Ever since people began to reflect on the moral life, they have been aware of some perfect ideal of character and conduct toward which they must strive. The concept of perfection has two closely allied and often overlapping meanings. First it means completeness, wholeness, or integrity: one is perfect when he or she (or it) is free from all deficiencies. Second it means the achievement of an end or a goal. This meaning emerges most clearly from the connection between the Greek words teleios (perfect) and telos (end or goal). An entity is perfect when it has achieved its goal by actualizing its potentialities and realizing its specific form. Bringing these two meanings together, one would say that a thing is complete or entire when it has fulfilled its nature and thereby reached its end. The concept is best examined first under its religious, and second under its moral, aspect. God is id quo nihi maius cogitari possiit (that than which nothing greater can be conceived. God is self-existent, he must be infinite (or limitless) in intelligence, goodness, and power. Love is the element in divine perfection that disciples are to imitate. Personal integrity enables us to balance the ever-changing needs of our bodies, minds, and spirits. It is the ability to take the many dimensions of ourselves and make the best use of them as they are now, all the while keeping in mind what you hope they will be. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Hope it the anchor of our souls. There is no one who is not in need of hope—young or old, strong or weak, rich or poor. Wherefore, whoso believes in God might with surety hope for a better World, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope comes of faith, making an anchor to the souls of humans, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. The integrated self is constantly looking. The integrated self incorporates each aspect of the personality, and grows just as the other selves grow. If you have not done so before, seeing yourself as a whole person will create changes in your life. Wherefore, we must press forward with a steadfastness in God, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all people, feasting upon the word of God, and endure to the end, behold, thus says the Father: You shall have eternal life. Conscious awareness of the different demands of your various sides (your funny and sad sides, your mental and physical sides), as well as the interplay between them, means no longer being able to ignore your own needs and values. Out of this awareness comes choice, the way we prioritize the many demands we make on our body and soul. Choice means making a commitment to living out of our bet self as often as we can. Of course, deciding to operate out of one’s best self does not make daily choices easy. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Everybody in this life has their challenges and difficulties. Sometimes we will need to choose between two thing we want (to sit with a sick friend or go to an important environmental meeting), or two you do not (to fire an employee or put of with their bad work). Choice also extends to the manner in which you approach these issues—with kindness or callousness, with creativity or passivity. We are accountable and will ne judged for how we use what we have received. This eternal principle applies to all we have been given. The principle of accountability also applies to the spiritual resources conferred in the teachings we have been given and to the precious hors and days allotted to each of us during our time in mortality. Because of increased life expectancies and modern timesaving devices, most of us have far more discretionary time than our predecessors. We are accountable for how we use that time. And if we are not mindful, the chance will fade away, for life is quick in passing. The significance of our increased discretionary time has been magnified many times by modern data-retrieval technology. For good or for evil, devices like 5th-Generation Wireless Systems and the new digital audio format called MT9 have put at our fingertips an incredible inventory of information, insights, images, and capabilities. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Along with fast food, we have convenience our way, we can order on our time, and pickup an Egg McMuffin or a Sausage McMuffin with Egg on our terms. The effect of these resources on some of us seems to fulfill the prophet Daniel’s prediction that in the last days, “know shall be increased and many shall run to and fro” (Daniel 12.4). With greatly increased free time and vastly more alternatives for its use, it is prudent to review the fundamental principles that should guide us. Temporal circumstances change, but the eternal laws and principles that should guide our choices never change. Choosing is something we must do every day. Even an established choice, such as the choice to be married, must be constantly reaffirmed. Failure to think and rethink choices leads to decisions that do not serve our total self. It is sometimes asked what has posterity done for me that I should do anything for posterity? The question was wrongly put. Posterity is only another name for humankind, and when we pose the question rightly there can be no dispute about the answer. If we put aside the part that belongs to Nature or God, we owe everything to humankind. All that we are, and all that we possess in civilization, we owe to the everlasting aspiration and struggle of humankind before us, and to the slow accumulation of knowledge and art on the topmost level of which we now stand. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Our immense debt to humankind in the past can only be repaid to humankind in the future. If we do not regard it as our duty, It is our privilege to pass on, in ever finer shapes, the great traditions which have been handed to us. The most difficult aspect of personal integrity is action. It is not enough to decide, or even verbalize, your priorities. You must act upon them. If your boss wants you to work late (again!) and you have determined that nothing will get in the way of family dinners, you must acct according to your choice. You must have the courage to do what you believe is right. In short, you must take risk. When we put action with awareness and choice, we experience a moment of personal integrity. When it comes to integrating their many facets and desires, far too many mature adults make an uneasy peace with themselves. Unwilling to examine, choose, or act on your inner wisdom, many go through life compartmentalized—perhaps hardworking and aggressive at the office, passive at home, and funny at parties. Wen we deny one of more aspects of ourselves, the imbalance that occurs parallels physical illness. The longer this deterioration continues, the more difficult it is to address the imbalance. You can encourage yourself to form a central, deep, integrated sense of who you are; what you feel, value, believe, and cherish; how you relate; and what you contribute. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
For those who believe in the primacy of God’s will, obedience rather than understanding is to be given the higher value. The more adequate an idea, the more it is pleasing, liberating, and intrinsically human. Because I am principled, I am honest. Because I am loving, I am lovable. Because I am interested in the welfare of others, I am respected. Because my ideas work, I am worth listening to. Because I am determined, I am able to get things done. The culmination of the ethical life—that is, the life devoted to freedom of the intellect—is found in the intellectual love of God. One must lose oneself in order to find oneself, but in so doing, one finds that what one has really discovered is God. “People that had been wrought upon by the Spirit of God, and had been healed; and they did show forth signs also did do some miracles among the people,” reports 3 Nephi 7.22. So, Lord, we want to thank you that the fulfillment of our dreams is on the way, even the secret petitions of our hearts. God, you spoke Worlds into existence, and you have us in the palm of your hand. We believe you, God, that you will make sure we complete what you put us here to do. “And blessed is one that is found faithful unto my covenants at the last day, for they shall be lifted up to dwell in the kingdom prepared for holiness from the foundation of the World. And behold it is I that hath spoken it. Amen,” reports Ether 4.19. When the creator of the Universe placed a dream in your heart, he also set a completion date to bring it to pass. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
When criminals seem to be able to do whatever they want and God takes his time delivering you from a situation, it can leave one feeling like what is the purpose of life? A lot of people feel like money is the key factor that will make life better, but it may not be. Over the past two decades, adult suicides have increased by 30 percent. An estimated 45,000 people end their lives each year. Some of these people, like Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain were rich and famous and ended their lives. Then, of course, the usual narratives come up about mental illness, and no one ever stops to think that just because someone ends their life, it does not mean that they are mentally ill. Not all people who commit suicide are mentally ill, and mental illness is often not clearly distinguishable from normal distress. The extent to which someone is expressing their free will and is capable of being responsible for their actions is important to establish when deciding whether suicide indicates a psychopathological state of mind. The principle of autonomy, integral to a free society, requires that a person’s decisions regarding their own life should be respected whenever possible. There have been cases of people who are mentally healthy, but been an ongoing victim of crimes and have reached out for help, tried to get people to speak up about what is going on so they can get out of the situation that they are in, but no one will. Some people find certain situations so unbearable that they think it will never change, it has been going on so long, and no one seems to care and so they end their lives. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
In many cases, there is no medication of the face of the Earth that can make a situation more bearable. An individual may be totally of sound mind, but just stuck in a situation that they cannot escape from. Some people turn to drug and/or alcohol to get through it, but there are people who want to keep their bodies healthy and do not want to be addicted to drugs. And when people will not acknowledge what is going on and there is no one who is willing to help change the circumstances, people get tired of waiting for life situations to get better. Suicide is not necessarily a matter of insanity, irrationality nor despair, and it is not primarily of medical concern. To call all suicides mentally ill downgrades their individual responsibilities. Suicide is indeed a complex issue encompassing philosophical, ethical, legal, and practical dilemmas. Some people, who had been victims of injustice and abuse, and have tried to take corrective measures to resolve the issues, but have not been able to feel that ending their life might save others lives because then the people who have been abusing them and violating their human rights will be exposed and punished. Maybe some lives are just here, on Earth, to save other people. Maybe some individuals have no real purpose. Nonetheless, it is tragic to think that by speaking up someone could have saved a life, but people keep pretending nothing is wrong and go on living their lives, and when someone ends up dead, others wonder how could this have been prevented when that individual have been reaching out to authorities and others and expressing what is wrong. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
