In a World of accusations and unfriendliness, it is easy to gather and cast stones. However, before we do so, let us remember to put down our stones. Let us be kind. Let us forgive. Let us talk peacefully with each other. Let the love of God fill our hearts. We should always focus out efforts on acts of kindness, forgiveness, and charity, instead of negative behavior. Let us not seek revenge nor allow our wrath to overcome us. People who are merciful will obtain mercy. There is enough heartache and sorrow in this life without our adding to it through our own stubbornness, bitterness, and resentment. We are not perfect. The people around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy, disappoint, and anger. In this mortal life it will always be that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such things. This is the Lord’s way. We should lay our burdens at the Savior’s feet. Let go of judgment. Allow the Atonement to change and heal our heart. We must love one another and forgive one another. Creation is not merely a belief about how everything began; it is how we view all life including our own. It means that we place the highest value on all life on Earth. Pretechnological societies lived in close dependence on Earth.  The daily struggle for food and shelter, at the mercy of natural forces and the changing seasons, led to a profound respect for the environment. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

With technological mastery has come a different attitude: one that sees the Earth as there to be plundered and exploited. Now we are reaping the whirlwind: with climate change, crises over access to water and food, destruction of habitat and the rapid extinction of species. It is not clear whether the Earth can still renew itself or whether the damage has gone too far. It is also not clear that there is the will to stop, to restore this beautiful blue plane, our only delicate home. We have been given the Earth to look after and to hold it in trust for future generations. If the Earth is to sustain our children and succeeding generations, this clearly places limits on how we treat the Earth. We live in a World that responds to our longing; it is a place where the echoes always return, even if sometimes slowly. The hunger to belong is at the heart of our nature. Cut off from others, we atrophy and turn in on ourselves. The sense of belonging is the natural balance of our lives. Because of its association with increased social cohesion, encouraging participation in the community could be a safe and effective mental health promotion strategy. To derive mental health benefits from increasing levels and breadth of community participation, it is essential for involvement to be perceived as enjoyable and sufficient. People need different strategy methods to extract mental health benefits from enhancing community participation. Most people benefit from higher levels of involvement overall, from greater extent of immersion, and from enjoying their engagement in the community. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

However, the pressure on people engage in types or levels of community participation that they perceive to be unenjoyable or excessively demanding of their time could be counterproductive and have a harmful effect on mental health because it is perceived as restrictive social norms. When people become isolated, we are prone to being damaged; our minds lose their flexibility and natural kindness; individuals become vulnerable to fear and negativity. The ancient and eternal values of human life—truth, unity, goodness, justice, beauty, and love—are all statements of true belonging; they are also the secret intention and dream of human longing. Distance awakens longing; closeness is belonging. Our hunger to belong is the longing to find a bridge across the distance from isolation to intimacy. By combining our strength, it helps work to be done and burdens to be carried. A central element of family and community is interdependence: all are needed and valued and each person is important to the whole. We must not shut ourselves out nor isolate ourselves from opportunities because of the differences we perceive in ourselves. Instead, let us share our gifts and talents with others, bringing brightness of hope and joy to others, and in so doing lift our own spirits. At some level, each of us has always known that we have attracted people, things and events into our lives based on our thoughts. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

One law of energy is that energy of a certain quality or vibration tends to attract energy of a similar quality and vibration. Our thoughts and feelings can alter our energy field and influence the collective experience of others. We should know that we unconditionally deserve love, attention and miracles because we are a perfect creation of God. It is also important to find time to be at peace. Amidst the clutter and chatter of our minds and everyday life, it is very difficult to listen to the gentle messages that our souls give us. Many people have lost touch with the inner direction that we are constantly afforded. It is then no surprise that we do not know what our true desires are. However, a perfect oneness will save a people. And a perfect oneness will save our society. Bonds with other people can become causes for happiness. Supportive social networks can better against stress. The feeling of being connected to others can be a protective factor against depression. Among students, a sense of belonging in the group with peers and teachers can beneficially affect academic performance and motivation. For people in their career field, when individual feel a sense of belonging and attachment to their colleagues, it can be a better motivating factor than money. Being in the right place can also contribute to a meaningful life because there is a sense that our hard work and dedication has paid off, and that promotes a sense of lasting and continuity. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

