Randolph Harris II International

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Kindness is the Essence of a Celestial Life

 

 

 Kindness is how Godlike people treat others and should permeate all our words, education, works, and actions. The temporal aspects of exchange relations allow the development of emergent aspects of the relations, such as trust, commitment, solidarity, investments, concerns about justice and equity, and contractual agreements. The most important single feature of the exchange process is the tendency for actors to become—through exchange—drawn into patterns of more or less lasting mutual dependency. However, if one person is more powerful and uses that power advantage to gain benefits, that individual or organization becomes more dependent and the advantage is lost. That is why reciprocity is important is business and intimate relationships. Reciprocity is developed and woven into good enough relationships, sometimes without participants knowing what they are doing. If a relationship is important enough to them, partners will be emotionally invested in it enough to work at building and maintaining it. Business reciprocity as a strategy has huge advantages. People do business with those they know, like, and trust. When you give first, without expecting anything in return, it goes a long way in helping to build the like and trust factor. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

What is your business giving away? What product, service, bit of knowledge, or piece of information could you charge for, but should probably give away instead? When you give away valuable information or goods and services for free, your business has greatly increased its credibility and likelihood of picking up new customers through this strategy. When someone foes you a solid favor, you feel compelled to return the favor. The same goes for your customers. No good deed goes unpunished. It is completely counterintuitive, but without fail, when you give first (without expecting anything in return), you will get back much more than you initially gave. Competitors may use you, possibly. However, whose credibility and reputation just went up, your business who is providing enormous value for free, or your competitor, who is now trying to sell what you are giving away for free? (Believe this, your competitors will not try to repay a good deed, and if they are stealing your material, they will not understand how or why the law of reciprocity works.) Some of the benefits include search engine optimization, increased brand recognition, and customer loyalty. A charity enduring long, and is kind, and fair, and is not ostentatious, is not easily provoked.  #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

If we are not kind to others, we do not honor God. When a competitor is using you or your business and providing no benefit in return, and they become dependent on you, the coalition formation will transform the structure of the network, redistributing power to your advantage, and eventually you will be able to vertically integrate markets and channels of distribution. Vertical integration is a strategy where a company expands its business operations into different steps on the same production path, such as when a manufacturer owns its supplier and/or distributor. Family lines can be analyzed similarly with kin-based economic opportunities flowing down and filial loyalty and support flowing up across generations. Examples of negatively connected networks include competitive economic market structures, dating networks and friendship networks. Most concrete networks involve connections of both types. If we do not have charity, we are nothing, for charity never fails. Therefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail, but charity is the pure love of God, and it will endure forever, and those whoso are found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with God. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

 

Judging from the frequent occurrence of such words as power, influence, dominance, and submission, status, and authority, the importance of power is widely recognized. When I was in college and studying for my final examines, my grandmother asked me did I pray to God to help me on my exams. Even though I was raised in the church, I did not understand, at that time, how God could help me with my education. I did not yet see spirituality as a holistic concept. Nevertheless, I prayed to God and that semester in college I got a 3.83 grade point average, and the next semester God helped me earn a 4.0 grade point average and I was accepted into an honors program to attend college overseas. Each student had to have a 4.0 grade point average to be accepted. Power relations are frequently intransitive. The scriptures teach us that the righteous exercise of our ability is dependent upon our living the principles of kindness, charity, and love. By kindness, and pure knowledge, we shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile. Social structure is created, maintained, and changed through symbolic interaction, and once created is a constraining interaction. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

If people do something anyway, there is no need to have a norm prescribing it. The norm is redundant. It is a waste of time prescribing things that people are going to do even if they are not prescribed. Let us examine our lives and determine to follow the Savior’s example by being kind, loving, and charitable. And as we do so, we will be in a better position to call down the powers of Heaven for ourselves, for our families, and for our fellow travelers in this sometimes difficult journey back to our Heavenly home. We have a deep tendency to create social ties through exchange of gifts. Exchange theory offers a soft interpretation of power. Exchange theory emphasizes mutually beneficial exchange rather than coercion. Therefore, power inequalities are seen to result from asymmetric or unilateral exchange. Stated differently, power inequality stems from unequal dependence. However, a person does not necessarily require a Church calling, an invitation to help someone, or even good healthy to become an instrument in God’s hands. Domination is usually found in institutionalized forms of power called authority, embedded in or deriving from a legitimate social order. Both weak and the strong party can gain through the yielding act of a weak person. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