The fact of the matter why it is so hard to connect with others is because people do not care. Law enforcement sometimes allows abuse and human rights violations to go one because they are trying to protect people in positions of power. Although people know some people are having their human rights violated and being tortured and the media will nor any other organization will push to advocate justice for an individual, if there is in fact a cover up going on, imagine what kind of news coverage it will get when the media reports they found a dead body and the individual had been reporting to authorities what was going on and medical reports show there was a history of abuse. Whoever was involved and not taking the issues seriously will surely be exposed then. You cannot force people to care, you cannot force the system to enforce your rights, you cannot make God act when you want him to, so what other options are there? The fact of the matter is people will not care how they are hurting another person until it affects them legally and/or financially. Also, some people define insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. However, would it not be insane to try and resolve a situation over and over for years and it never changes? The most excusable cause of suicide seems to be an emaciated body; when a person a labours under the torture of an incurable disorder, and seem to live only to be a burden to oneself and others. This was thought to be a sufficient apology in the ancient days. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
In The Grandeur and Declension of the Roman Empire Montesquieu expressed admiration for the Roman practice of suicide, which gave everyone the liberty of finishing one’s part on the stage of the World, in what sense one pleased. Montesquieu believed that a human life was no more important to the Universe than that of an oyster. If the disposal of human life were reserved to the Almighty, almost any action would become an encroachment of his privilege. It is cruel to prevent sufferers from getting justice or the quick death for which they ask and a true estimate of the value of human beings leads to the conclusion that the wishes, interests, and aspirations of every human being ought to be taken into account by every other human being who has dealings with that individual. There is no ethical value of living just any sort of life; the only life that is worth living is the good life. We may define the good differently, but no matter what our conception of the good life is, it presupposes a physical basis—a certain indispensable minimum of physical and social well-being—necessary for even a limited realization of that good life. And sometimes you hear people saying be careful of how you treat others because you never know what they are going through, but sometimes your rude comments are not even really bothering them. That even has nothing to do with their death wish because they honestly do not even consider your comments valid. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Experts say that an obsession with death can lead to suicide, but so can an obsession with freedom and wanting to be treated like others. It is really not fair to hold some people a higher standard and expect them to be understanding and endure injustice when if the things that have been done to them were done to someone else, the laws would have been enforced and the torture would never have gotten that far. And it seems the only time people care about one individual in society is when a Black man is killed by police, and no one else’s pain and suffering even matters. So, are they saying the only way for an individual, who is not having their rights honored, to get any recognition is to be killed by the police. How could a community know someone is being tortured, but nothing is being done about it? It is like a quiet storm, everyone knows what is happening, but on the surface no corrective action is being taken. No one is officially addressing the situation. Some people who contemplate suicide do not want sympathy, they do not want you to care, they simply want you to tell the truth, to speak up on their behalf about what is going on so they can get justice and move on with their lives. No one wants to spend an eternity writing essays, walking around a park for exercise and waiting for God or the laws to set them free. Everyone in this life has their challenges and difficulties. That is part of our mortal test. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The reason some of these trials cannot be readily understood except on the basis of faith and hope because there is often a larger purpose which we do not always understand. Peace comes through hope. And maybe everyone needs a chance to express what they are not saying. Everyone can enjoy the hope that comes from the knowledge that God truly lives. Such hope springs from the belief that if we have faith, somehow he will help us through our challenges—if not in this life, then surely in the life to come. In the eternal scheme of things, wrongs will be righted. In the perfect justice of the Lord, all who live worthily will be compensated for blessings not enjoyed here. We are moving to a higher level of faith and activity than there ever has been. I pray that each of us will be found holding up our end of the line in this great army of righteousness. And maybe some people are just bored with life and want to get it over with because their dreams seem so far out of reach even though they have been trying. Nonetheless, keep the commandments. In this there is safety and peace. Nothing this World has to offer can surpass the joy of living the gospel. No Worldly wealth nor possession, no degree of fame or recognition can supplant the satisfaction of feeling the warmth and peace of the Spirit of the Lord in our Hearts and in our homes. As we strive for success, we cannot allow anything vain nor foolish thing to divert us from the path of faith and lead us away from being true to our covenants. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
It is important for families and individuals to aggressively seek more of the virtues which go beyond this mortal life. Like most people, you have experienced glimmers of knowing the real you throughout your life. You know in your heart when you are operating out of this best self, because you are able to think clearly, act decisively, and stand your ground with courage. When being true to oneself, one will experience a longing for more—more of the serenity of the occasion, more of the companionship of the Spirit, more of the nurturing that has brightened and blessed the soul. Being your best self requires a quality called Personal Integrity. Contrary to the way most of us perceive it, integrity is not some personality trait to be cultivated. Nor is it a gift bestowed upon that one person in a crowd who is able to behave honorably while others around one are confused or consumed with greed. Integrity is, in fact, the one grace we can all aspire to. Personal integrity is a true integration of all the many parts of ourselves working together as one cohesive whole so we do not act one way at work and another way at home. Everyday, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years must sometime be accounted for. And it is in this life that you walk by faith and prove yourself able to choose good over evil, right over wrong, enduring happiness over mere amusement. And your eternal reward will be according to your choosing. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Christians have a doctrine of nonviolence, but they should also never succumb to the slave morality. Humans were created not for the destruction but for love, friendship, and service to their fellow people. Authority strong enough to enforce peace will also ensure eternal stability in the constituent states. People are that they may have joy—a joy that included a fullness of life, a life dedicated to service, to love and harmony in the home, and the product of honest toil—an acceptance of the Ten Commandments and of its requirements. Only in these will you find true happiness, the happiness which does not fade with the lights and the music and the crowds. With personal integrity is the ability to act out of our most basic, intimate sense of what is right for us and the World. There was once a man who suffered from omnipotence of thought. Omnipotence of thought consists in the belief that one can transform or influence the external Word through one’s thoughts alone. Omnipotence of thoughts underscores a general trait characteristic of neurosis. Neurotics are only affected by what is thought with intensity and pictured with emotion, whereas agreement with external reality is a matter of no importance. He believed that he could conjure people up. If he inquired suddenly about the state of health of an acquaintance whom he had long missed he was sure to hear that this acquaintance had just died, so that he could believe that he had drawn this attention to himself by telepathic means. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The omnipotence of thought was so potent in this person that If he uttered a half meant imprecation against a stranger, he could expect to have him die soon thereafter and burden him with the responsibility for his death. He was able to explain most of these cases in the course of the treatment, he could tell how the illusion had originated, and what he himself had contributed towards furthering his superstitious expectations. All compulsion neurotics are superstitious in this manner and often against their better judgment. Neurotics live in a special World in which only the neurotic standard of currency counts, that is to say, only things intensively thought of or affectively conceived are effective with them, regardless of whether these things are in harmony with outer reality. The hysteric repeats in his attacks and fixates through his symptoms, occurrences which have taken place only in his phantasy, though in the last analysis they go back to real events or have been built up from them. The neurotic’s guilty conscience is just as incomprehensible if traced to real misdeeds. A compulsion neurotic may be oppressed by a sense of guilt which is appropriate to a wholesale murderer, while at the same time he acts towards his fellow beings in a most considerate and scrupulous manner, a behaviour which he evinced since childhood. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
And yet, his sense of guilt is justified: it is based upon the intensive and frequent death wishes which unconsciously manifest themselves towards his fellow beings. It is motivated from the point of view of unconscious thoughts, but not intentional acts. Thus the omnipotence of thought, the over-estimation of psychic process as opposed to reality, proves to be of unlimited effect in the neurotics affective life and in all that emanates from it. However, if we wish to subject him to psychoanalytic treatment, which makes his unconscious thoughts conscious to him he refuses to believe that thoughts are free and is always afraid to express evil wishes lest they be fulfilled in consequence in his utterance. However, through this attitude as well as through the superstition which plays an active part in his life, he reveals to us how close he stands to the savage, who believe he can change the outer World by a mere thought of his. In the animistic stage humans ascribe omnipotence to oneself; in the religious humans have ceded it to the gods, but without seriously giving it up, for one reserves to oneself the right to control the gods by influencing them in some way or other in the interest of one’s wishes. In the scientific attitude towards life there is no longer any room for human being’s omnipotence; one has acknowledged one’s smallness and has submitted to mortality as to all other natural necessities in a spirit of resignation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Nevertheless, in our reliance upon the power of the human spirit which copes with the laws of reality, there still lives on a fragment of this primitive belief in the omnipotence of thought. Many people mention experiencing moments of deep self-knowledge as the progress through understanding their humanity. These marvelous discoveries are the result of breaking down the barriers to ourselves, allowing us to feel important connection between the many facets of our personalities. The Lord’s law of consecration, which as an economic role but, more than that, is an application of celestial law to life here and now. To consecrate is to set apart or dedicate something as sacred, devoted to holy purposes. True success in life comes in consecrating our lives—that is, our time and choices—to God’s purposes. In so doing, we permit him to raise us to our highest destiny. Five elements of consecrated life are: purity, work, respect for one’s physical body, service, and integrity. If you have been fortunate enough to get a glimpse of our best self and your ability to operate out of personal integrity, you know how wonderful it feels. People with personal integrity are more willing to take risk in order to do what they believe to be right, or to earn what they believe is right for them. They view their strengths and weaknesses more as a consequence of their own choices than immutable traits. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