In social identity theory, the group membership is not something foreign nor artificial which is attached to a person, it is a real, true and vital part of the person. This truth elevates the human family. Men and women are wonderous creations endowed with divine attributes. We strive to care for ourselves and sacrifice to help those in need. The underprivileged labor for what they receive and seek the betterment of others as well. This pattern has been with us from the beginning. Another essential way to receive help is by going to God in prayer. We are commanded to pray to God. The Heavenly Father answers all sincere prayers. At times there appears to be no light at the tunnel’s end—no dawn to break the night’s darkness. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. In these situations, we must turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will lift us and guide us. God will not always take our affliction from us, but the Lord will comfort and lead us with love through whatever tribulation we are facing. Also, keep in mind that miracles do happen. If record had been kept of prayers answered, the World could not contain the many volumes of testimony. We all have a heart of compassion that God wants to help love flow through. God will open our heart and eyes to see the people who need our love. People higher in compassion perform real World acts of kindness more frequently than those with less—which is no surprise. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

Decades of clinical research has focused and shed light on the psychology of human suffering. Everyone wants to get ahead, but how we do that and to what extent indicates a lot about a person’s character. Sometimes when individuals demonstrate fairness or the desire to help, selfish people find ways to exploit them. Selfish people tend to see the worst in people, presuming that everyone acts purely out of self-interest. When we respond to selfish people with kindness, their brains immediately start planning how to best take advantage of us. Although wealth in and of itself is not bad, the real problem comes when one’s heart become attached to riches. The attachment to wealth can become chains that take away the freedom to follow God when people take advantage and use others to obtain it. Knowing that one’s actions are depriving others is bad because this is starving the people with their work for one’s own profit. This is living off the blood of other people and is a mortal sin. Converting from that kind of sin requires a lot of penance, a lot of restitution. Suffering is unpleasant, but it also has a Bright side. It can lead to compassion. Human suffering is often accompanied by beautiful acts of compassion by others wishing to relieve it, and that is what led 30 percent of Americans to volunteer in 2017. Compassion is the emotional response when perceiving suffering and involves an authentic desire to help. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

Let God fill our hearts with love. Compassion is a natural and automatic response that has ensured our survival because of its tremendous benefits for both physical and mental health and overall well-being. Communities with the greatest number of the most sympathetic members usually flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring. Compassion is also a trait that makes us more attractive to potential mates. A study examining the trait most highly valued in potential romantic partners suggest that both men and women agree that kindness is one of the most highly desirable traits. Connecting with others in meaningful ways helps us enjoy better mental and physical health and speeds up recovery from aliments, and it make even lengthen our life spans.  A brain-imaging study headed by neuroscientist Jordan Grafman from the National Institutes of Health showed that the pleasure centers in the brain that are active when we experience joy are equally active when we observe someone giving money to a charity as when we receive money ourselves. Giving to others even increases well-being above and beyond what we experience when we spend money on ourselves. When we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and experience what they are experiencing is stronger than simply feeling sorry for someone. This leads to a desire to act, to do something. Compassion requires an act of imagination and humility to share in the lives of others. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