Power, like exchange, can be symmetrical and even equal. Domination can take purely coercive forms, but taken by itself, coercive rule is unstable and costly. Stable and enduring forms of domination are based upon claims of and beliefs in the legitimacy of domination (including the right to use coercive force). When legitimized, domination is called authority. Different bases for legitimacy generate qualitatively different systems of authority. Three pure types of authority can be analytically distinguished, deriving their legitimacy from rational-legal, charismatic, and traditional sources. Concrete empirical systems approximate those types in varying degree. However, none of the forms of domination can be conceptualized properly on the basis of exchange. Charity and love are the greatest principles in existence. If we can lend a helping hand to the oppressed, if we can assist those who are despondent and in sorrow, if we can uplift and ameliorate the condition of humankind, it is our mission to do it, it is an essential part of our religion to do it. When we feel love for God’s children, we are given opportunities to help them in their journey back to his presence. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

Power and influence are based upon exchange processes, but domination and authority are not. There are two diametrically contrasting types of domination. Domination by virtue of constellation of interests (in particular: by virtue of a position of monopoly), and domination by virtue of authority. The purest type of the former is monopolistic domination in the World; of the latter, patriarchal, magisterial, or princely power.  God has asked us to journey, go on missions, accept callings, invite someone to church, or help someone in need. The Lord will grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with the, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, others to the knowledge of truth. Do we really want to be instruments in God’s hands? If so, our desire will permeate our prayers and be for focus of our reality. It may be conformity with respect to a belief, an attitude, a value, a behavior; it may be conceptualized as deviance from one set of norms, that than adherence to another; it may be thought of as conformity to the norms of a group to which the individual aspires to belong rather than to those of one in which he or she currently hold membership. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

What do all of these have in common in shaping of behavior, feeling, or thought in accordance with that of a referent, and to the extent that such attitudes and behaviors are organized around a particular social status (student, mother, father, teacher), the consequence of normative reference orientation is socialization or anticipatory socialization. It illuminates social mobility, acculturation, attitude change. May our minds be enlightened and the cloud of darkness lifted from us. Let us see with our spiritual eyes. Financial difficulty is a reality faced by millions of people. There is precious little money for the essentials—things like food, mortgage, rent, car repairs, and luxuries like dining out and going to the opera or theater. That is a reality in many households. However, fear not. God is there and he has already given you the key to prosperity: prayer. It is not just a matter of asking for money, there is more to it than that. God, we come to you with thanksgiving for all you have given us, and how you have blessed and sustained us for all this time. We lift up to you our finances and that you for your words and promises that you will supply all of our needs. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

We pray that you will bless us with your provision now. Open the storehouse of Heaven and pour financial blessings up us. Give us wisdom as to how to handle all finances, and keep us from making any foolish decisions. Bless our work with success. Reveal to us how we can earn more and handle our finances more efficiently. Show us where we have spent unwisely and how we can reduce our debt and expenses. Show us if we are doing what you want us to do, or if you have other work for us. Open our eyes to see where we are not ling your way with regard to our finances. Teach us how to spend, save, invest and better organize our money and resources such a land, estates, travel, and other forms of capital. We know that our true treasure is found in you. Forgive us for any times when we have not fully loved out that truth. We choose to seek you, God, and your kingdom first and foremost in our lives, trusting that you will provide all we require. It is our glory that we may be an instrument in the hands of God, to bring some soul to repentance; and this is our joy. May our confidence in God increase. God treasures those who help his children (grown and youthful). Kindness is key to a celestial life.  #RandolpHarris 9 of 9