As the Savior demonstrated, the consecrated life is a pure life, where one refuses to compromise their morals and ethics, no matter what the short-term gains for doing so may be. We must accept our success and failures at face value, as markers for new directions rather than as ends in themselves. Appreciating the complex course of our lives will continue to solidify our relations with reality and God. As we develop a personal philosophy that acknowledges the profound interconnectedness between our inner and outer Worlds, we will be curious about ways we can reconcile all the things we want to be. Consecration therefore means repentance. Stubbornness, rebellion, and rationalization must be abandoned, and in their place submission, a desire for correction, and acceptance of all that the Lord may require. This is called putting off the natural human, yielding to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and becoming a saint through the atonement of the Lord. Such as one is promised the enduring presence of the Holy Spirit, a promise remembered and renewed each time a repentant soul partakes of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The person who walks in the light and wisdom and power of God, will at the last, by the very force of association, make the light and wisdom and power of God one’s own—weaving those bright rays into a chain divine linking oneself forever to God and God to one. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
A consecrated life is a life of labour. The inevitable changes almost always cause us to cultivate a deep interest in issues of personal integrity, but it is a pathway that presents us with more demanding and frightening challenges the father we travel down its terrain. Knowing oneself takes a lot of courage. What if you turn out to be less of a person than you had hoped? What if you cannot live up to the values you espouse? What if you return to Heaven before you have a chance to live with that magical best self as a guiding force? All true work is sacred; in all true work, were it but true hand-labour, there is something of divines. Labour, wide as the Earth, has it summit in Heaven. As with many of life’s important endeavors, in our struggle to gain personal integrity we often are too hard ourselves, failing to recognize success. Fortunately, each time you locate your best self and act on it, you have made a huge leap in your personal development. And it gets easier the next time. Br cautioned not to look at integrity as a state you can achieve. The pathway of personal integrity is one you have been on your entire life, and will continue on until you return to Heaven. If you have attempted to approach your daily routines with honesty and goodwill, you may notice that sometimes you experience a sense of rightness you have never before displayed or felt and will keep doing the right thing. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Recognize that no one on Earth experiences his or her best self all the time. Simply strive to find that state as often as you can. Personal integrity is not perfection; it is the ability to pull yourself back onto the path when you find yourself straying. God has designed this mortal existence to require nearly constant exertion. By continuous labour we are enabled to get a comfortable maintenance. By working we sustain and enrich life. It enables us to survive the disappointments and tragedies of the moral experience. Hard-earned achievement beings a sense of self-worth. Work build and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and God. A consecrated life is filled with work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes menial, sometimes unappreciated but always work that improves, orders, sustains, lifts, ministers, and aspires. Just as honest toil gives rest its sweetness, wholesome recreation is the friend and steadying complain of work. Have a faith that God can see. Put actions behind what you believe. It is not enough to just pray, not enough to just believe. Take it one step further and demonstrate your faith. You may not see how your dream could ever come true, but as you take steps of faith, you will see God begin to open new doors. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
The God within the mind distinguishes between virtue and vice, to which allows instinct and social love to flourish. Growth of knowledge begins with the imaginative proposal of hypotheses, a matter of individual and unpredictable insight that cannot be reduced to rule. Celebrate the new aspects of your experience that were born as a result of your willingness to let old habits, behaviors, and attitudes pass by. There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle. The difference between the two may not only be the key to happiness, but the key to sanity; research from the National Social Survey reports a high correlation between spirituality and mental health. Advances in adulthood spirituality are what allow a person to be the author of his or her own moral life. Adults who have done the demanding work of discovering their own spiritual beliefs are more able than others to make moral decisions and stand by them, even if the decision causes them some pain. These people make the best leaders. Reading and studying the scriptures makes us conscious of the many conditional promises made by the Lord to encourage obedience and righteous living. Remind yourself that every time you have ever let go of something good, you have gotten something else you could appreciate. “Learn wisdom in youth to keep the commandments of God, reports Alma 37.35. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Several experiences in the World are instructive to us regarding the importance placed by the Lord on keeping commitments and on being committed to following the commandments and direction God has given us. “Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shat thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I swear unto their fathers to give them,” Joshua 1.5-6. The World was created by God, so it is God’s World. However, some people have chosen to act on a primitive level and they are trying to force that consciousness on the World. However, regardless of how ungodly people behave, we subscribe to the covenants of the Lord, these stories of spiritual rebirth and leadership reflect our psychological truths. Many scholars believe that adulthood offers the best opportunity for deep conversion of the spirit because it is during this period that a person experiences a convergence of life skills, confidence, pain over the harsh realities and compelling necessities of life, and a desire to rethink inconsistencies or untenable spiritual beliefs. “Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, so that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest,” reports Joshua. Unexpected struggle and newly acquired leadership can encourage us to take full possession of our moral life. Only after we completely integrate and own our personal spiritual beliefs can we embrace the social and political problems of the World. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Even if people have grown up with a strong faith, our faith needs to be reaffirmed or replenished in adulthood. For mature life presents us with a wonderful chance to transcend the boundaries of our own identity and participate in the greater reality of nature, the cosmos, and the God-source. Science is not a system of certain, or well-established, statements. Our science is not knowledge (episteme): it can never claim to have attained truth, nor even a substitute for it, such as probability. We do not know: we can only guess. Life, as we live it today, is more highly socialized, more urbanized, more—so far as external relationships are concerned—standardized than it used to be. The World has become uncomfortably small; we have not yet gained a complete control of our excessive procreational activity; so that there are far too many of us, and, being so closely crowded together, we have to adopt all sorts of new precautions to avoid friction and permit of the greatest amount of mutual freedom available within our unduly narrow frontiers. So many of the old traditional social taboos having become antiquated or no longer adequate, there has been a furious activity in making new laws and regulations, without a due recognition of the fact that old taboos can only be replaced by new taboos, and that mere legal enactments, enforced, or left unenforced, by paid officials or the police, to be effective must themselves become taboos, printed on the fleshly tablets of the individual citizen’s heart. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
When we return to our home in Heaven, and go to meet God, we are not going to be asked why we did not become a Messiah nor find a cure for spina bifida. Instead, we will be asked, “Why did you not become you?” The idea of becoming oneself may strike you as a bit odd. Clearly, you are already yourself. Others recognize you as you. Who else could be you? At the core of each of us, however, is an essential self, one we have been trying to uncover. God is an eternal Being, what seems to us simple mortals as a drear immensity of wasted time is to him but the twinkling of an eye. We now have good reasons to believe that the surviving life forms are those which adapt to the environment rather than those for whom the environment has been adapted by a beneficent Overseer. “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest,” reports Joshua 1.9. Sometimes we need courage for what we have to do. We need the Lord’s help at every step. Here is a commitment of the Lord to provide that help. With faith in the Lord, we are able to go forward, knowing that God is directing us in the way we should go. Through our obedience we will have success, and although we do not know exactly how we will succeed, we now have confidence in the result. “Sanctity yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you,” reports Joshua 3.5. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Victory will surely come and it will depend upon our willingness to do the will of the Lord. “This day will begin to magnify thee in the sight of all the World, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee,” reports Joshua 3.7. Understand that the miracles of the Lord will continue. Do precisely as instructed, and the promise of the Lord will be fulfilled. The instructions no doubt might seem unusual, but your faith in the outcome should urge you on. The result, of course, will be another long series of miracles that are promised by those who are committed to follow the commandments and the directives of the Lord. God pervades the World; the passions follow the leadership of rational insight; people are here to contemplate and to act. Humanity is the continuous and uninterrupted tradition of the human race, and it is the divinity of God that must be accepted to save our souls. The wisdom and providence of humanity preside infallibly over the realization of progress. At the end of progress there is sociocracy, a new absolutist social regime based on science and the religion of spirit and matter, of God and the World. As we travel down the pathways of mental mastery, physical vigor, emotional vitality, interpersonal effectiveness, exceptional competence, and spiritual serenity, we will undoubtably notice that the key to becoming one’s true self in each of these areas is accepting who we are, making the most of it, and living honorably, rather than becoming something or someone else. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The Lord’s will cannot be altered by anything anyone else might do. Be firmly in control of your actions and have your eyes fixed on the commandments of the Lord. Be committed to obedience. Surely the Lord loves, more than anything else, an unwavering determination to obey his counsel. Think of the real you as Sleeping Beauty—beautiful, though untouched and untired—lying behind an overgrowth of brier bushes so tangled that anyone who tried to get in from the outside must ultimately fail. True happiness can only be found once the spell is broken. Your spell, which includes the limitations of circumstance, societal expectations, and your own fears, has, with any luck, begun to break as you performed the spiritual renewal practices and have given yourself some much-needed time and attention. In the moment of such a union the soul has become God, or, rather, is God; the soul has reascended to its original source. And the Lord said, “I will prepare a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations. If they do not repent, I will destroy them from off the face of the Earth; and I will bring to light all their secrets and abominations, unto every nation that shall hereafter possess the land,” reports Alma 23-25. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
