest debt can never be outlawed, and that person’s word is better than his or her bond. It means that we will be honest in our dealings with the Lord, for true honesty takes into account the claims of God as well as those of humans; it renders to God the things that are God’s, as well as to humans the things that are humans. The more I study the Lord, the more I want to rebuke even the couple of bad habits I have. This required me to let go of some people in my life and to take the higher road when people bother me. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

Pain is basically an unpleasant sensation, an inevitable part of life, but suffering is something that we are doing with our pain, dramatizing it to the point where we lose ourselves in it. Each one of us carries the reputation of our family on our shoulders. If we honor our family, we will be honest in all our dealings. We will be people of integrity, totally dependable. If we do this, we will bring honor to ourselves, our families, our church, and our God. Certainly our Father in Heaven will be proud to acknowledge us as his children and it will make others want to be around us, not because of our academic prowess alone, but because of the kind of people we are, people of honesty and integrity. God said, “People who work in deceit shall not dwell within my house: one that tells lies shall not tarry in my sight.” (Ps. 101.7.) During a meeting, my advisor asked me what I do with my day, and I told her how a big chunk of it is spent in Bible study. In fact, I spend 3-5 hours a day in Bible study, and the Church has helped me far more than I know. Because we spend so much time studying the ways of God, each and every day, I want to make sure God is proud of me. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

The thing about God is he is always watching and one cannot convince him of things that are untrue. I have even stopped taking certain route home to avoid haughty young women who want to simply have conversation. People of God are to be so distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards others. We should be perfectly honest and upright in all things, and be firm in the faith of Christ. I want whoever is in my life to be able to completely trust me and know what I am doing so that if they ask me a question they will know that I am telling the truth to them. There may be things I am dealing with and stuff in my private journal that I cannot talk about in certain settings, as it is not appropriate because in that forum it is out of context or needs more explanation, but that is why people are allowed privacy. Empathy also needs an empathic boundary, meaning space to not get overly absorbed in or identify with others’ emotional states so you can keep them in clear focus, resonating with what that individual is feeling without getting lost in it yourself. It is important not to dehumanize others, they are not open books and we should not be able to provoke situations and then pry into their personal space to paint an inaccurate landscape of them.  #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

Challenge is the part of our path and can take many forms-ranging from the most aberrant to the most ennobling—but its call is to be met and how it is met is the foundational aspect of adulthood. Sometimes the deeper challenge is to reject or turn away from what is being presented, saying no to what others are insisting is right for us to pursue, so that we might more fully align ourselves with more worthy, more relevant challenges. We have to do more than meet someone else’s standards. Integrity implies trustworthiness and incorruptibility to a degree that one is incapable of being false to trust, responsibility, or pledge. Honesty implies a refusal to lie, steal, or deceive in any way. We have a mission in this World: each man, each woman, and each child who has grown to understanding or to the years of accountability, ought to be an example to the World. They ought not only to be qualified to preach the truth, to bear testimony of the truth, but ought to lives so that the very life they live, the very words they speak, their every action in life will be a sermon to the unwary and to the ignorant, teaching them goodness, purity, uprightness, faith in God and love for the human family. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

The theory of illumination affirms God’s omnipresence unambiguously. God is in all things, not, indeed, as part of their essence, or as a quality, but in the manner that an efficient cause is present to that on which it acts. Hence God is in all things, and intimately. The transcendent God is present (even when unrecognized) at the ground or apex of the soul. Let every person’s life be so that one’s character will bear closest inspection, and that it may be seen as an open book, so that one will have nothing to shrink from or be ashamed of. Communication works best when there is not only mutual emotional transparency and empathy, but also an established, well-anchored trust. Such trust provides a safe place to let go of playing it safe, providing a stable sanctuary for the deepest kind of sharing. Some people do need closure for situations that have been going on a lifetime, which they cannot escape from. It is not the same as a relationship abruptly ending. That can be easy to let go of and move on from. However, when something involves your life and you cannot escape from it, that is when closure and justice becomes important. You are about to see the favor of God profusely abound in your life. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

You are coming into floods of healing, floods of wisdom, floods of good breaks, floods of mercy. Get ready for it. It is headed your way. Let all people who are elevated to positions of trust in the Church live so that no person can justly accuse them of wrongdoing, because they do not wrong; that no one can point out their defects as human and as weak mortals because they are living up to the principles of the gospel, and are not merely weak human creatures, devoid of the Spirit of God and the power to live above sin. That is the way for all people to live in the kingdom of God. Because you honor God, he will do in a fraction of the time what should have taken you a lifetime to accomplish. The first and highest standard of correct living is to be found in that individual responsibility which keeps people for the truth’s sake. It is not difficult for people who are true to themselves to be true to others. The best time to let go of bad relationships is when things are going good for that person because it can be hard for us to let go of people when things are going bad for them. People who honor God in their private lives do not need the restraint of public opinion which may not only be indifferent, but absolutely wrong. When I was younger, I had a dream car, but now I have a dream house that I want. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God. No member in good standing in the Church will be drunken nor riotous nor profane nor will take advantage of others, nor will violate the principles of virtue and honor and righteousness. God is the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. As children of God, we have an obligation to bring honor to his name. We are his emissaries in the World. God has shown unbounded love for us through the blessing of our hearts, blessings that were produced by superior wisdom and virtue so that we might have eternal life. In return for all of these blessings, God wants us to prove we love him by keeping his commandments. God is about to release everything that belongs to you. It will happen sooner than you think and be bigger than you imagined. He will bring out gifts and talents that you did not even know you had. God will open up new doors of opportunity. God loves to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond. God will accelerate things in our lives more perfectly each day I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12