Sometimes, however, we all need an attitude adjustment as to not allows ourselves taking satisfaction in calamities of the last days. Many tend to take joy in seeing the natural consequences of sin unfold. We might feel some vindication for being ignored by most of the World and persecuted and berated by others. “Rejoice not when thine enemy fall, and let not thine heart be glad when he or she stumbles,” reports Proverbs. We know many wounds are self-inflicted and could have been avoided by obeying gospel principles. Many people grow up assuming that being a big man or woman means looking strong and being in control, fortified against the display of any feelings that might suggest weakness or softness, as so well molded by their role models. Television gunfighters are sometimes big heroes to our youth, especially the ones who do not kill unless they are drawn on first; they met every challenge with clean-cut determination, their eyes and mouths unwavering sits. How so many kids long to possess their expressionless resolution in the face of adversity! As a result, something else arises in our youth at the same time. They began to secretly cheer for the bad guy or gal, for many of them are just as stoic and invulnerable, just as tough and strong as the good people. They are not concerned with the morality of what is going on but with the raw power being demonstrated—and their desire to overcome or overpower authority figures starts to surface more and more insistently. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

By early teens, many youths start wondering why the good guy has never been shot to death, for in many television episodes they have to face unscrupulous people who carry guns. And they start longing for the death of people who stand up to protect and serve the community or are righteous authority figures. The Teflon impeccability becomes more of a burden to them than inspiration. “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold,” reports Matthew 24.12. The iniquity is based on personal selfishness. That is the reason why love among people is dying. It may well be that the present attitude of personal selfishness is the cause of most of the unhappiness with life among many people in the Word. It shows up in our daily occupations. People become conditioned by their exposure to violence and the desire to want to be dominate in society and that is why they began to recognize authority figures, even their parents as a they, which causes them to rebel and turn over to the dark side. There is also an economic incentive because the dark side seems to make money a lot fast and live fast and have fun whenever they want. These misunderstandings and lack of communication then becomes major stumbling block in fully maturing and developing true love. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

Violence always rages in opposition to love. Charity, fellowship, and a loving community will be the tools that the saints must use to dispel the violent feelings and harmful motivations of a World where people’s hearts are failing them and the love of humanity has waxed cold. Consent theory is an attempt to define the conditions under which there can be a moral duty to accept authority, without giving up hat conception of morality that stresses rationality of personal judgment. It tries to find a way out of the difficulty characterized by the fact that whereas, in political terms, we speak of right to act according to one’s own best judgment or conscience, in moral terms we speak of a duty to do so. Whatever its weakness, consent theory suggests an important principle, namely, that a moral theory of authority can never be a theory of absolute authority. Recognizing that authority is essential to social survival, a rational individual would concede that one could not insist on a right or a duty to disregard authority, whenever one disagreed with it, and to act instead on one’s own judgment. Nevertheless, one needs to surrender only one’s right to act, not to judge. It is consistent with submission to political (though not perhaps to religious) authority to obey while believing the injunction to be wrong. Nor is this irrational, if disobedience or revolt would be more disastrous than obedience. While war can change the face of a nation, simple acts of love can change its heart. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

As violence increases so must we increase in charity and love for humanity. If a city is visited with destruction, we must visit with refuge and a builder’s hammer. If a country is overrun with a flood, we must run over with rescue boats and water pumps. Only this way we can save the souls of humankind from the day when the elements will melt with fervent heat and when the Earth will be wrapped together as a scroll. In the process, we might also manage to save ourselves. The Lord knows the harm war can inflict on the hearts and souls of a people. Because of that he has warned his saints from beginning of this dispensation and anciently concerning the wars and rumors of the last days. These warnings are not to strike fear into the hearts of the righteous, but rather to prepare them for those things which are to come. We have always been a peace-loving people and have sought to follow the commandment of the Lord to renounce war and proclaim peace, and seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to their father, and the hearts of the fathers to their children. We must also defend our sacred gifts. Allowing our spiritual enemy, who is the robber of our peace, to strip us of our garment of holiness will destroy our very life. Our hands must be the ready instruments of benevolence, our heart the bright and bust laboratory of love and good works; the fire that God’s Spirit has once kindled there, must be kept ever flowing with the warmth, cheering ourselves and those around us with, not the fitful flashing blaze, but the perpetually radiating of love for humanity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11