There is only one immortal soul common to all human beings and also an individual soul for each person, which, however, is mortal. The intellect is capable of acting without a body and therefore can be considered as separable and immortal. Yet in our experience, the intellect has no action that is entirely independent of the body, and therefore we have no evidence that the intellect is separable. If we wish to understand the relationship of the intellect and the body, we must distinguish between being in the body as having the body for its organ or subject or substratum and depending on the body as having the body, its perceptions, and imaginations for its object. The intellect does not have the body as its subject as do the souls of animals and the lower faculties of the human soul. Yet the human intellect cannot know anything without the perceptions of imaginations offered by the body, and this fact alone proves that the intellect is not separable from the body. Death rudely interrupts our otherwise steadfast preoccupation with living. One the surface, living life without dwelling on death seems healthy and rational. In contrast, a morose preoccupation with death can be quite harmful and may, under certain conditions, provoke suicide. Yet denying death can be dangerous, too, particularly during midlife years, when most of us naturally encounter the loss of grandparents, parents, and the occasional friend. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
At the most extreme, being unprepared for the inevitable can mean that each time we encounter death we are devasted, unable to function. There is no evidence to prove the absolute immortality of the soul. However, there is no doubt that the doctrine of the absolute immortality of the soul is true, since it is in accordance with Scripture, but it is perplexing whether it can be established within the limits of natural reason without recourse to the evidence of faith and revelation. Now imagine what it must be like to die unprepared, with important words unsaid, deeds undone, lessons unlearned. Though the actuarial tables may predict you will live to be one hundred and twenty-five years old, we all know that death can come at inconvenient times, as it did for Michael Jackson, Prince, and Kate Spade, when we still have a lot of living to do. Although it is unlikely, today or tomorrow could be your last day on Earth. Knowing that, do you feel you are spending today wisely? The human soul, having only one nature, is absolutely mortal and only in certain respects immortal. The human intellect, unlike that of the pure intelligences, always needs the body for it object and has no way of acting without the help of the images of senses or imagination. It must therefore be considered absolutely mortal and only relatively, or improperly speaking, immortal. Commandments and covenants are priceless truths and doctrines, where God is at the helm. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
The human intellect does not have the body as its subject because it does not use a bodily organ in knowing. If it resided in an organ, the intellect could not reflect on itself or understand universals. The fact that the human intellect is capable of some knowledge of itself and of universals shows that it participate somewhat in immortality and, hence, that it is in some respect immortal. The ultimate end of human is contemplation and the satisfactory fulfillment of this end requires immortality. For a person is called good or bad with reference to his or her virtues and vices, yet a good metaphysician with reference to his or her speculative intellect and a good architect with reference to his or her intellect. However, a good metaphysician or a good architect is not always a good person. Hence, a person does not mind so much if one is called a good metaphysician or a good architect, but one minds very much if he or she is called unjust or intemperate, for it seems to be in our power to be good or wicked, but to be a philosopher or an architect does not depend on us and is not necessary for a person. The ultimate end must thus be defined in terms of the practical intellect, and every person is called upon to be as virtuous as possible. Since the perfection of the practical intellect is accessible to almost everybody, a farmer or a craftsperson, a poor person or a rich person, may be called happy and actually called happy and is satisfied with his or her lot whenever he or she is virtuous. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
The end of human life should be practiced with moral virtue rather than with contemplation, because this end is attainable by all human beings, except grim soulless mortals. There are two ways of coming to terms with death. The first is t come to terms with life. Researchers have found that those of any age who believe that life as a whole is meaningful, and who are purposeful and highly satisfied with their lives, tend to be less frightened of dying than those who doubt the intrinsic meaning of existence and lack a personal sense of satisfaction. To further illustrate that point, if you think you have made the most of your life, the inevitability of death is less devasting. Crystallizing your thoughts about death can also lead to a clearer sense of life purpose and a greater degree of life satisfaction, which, are two of the best ways to diminish death dear. God would not be a good president of all things unless all good deeds found their reward and all bad deeds their punishment in a future life. The essential reward of virtue is grace itself, and the essential punishment of vice is iniquity itself. Hence, it makes no difference whether the external or accidental reward or punishment of an action is sometimes omitted, since its essential reward and punishment are always present. Moreover, if one person acts virtuously without the expectation, and another with such an expectation, the act of the latter is not considered to be as virtuous as that of the former. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Knowledge of the plan of salvation is a map of where we came from, our purpose here on Earth, and where we are going when we die. The plan also provides us with a unique, eternal perspective that we are God’s spirit children. By understanding who our Heavenly Father is and our relationship to the Lord, we will accept God’s commandments and make covenants with the Lord that will lead us back into God’s eternal presence. Thus, one who receives no external reward is more fully rewarded in an essential way than one who receives one. In the same way the wicked person who receives no external punishment is punished more than one who does, for the punishment inherent in guilt itself is much worse than any punishment in the form of some harm inflicted upon the guilty person. It is true that religious teachers have supported the doctrine of immortality, but they have done so in order to induce ordinary people to lead virtuous lives. Yet persons of a higher moral disposition are attracted toward the virtues by mere excellence of these virtues and are repelled from the vices by the mere ugliness of these vices; hence, they do not need the expectation of rewards or punishments as incentive. Looking for human weakness in others is rather easy. However, we make a serious mistake by noticing only the human nature of one another and then failing to see God’s hand working through those the Lord has called. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
It should be repeated that a virtuous action without the expectation of reward is superior to one that aims at a reward and those that assert that the soul is mortal seem to preserve the notion of virtue much better than those who assert that it is immortal. We are not baby Gods, we are created in the image of God. That is much more powerful than placing a limit on God’s image. Those of us who are parents, stepparents, or godparents usually get some sense of the viability of our own personal cosmology when the children we love ask questions like “What will happen to me when I die?” or “Who is God?” There are not necessarily any natural reasons strong enough to demonstrate the immortality of the soul nor to refute its mortality, although many theologians, notably Thomas Aquinas, have reported otherwise. Since the question is thus doubtful on purely human grounds, it must be resolved by God himself, who clearly proved the immortality of the soul in the Holy Scriptures. This means that the arguments to the contrary must be false and merely apparent. The immortality of the soul is an article of faith, for it is based on faith and revelation. It must thus be asserted on this ground alone and not on the basis of inconclusive or unconvincing rational arguments. If you will use the articles of faith as a guide to direct your studies of the Savior’s doctrine, you will find yourselves prepared to declare your witness of the restored, true Kingdom of God. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Each one of us ought to want to build our lives and help our families build their lives so that we can stand firm though the millennium. Children need to know that we do not fear death, because children (or adults, for that matter) who themselves fear death always hold something back. Be thankful Aaliyah have it her all while we had the chance, or she would have never been able to influence the World and music, movie, and fashion industry the way she did. And that hand is the certainty that death is not more than we can handle. Now, reflect on your current lifestyle. Evaluate the ways in which your lifestyle today supports your death style, ad the ways your life is at odds with the way you prefer to die. You may decide to change the way your treat your body, your friends, family, boss, colleagues, clients, animals, the planet, your house, care, and medial and emergency service providers, as well as members of the armed forces. Remember that the choices you make today create your future. Ask yourself if you need to make any alterations in your lifestyle so that your living becomes more consistent with how you want to spend your eternal life. You might want to change the way you live—a little or completely. If you believe in reincarnation, you may want to be more hyper vigilant about your figuring out what lessons you need to learn in this lifetime. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Look back over your life, and anticipate eternal life calmly. Feel the fullness of your life and the promise of reuniting with God in Heaven. Personal consciousness dances within cosmic awareness. My death will be a calm, welcomed escape from a life lived long and with great energy. I will be physically weak but mentally alert and happy for the chances life gave me to be engaged. My loved ones (my family and friends) will be in and out, enjoying my last days and our conversation. The spirits of my parents and brothers and sisters and all those I have loved who has returned to Heaven before me will be with me in as I pass into Heaven. I feel less anxious, not just about death, but about my life. I also find myself with many more instances of spontaneous joy. Life itself is full of little death, rehearsals, if you will, for the big one. We must honor the nevermores and never-will bes of our own existence. Many adults, for example, have not fully mourned their lost childhoods, the childhoods they did not get because they felt compelled to grow up fast. Others have not grieved adequately over lost dreams of a specific career, lover, or goal. Many adults must say goodbye to decades-old resentments and outdated emotional self-protections that used to help them avoid pain and confusion of life. Until we bid farewell to these former parts of ourselves, we will not be fully prepared to step into life and grasp the new sense of identity that waits us on the journey. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
This is a serious and delicate problem. We cannot deny that a thinker of the past may have entertained opinions which we do not find expressed in his or her writings or that he or she may have put into writing views which he or she did not hold in his or her innermost hearts. On the other hand, unless we have some text or document in support of this assertion, we are not entitled to claim that a thinker held some specific views which he or she failed to express in his or her writings or that even contrast with his or her expressed views. We must leave to look into our hearts and the hearts of others to see what their real opinions are. The human historian has no basis other than the written document, and the burden of proof, in history a in law, rests with those who want to prove something that is contrary to the overt evidence. Neither inuendo nor the assertions made by unfriendly critics or extremist followers can be accepted as valid evidence in lieu of some original statement or testimony concerning the author’s views. When you do not understand why things happen the way they do, a tremendously aspect of faith is trusting Go. Allow yourself to feel the depth of your sadness, your anger, your pain over any of the losses that hurt you. Human beings resist change, even in the beneficial direction, when we cannot be sure of what lies ahead. To confront this void takes great courage. You will soar through life with wings like a Golden State Warrior. When the trump of God shall sound and the dead shall come forth, we, with our loved ones, can be numbered among them and share in his presence. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Society need to have boundaries. As an interesting part of each human personality, each individual person has been endowed by creation with a collector’s instinct. We collect attitudes, skills, habits, and personality traits. “If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God,” reports President George Washington. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and the Greeks were the first to articulate the notion of natural law, the doctrine that human affairs should be governed by certain ethical principles. Being nothing more nor less than the nature of things, the principles of natural law can be understood by reason. Later, in the thirteenth century, the Italian priest and philosopher Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) gave the idea of natural law a new, Christian framework. He reported that natural law and Christianity were compatible because God created the natural law that established individual rights to life and liberty. We want to live the full and abundant life that God has promised us. Most people are serious about fulfilling their destiny and daily take steps of faith to put actions behind what we believe. We want our faith to active God’s favor and goodness. Through God, we will find the power to do what we once thought was impossible and know that extraordinary things are going to happen. Only then can we derive some perspective and clarity. We are expecting our miracle. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
However, our culture is becoming a mass of wannabe rebels who live in a society dangerously without limits. The West is no longer, vast, untamed, an expanse to be explored and defined by cowboys and cowgirls, pilgrims, free people, spiritualists, gold seekers, hippies, artist, and unique characters. It has become a state of rustlers, hustler, revolutionaries, and outlaws. Manifest destiny and the myth of expansion, so intertwined with our conceptions the American Dream and prosperity, is at an end. Without a way for us to restore order, we have no way to of challenge the accepted order or rebellion and chaos. McDonald’s burns, the Starbucks window is shattered, and the people who are supposed to benefit from this wait for their lives to get better, work for pennies a day, and dream of signature crafted fresh beef, made when you order, Quarter Pounder Burgers, with cheese. As a result of taxation without representation and price gauging, one million people have moved out of California because crime is high and housing is too expensive. Laws are passed without voter consent and the gas tax and half a dollar per gallon. The result is exhaustion, stagnation, erosion, decline, and hopelessness. People feel displaced from their true time, and those old souls feel the urge to be recognized, to be known for who they are. Theirs is the anger not of the usurped but of the redundant. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
There seems to be little left for traditional Americans to do but disappear. The kids are taking their cue from the adults and they are infused with ideas around rebellion and dissent. The old ways of life are gone. However, we are still trying to define ourselves using old precepts, antiquated ideas. We need a new way of understand what law and order is. Trapped between the extremes, we long for escape, a place where we are not constantly turn between unstable leadership and unaffordable lawless living. Our society is changing, as we do not necessarily have the tools to evolve with it. We seek to evoke the traditional ways and understandings, where Americans have priority and one could get a job at the supermarket and afford a house, even as we lapse into recession resulting from inconsequence, from our difficulty accessing what we have been told is our inalienable right: Justice, domestic tranquility, common defence, the general welfare, and the secure blessing of liberty to ourselves and posterity, as established by the United States Constitution. Still, we are concerned about the decline of real community and the rise of false individuality. Individuals are, essentially, powerless. Only communities can truly effect change in society. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The more division that infiltrates our behavior and lifestyle, the less we are able to band together and reform an ineffective government, support businesses the are good for the people and the planet, or start schools that are based on creativity, achievement, and foster a commitment to learning. We are alone together, reduced to endlessly trying to replicate the feeling of community that individuals once took for granted. So what went wrong? Many have perhaps underestimated the allure, power, and sheer intoxication of blood money and the idea of becoming famous in the age of enforced individuality and collapsing community. Only when we recognize the trap we are in can we even begin to start figuring out how to get free ourselves. We need more people willing to fight the injustices and inequalities, even if it is only affecting one individual and depriving that person of their constitutional and human rights. Ultimately, what we need is a conceptual methodology that will allow us to balance happiness with duty, the need for recognition with the need for self-recognized limits on the efficacies of egotism. We need a new way to understand the self within the context of our new global system of mass production and increasing opportunities for individual creativity played out in the endless beautiful suburban communities. The future depends not on what we can do to make ourselves feel momentarily better, but on going beyond temporary happiness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
We must learn to take an active role in our own sublimated desires. We can no longer afford to settle for anything less than what we have been promised. It is not to awaken consciousness that we struggle, but to sap power, to take power. We are different in many ways, but at our core we want similar things: a society of honesty, creativity, individuality, and communality. Because of our many differences lead to such core similarity, and at the heart of humanity is this urge for new experiences new patterns, and expanded truths, it is better to fail in an attempt to exercise faith than to let it lie dormant and fruitless. God never belittles those who attempt to follow him, but he does chasten those who refuse to attempt anything for him. Lying alone in bed, we should not see destruction, but opportunity—to start our lives anew, to fix behavior and patters of self-destruction that have shackled us. The gentle excavation of our pasts can ultimately shake us free from certain unreasonable situations and them finally, set into motion a series of promising life events. If we are caring, if we are charitable, if we are obedient to God and follow his teachings, our sacrifices will bring forth the blessings of Heaven. We have to find a personal well-spring of power to overcome self-indulgence and selfishness. Remind yourself that once you weather an unusually devastating storm, all other storms are easier to bear. You will most likely recover more quickly from each of the squall that follow. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
When we remind ourselves of the truths that our suffering has revealed, we can empty ourselves of the disillusionment that weighs us down and fill ourselves instead with the wonderful experiences and insights that life has to offer. Some may ask why we as a people and church quietly and constantly seek to change individual while there are such large problems about us. However, decaying cities are simply a delayed reflection of decaying individuals. The commandments of God give emphasis to improvement of the individual as the only real way to being about real improvement of society. The Lord works from the inside out. The World works from the outside in. The World would take people out of the slums. God takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. God changes people, who then change their environment. The World would shape behavior, but God can change human nature. Although suffering is always painful, it really is easier to take if you think of it as the key to emptiness, and emptiness as the key to spiritual growth. Stop struggling with life. We receive blessings from keeping all of God’s commandments, and we will be closer to the peace and happiness we once thought our illusions would bring. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Life is good—though not for the wicked one; returning to our Father in Heaven is good, because it will permit the soul to live an unhampered life. You can do so much good that it will astound you as you are changed and as you see other changed. The Lord wants you to have the greatest experiences as you make this journey on Earth. This can be a magnificent journey filled with literally thousands of tremendous experiences and spiritual confirmations if you will find your way through the many choices that will be yours along the way. When we harness the power of prayer, we wrap our wishes and dream with possibilities. Instead of limiting ourselves and cutting off our access to what we cannot necessarily anticipate, we maintain open minds and hearts. However, that is not always so easy, especially if the results you were hoping for are not forthcoming. Prayer is not about asking for certain results. Prayer helps us embrace the outcomes whether it is good or bad. We pray for strength, understanding, patience, and whatever else we need to pursue our dreams. Prayer clears away the debris that often prevent us from recognizing opportunities. The private conversations with God seem to underscore enduring faith in the World. The road given by our Father in Heaven is clearly marked, but the patterns and ways of the World can deceive you. Of all the paradoxes that help us detach from the ordinary plane of existence and connect with the spiritual plane, suffering that breeds a greater engagement in life is perhaps the most intriguing. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Life is eternal. The World that we live in provides us with the journey that will guide us back to God’s presence in Heaven to live eternally. However, while on Earth we all experience pain. How on Earth can a profoundly hurtful experience make anyone live life more fully? That any pleasure, or good, can come from pain seems impossible for anyone to believe. Yet suffering can be redemptive for all of us. The ability to turn suffering to our own advantage, not just at work, but in life allows one to approach painful experiences with an open mind, to make the best of them, learn from them, and get beyond them. Suffering leaves us open to whatever gifts may be available to us as we endure the loss of something we cherish, be it an object, a person, a belief, or a dream. Our suffering is nothing compared to the glory that is coming. If we stay moldable, pliable, and willing to change, we will not be as this same place next year. God will take every irritation and turn it into a blessing. If we want to receive the true benefits of our life experience, we must empty ourselves of expectations. To be filled with the gifts of life, we must first make room for them. God never promised that life would be fair. God did, however, promise that if you stay in faith, he would take what is meant for your harm and use it to your advantage. Nothing that happens to you is a surprise to God. That is why he arranged a comeback for every setback, a vindication for every wrong, and a new beginning for every disappointment. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Few of us open ourselves to redemptive suffering before we reach maturity. The first half of life does not typically present us with the kinds of grave losses that provoke the profound suffering most of us must experience before we open ourselves to events beyond those we wish and plan for. At a certain point in our adulthood, however, the truth behind illusions such as “I am in control,” “If I work hard, I will succeed,” “Life is fair,” and “If I am a good person, nothing bad will happen to me,” confronts us very directly. As much as we would like to hold on to these beliefs, it becomes increasingly hard to do as we experience serious career disappointments, problems with our loved ones, financial difficulties, the deaths of people we love. Just as a raging forest fire can level everything that stands in its way, consistent deep inner suffering can obliterate the very illusions that fanned the flames of suffering in the first place. If you will get over it, God will still get you to where you are supposed to be. Stop reliving all the hurt, and move forward, then you will come to the new beginning God has in store. Through redemptive suffering, we can survive the loss of these illusions, discover important truths, even experience spiritual growth. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Even one episode of deep suffering can destroy our damaging illusions. Fortunately, the deeper the pain, the greater the potential for growth. Changing the way we view suffering and learning to put its lessons to good use are two of the best ways to get the most our of our adult adventure. A true fall of humanity has never taken place. Actually, even when in a body, the soul still lives its original celestial life and remains unseparated from intelligence. Only we are not away of this hidden life of the soul; on other words, we are partly unconscious of what happens in our minds. What is true of the soul in relation to intelligence is even truer of the relation between our embodied selves and intelligence. Not even when present in us does intelligence discontinue its activity. With this knowledge and love, we can help transform hopes and dreams and help others find eternal truths and inward peace and security that it brings. To know the One means to become one with it, which the soul can accomplish only by becoming s simple or as along as the One. In the moment of such union the souls has become God or, rather, is God; the souls has reascended to its original source. This condition is described as ecstasy, simplicity, self-surrender, touching, and flight of the alone to the alone. This ecstasy is undoubtedly the climatic moment of a person’s life. It is not expressible in words; only one who has experienced it knows what it means to be ravished away and full of God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
For this renascent one prepares oneself by acquisition of all the perfections (virtues, aretai). However, each of these perfections acquires different meanings according to the level on which one’s spiritual life takes place—thus, there is a social fairness, above it another kind of fairness, and so on. One prepares oneself by the exercise of dialectics. The preliminary stages of achievement is becoming Godlike. The truly infinite is a thing which has no limits imposed on it from without but only from within. We should obey the divine command and “Know thyself.” Our true happiness consists and of the concept of self-knowledge. Spiritual substances and material can interact because God represents both and connect them. Human perceptions are an effect of God’s real vision. Spiritual and material things are both real because God represents them; material things are real in a further sense, as phaenomena substantiata, in so far as God represents them as real. This divine representation is the cause of the real existence of things; but we perceive only an appearance of this real existence. The logical difficulties of the concept of infinity, that space and time cannot exist outside of human representation. The soul, properly nurtured and purified, may escape from the changing World of appearance to a higher World that is eternal and divine. The soul that departs early from the Earth does not become warped and cramped by the body but returns to the other World unimpaired. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
It is no secret what God can do. Here is the answer to one of life’s greatest questions, “Who am I?” I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to Heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a young person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life. When we understand our relationship to God, we also understand our relationship to one another. All men and women on this Earth are the offspring of God, spirit brothers and sisters. What a powerful truth! Love is the most powerful force in the World. Love is not just an ecstasy, not just an intense feeling. It is a driving force. It is something that carries us through our life of joyful duty. The idea of eternal progress is one of the most powerful ideas in our theology. It gives us hope that when we falter and challenge is when we soar. And we can pray to our Heavenly Father, and he will hear our prayers and help us in the way that is best for us. We can always be in touch with a powerful friend who loves us and helps us, in his own time and in his own way. Life on Earth is more good than evil. The human enjoys pleasures that outweigh one’s pains. The greatest pleasures come from intellectual pursuits and virtuous actions; a life so spent brings happiness in this World and leads to eternal felicity in the next. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
It has been from the beginning and it will be till the end of time that people will have a tendency to rationalize and blame their behavior on other or certain circumstances. The growth of the mind is the widening of consciousness, each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement. Even tenacious individualists are eventually consumed by what is going on around them, the necessary constraints of socialization in a World where solitary physical and mental spaces are increasingly difficult to come by. There is an urge to escape, to find a spot where no one knows or cares who you are, and disappear so you can focus on this idea of remaining true to yourself at all costs. Against the suffering which may come upon one from human relationships the readiest safeguard is voluntary isolation, keeping oneself aloof from other people. The happiness which can be achieved along this path is, as we see, the happiness of quietness. Against the dreaded external World, one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself. We are motivated by the goal of self-preservation, and we know that we are mortal. This is why many people invest in a supernatural belief system that paves the way for immortality. As human beings, we are capable of reflecting on the mysteries of life and celebrating the magnificence we find. Humans are religious in part because religious faith helps alleviate the fear of death by offering a means to transcend mortality, to achieve some kind of perception of eternal life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Studies show that people reminded of their mortality subsequently report greater levels of religiosity as well as belief in afterlife. When we are actively able to replay our sacred moments at will, one will find that a connection to the deeper, more meaningful side of life becomes part of our daily existence rather than a once-in-a-blue-moon stroke of luck. When we discover the power of our divine moments, we will discover a well that will renew the spirit and keep us fully alive. It is important to devour these divine moments, no matter where we are; they are one of the best ways to nourish the soul. These things of ordinary life that enchant us toward eternity appears to be a fully Earthly relationship reminding us that human love is not as simple as it appears. Love releases us into the realm of divine imagination, where the soul is expanded and reminded of its unearthly cravings and needs. Love allows one to see the true angelic nature of the environment and people around us. Charity is everlasting love. Faith is belief in revealed truths. It is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together—something that connects all life but is also eternal. Ultimately the object of faith is God himself, who is not, however, known by the human mind in his divine simplicity but only discursively and by means of propositions. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
We are instructed to let all bitterness, and anger, and evil speaking be put away. However, at some point, the trap of fatalism is quite compelling. Many men and women have seen in their companies and communities, a full range of self-serving, power hungry, unethical, and immoral behavior undertaken in the name of the organization, the city, the state, and the nation. They have witnessed the destructive power of human frailty. It is natural for people to become numb, disenfranchised, or themselves corrupted, or even operate morally in, a system so pervasively warped by evil. Some people voice hopelessness over the way their children are growing up in a World that suddenly seems filled with drugs, alcohol, violence, and life-threatening infirmaries. Those conditions make a lot of people feel that the very survival of an entire generation of children is threatened. A wave of destruction puts our planet at risk. The global economy is failing us, too; we seem unable to stem the tide of money flowing away from those who need it and into the pockets of those who merely want more of it. Everywhere we look we find a mind-boggling number of ethical questions about how we should be using our resources and time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
We have the power to control carnal communication. However, with so much hate, violence, greed, and wrongdoing around us, it can be difficult to see much good in the World. Dispirited, too many of us simply throw our hands up in defeat. We do not necessarily give ourselves over to evil, we begin to feel it is futile to fight it. We begin t expect nothing will ever improve. However, what is important is that we recognize that our attitudes—including our fatalism—are at the crux of the World’s problem. Imagine an Earth without evil, a planet is that holy good. Being human would have no particular meaning. Since the dawn of complex human consciousness, humankind has believed that our freedom is based on the principal that we get to make our own choices. Choosing to be good would have no value unless goodness existed in opposition with its polar conflicting agenda: evil. Every situation, every institution, and every person has the conscious decision to choose evil or good. What makes good and evil is what we choose to do with our lives. Your intent, rather than the action itself, is paramount. Yet keep in mind, behavior undertake for good does not always bear the product of its intent, any more than evil motives always bring evil outcomes. All reason knows is that God is the eternal, ever-present, and creative source of anything that does (or can) exist. Creation and preservation are identical. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
These paradoxical expressions are required in order to affirm the truth that while creatures own their being to God as their first cause, they also act according to secondary cause that are appropriate to their natures. And sometimes what people mean to harm us, God turns it around and makes a situation that benefits us. Also, some people may be offended by events are meant for their well-being, even if there was no bad intent. God, as first cause, can suspend or transform secondary causes in order to perform his will. When he does so, his action is called a miracle. A miracle does not violate nature. It is a case of nature behaving in an abnormal way through a special act of the same creative power which is at work in the normal processes that can be subsumed under scientific laws. Miraculous acts are not less natural than nonmiraculous ones. However, while the abnormal character of an event is empirically verifiable, its miraculous character as an act of God can be discerned by faith alone. A wide range of schools of psychology also recommend owning up to one’s tendencies toward good and evil, in the belief that coming to terms with both inclinations is a means to healthy emotional, social, and spiritual development in adulthood. Many of our evil tendencies remain hidden, even from ourselves, until maturity provides us with the imperative to confront them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
There may be hearts that are suffering in silence. The individual struggle to prevail over the feelings of evil powers that invade each of us produces the tension that gives birth to both moral action and creativity. This inner struggle is at the heart of our sense of personal freedom. Quantum physics indicates that the power of expectation can change the behavior of subatomic particles and energy waves. Energy is momentum (the product of mass and velocity) or vis viva. In all the Universe the same quantity of living force is always conserved. The apparent loss of living force in inelastic collisions is usually explained away by the hypothesis that the invisible small parts of matter gain energy just as much as the macroscopic bodies seem to lose. This is extended into a belief that what you think is what you get, literally. That is why people believe we are actually bringing more of that evil on ourselves by focusing on negative thoughts, negative news, or the evil in others. From a religious, psychological, and practical standpoint, it stands to reason that we have a vested interest in changing our attitudes, even if evil seems too powerful to oppose. Before we can hope to conquer the evil that is out there, we must face the part of us that gives in to these vices, that allows us to lose hope in the face of negativity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
The real challenge that we face in our communications with others is to condition our hearts to have Godlike feelings for all of Heavenly Father’s children. Many people have never missed a meal, been cold, slept on the ground, never had any real-life experiences, never bled. So how can you expect them to have any real material? Still, that does not make them bad people nor mean that one should go out of their way to make them experience hardship and pain just because you have. Meeting our own shadow can be a painful and frightening experience. Our shadows represent the unknown parts of ourselves that are too reprehensible, incongruent, or forbidding to incorporate into our conscious personality. Typically, those of us afraid of evil within project those traits onto others in the World. Projection is the easiest way to avoid dealing with our own darker traits, impulses, and actions. Projection is a way of blaming others so we do not have a guilty conscious. Spiritual growth requires the acknowledgment of one’s own imperfection. The destructive power of evil is linked to the inability to admit personal sinfulness, and the corresponding tendency to see others as bad instead. Fortunately, inner exploration means more than facing personal weakness. Looking closely at oneself also allows for rediscovery of spiritual strengths. True individuality is all about an ability to shift and change and take advantage of circumstances without abandoning a core truth and confidence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Heavenly Father has given us a priceless gift in our capacity to communicate with each other. Our communications are at the core of our relationships with others. If we are to return home safely to Heavenly Father, we must develop righteous relationships with His children here in mortality. Our communications reflect in our countenance. Therefore, we must be careful not only what we communicate, but also how we do so. Souls can be strengthened or shattered by the messages and the manner in which we communicate. Integrity is the core of our character. Without integrity we have a weak foundation upon which to build righteous character. Negative criticism is intended to hurt and often defame and to destroy. Even if you are under attack by a lot of people, at some point it is just best to ignore what they say and do because you do not want to become like them. This caustic communication is cruel, and it tends to crush the character of all those about whom it is directed. We should not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably. May we be found communicating with each other in a manner in which the Savior would communicate. Godlike communications are expressed in tones of love rather than loudness. They are intended to be helpful rather than hurtful. They tend to bind us together rather than to drive us apart. They are tools to build relationships rather than to belittle. “God knows thoughts and intent of heart,” reports Alma 18.32. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Society exists because, as a matter of fact, by far the greater number of people have the kind of feeling that make it possible. There is a constant prayer in our hearts that we will not fail in the great trust God has placed in us so we can build faith and testimony and which will become answered prayers for those who will here. There are three basic principles that can help us retain a remission of our sins: first, to remain humble; second, to call upon the Lord daily; and third, to stand steadfast in the faith. Humility has been described as having the desire to submit to the Lord, the wish to seek the Lord’s will and glory, and the yearning to remove narcissism. We should always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and his goodness and long-suffering towards us. Inasmuch as we are humble we might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time. Prayer is one of the greatest blessings we have while here on Earth. Through prayer we can communicate with our Heavenly Father and seek his guidance daily. We should pray each day that we will have the power to resist temptation, as our daily prayers influence our thoughts, words, and actions. In order to retain a remission of our sins, it is essential that we ask our Heavenly Father every day for the strength to stay on the righteous path. To sustain faith, each of us must be humble and compassionate, kind and generous. Faith is further sustained by daily doses of spirituality that come to us as we kneel in prayer. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Our observation of an instance of virtuous action is the occasion for a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction, which enables us to distinguish that action as virtuous. Similarly, our observation of an instance of vicious action is the occasion for a feeling of pain or uneasiness, which enables us to distinguish that action as vicious. The moral sense is also an influencing motive in our pursuit of virtue and our avoidance of vicious behavior, and it play a part in our bestowal of praise and blame. Besides accounting for our knowledge of right and wrong, the moral sense closes the gap between moral knowledge and moral behavior by providing a motive for moral behavior. Since moral knowledge consists of feeling of pleasure and uneasiness, the prospect of enjoying or avoiding these feelings is a sufficient motive for pursuing virtue and avoiding vice. If moral knowledge were not ultimately a matter of feelings, it would be possible for someone to know that a certain kind of action is virtuous but still have no motive for doing it. The moral sense also enables us to account for our approval and condemnation of actions and characters as following from our being pleased of pained by them. Sometimes society invents prohibitions together with the means of transgressing them. The profit-mongering gatekeepers keep us at bay, replacing interpersonal communication with ever-more-extreme pseudo-participator entertainments. Entertainment today stimulates then inhibits us. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
A person may know that a certain way of acting may have a certain result, but in order for one to achieve that result, he or she must first find it pleasing. Inhibited by what stimulates us—the Worldly ways that becomes ever more extreme teach people that life is all about preaching transgression and rebellion for the greater good of humanity. It is a doctrine that teaches people to behave badly and reap the rewards of notoriety and celebrity. However, it just to happens that God determined us to be pleased by benevolent actions; and when nothing interfere with moral sense, we count benevolence a virtue and malevolence a vice. Some people have a preferring for the destruction of society over its maintenance. Whenever there is a tragedy, there is a tourist attraction because when Worldly ways merge into the new conformity, people who are lost, confused or led astray start to feel entitled to engage in whatever antics bring them pleasure, or makes them feel important. Many people then start to get off on transgression. And with more and more people joining them on the sites of tragedy tour, the ungodly behavior gets more raw, intense, and pervasive than ever before. Gratuitous violence is portrayed as a way to protest violence because there are preplanned acts of extreme spontaneity that allows individuals to take advantage of a World in which the cameras are always ready, trained on whatever is about to happen. When one no longer finds a need for a faculty psychology, the need to search for a moral faculty goes too. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Is it any wonder that the once unheard-of phenomenon of fans randomly attacking celebrities while they are in public or in their homes has become yet another commonplace occurrence? One of the most infamous of these incidents was the stabbing of tennis teen Monica Seles in the middle of a match. Or the tripping and throwing water on journal list Tomi Lahren at a restaurant while she was with her family. Another journalist, Sara Zendehnam, had a huge rock thrown at her head during a live report, which luckily, she was able to evade. Someone we the stage during Aaliyah’s performance so when she came out on stage she slipped and fell. Paris Hilton was threatened and extorted for money by hackers, and someone pretended a plane she was on was about to crash just to scare her. There has been a fundamental shift out on fandom’s fringe, today’s intruders and insiders want to be part of the show. People want to ne noticed, and they will spend the night, five years, or life in jail just to get their name in the paper. Getting noticed is no longer achieve by working hard in school, creating a fantastic invention, or becoming the young to graduate from law school because stabbings, shootings, and beatings are more likely to attract media attention. People realize the violent or radical acts seem to please the television news producers because their shock value is a surefire way to boost ratings and is a cheap form of entertainment for them. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Another part of popular culture was slavery. William Ford was from Ireland, and he arrived in Jamaica in 1784 having bought a coffee plantation. Not long after his arrival, he purchased a woman who was enslaved and took her as his concubine. Mr. Ford first noticed her on the docks at Alligator Pond, a fishing village on the south coast. She was an Igbo noble woman from West Africa. They had a son, whom they named John. He was, in the popular language of the day, a mulatto; John was colored—and all the Fords from that point on fell on into Jamaica’s colored class. They were seen as potential allies for the Whites because the Blacks were the majority. However, in the American South during that same period, it would have been highly unusual for a White landowner to have such a public relationship with an enslaved person. Relationships between Blacks and Whites were considered morally repugnant. Laws were passed prohibiting interracial relationships, the last of which were not struck down by the United States Supreme Court until 1967. A plantation owner who lived openly with an enslaved person would have been socially ostracized, and any offspring from the Union of White and Black would have been left in slavery. Therefore, it is important to be careful of who we vote into office and know what they stand for because it is possible that slavery could become a reality again. And that is why illegal acts that are part of popular culture are dangerous. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
Whatever that becomes accepted as normal, and is dangerous, has a possibility of becoming legal through our legislative process. We have seen how Jerry Brown illegal made California a state where people who unlawfully enter our country are shielded from the laws, and even given money for their legal defense, while an estimated 5,000 Americans on the island of Puerto Rico were killed in a storm or by the aftermath of it, and Jerry Brown nor other politicians, besides the President, as allocating funds to help restore the American Island. Also, there are people waiting in line to legally enter the United States of America, but they may not get the chance because illegal immigrants have a priority. And after what happened on 11 September 2001, we need to be very careful about who we let into our country and we need to know who they are so we do not become victims. It is not right that Jerry Brown and other politicians are helping people break the law and putting us all at risk, while Americans suffer and die. I bet if 5,000 illegal immigrants were killed by a tragedy, the American people would be outraged. Put into practice and taken to its extreme, the right to individuality is the right to claim pleasure for oneself regardless of the consequences, and that is exactly what Jerry Brown is doing, putting his own agenda first, before the American people. However, those who live righteously and call upon the Lord daily will have a greater power to retain a remission of their sins. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
For most of us, in fact, the World clamors for attention the moment we open our eyes. We are blessed to live in a land where laws matter and protect us. We cannot allow criminals to start making illegal actions legal as any of our legal protections can be taken away at any moment by heretics with a malevolent agenda. “Those who embark in the service of God, see that you serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that you may stand blameless for before God at the last day,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 4.2. Lift up your hearts and rejoice, and take upon you the full armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil and receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified. We should try to achieve a state of deep physiological relaxation, often called the alpha state by researchers who distinguish relative degrees of alertness by transducing brain chemistry into electrical impulses that can be graphed and observed on an oscilloscope. An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of varying signal voltages to display the waveform of brain as an electrocardiogram. Brain researchers have named the lowest level of alertness—i.e., the deepest state of relaxation—the alpha or first state. When you allow yourself to relax to this degree, you replenish your adaptive energy supply, increase your capacity to be creative because the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will be filled with joy. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Having received a remission from sin, and having a peace of conscience because of your exceeding faith, you will put yourself in the position of thinking more effectively when you return to your fully conscious state. Be on the lookout for a moment in your daily life that you believe to be worthy of an extended period of relaxation. Attractive objects, providential circumstances, and nature scenes lend themselves especially well to the alpha state of relaxation. This will allow one to grow in the knowledge of the Lord and in knowledge of that which is just and true. There will be no mind to injury one another, but there will be a desire to live at peace with one another. Parents will discipline their children with love and teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness. People will love one another and be kind and administer relief to others both spiritually and temporally. What greater blessing could we ask for? May God grant that we may retain a remission of our sins. God lives. What is most astounding will be the way the experience makes you feel. It will feel one with the kind of calm yet spirited enthusiasm that people feel in their youth and innocence. When individuals feel enthusiasm for doing virtuous things, you are one with God because a pathway is opened and into it is the beauty of human existence. When body, mind, and spirit converge, astounding physical and mental accomplishments are produced without strain or struggle. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
The Universe works in mysterious ways. The voice of God is in the human heart. To rest in God means we take refuge in his protective care. Sometimes blessing take a little while because God is creating a harvest beyond your wildest dreams. The mind of the individuating person should remain contemplative as the spirit converses and assimilates with the unconscious. God, who is the creator of the World, is fully in harmony with the laws of nature, which God himself has implanted in the World for its governance. By the grace of God some exceptional persons may be born with a thoroughly sinless nature. Respect the voice of conscience as the voice of God in the soul of human beings and be encouraged to develop a spirit free of inquiry in all directions. When your decisions are always full of fear, you deny the best that is in you. That is a sin against yourself and probably the biggest sin of all. Traveling the road of exceptional competence will spur your mental mastery, your physical vigor, and your emotional vitality. With your roles in synchronous flow with your values, everything you do has greater meaning. It will give birth to an inner voice that awakens the soul. It is not necessary to dwell on the past. Make room in your mind for the new things God wants to do. Do not let these temporary provisions become permanent. If we can learn this principle of having faith and not settling, then we will see the fullness of what God has in store and make it all the way to the promised land. “Only those who repent and harden not their hearts shall enter the Lord’s rest,” reports Alma 12.34-37. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Care of the soul means respecting its emotions and fantasies however objectionable. Great miracles have taken place. All kind of good thing have happened. We cannot be contained. Just as researcher has charted the course of healthy mental, physical, emotional, and social development across the life span, contemporary scientists and theologians have recently attempted to map out how human beings grow spiritually. God put this dream in our hearts, and as long as we stay in faith, nothing can shut in down. When God created us, he put a spirit of increase on the inside. We were never made to reach one level and stop. We were created to grow, to move forward, and to prosper. We should be constantly surpassing the barriers of the past, taking new ground for our families and advancing in God’s kingdom. However, throughout life there will always be forces trying to deprive us. When we reflect on the tragedies of our own loves, when we slowly find our way through their miseries, we are being initiated into the mysterious ways of the soul. They cannot stop the progress we have made, but they will do their best to contain us, to keep us isolated, alienated, and struggling as a method of limiting our influence. Yet, keep in mind, the force of God is in you and it is greater than anything that has ever existed. Keep increasing your faith, look for new opportunities, new idea, and new ways to expand your influence. “Have love of God always in your hearts, that you may enter into his rest,” reports Alma 13.29. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
God made you for more, to influence more, to accomplish more, to love more, to give more, and to have more. Love is the means of entry and our guide. God will take you places you never dreamed us and provide opportunities that will establish amazing influence. As individual belief is tested in the real World, young adults reconsider and redefine spirituality, often relinquishing the narrow views they were taught as youngsters and embracing the universality of spiritual principles and practices; this expansion of spiritual viewpoint may allow them to find spiritual meaning in art, architecture, automobiles, nature, and more. If we can honor love as it presents itself, taking shapes and directions we would never have predicted or desired, then we will enter a deeper sense of awe and mystery of life; a wise understanding of the collective legends, religions, and traditions; and the potential to be a spiritual leader. Still, love asks many things of us, including actions that seem to be utterly counter to feelings of attachment and loyalty. That is why the signs we are ready to grow in spirit sometimes appear in the form of both curses and blessings. We may experience severe episodes of disillusionment with life, or periods of profound awe and reverence for the miracle of existence—or both at once. “Obtain sufficient hope by which you can enter into rest of the Lord,” reports Moroni 7.3. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The fluctuations in the rhythms of life calling us to spiritual serenity will continue as we walk along our path, which can be frustrating and fulfilling. Nelson Mandela was put in prison because he opposed the government of apartheid. Apartheid is an official policy of racial segregation promulgated in the Republic of South Africa. He could have thought that he did his best, gave it his all and supposed it was not meant for him to be successful. However, Mr. Mandela knew God intended to increase his influence is use that source of discrimination and human rights violations to increase his influence and give him a testimony of how his faith in God and perseverance increased his power and influence. After twenty-seven years in prison, Mr. Mandela walked out of prison a free man. He eventually became the president of South Africa and won a Nobel Peace Prize. What God has destined for your life will come to fulfillment. Even to define God generally as a superhuman or supernatural being that controls the World is inadequate. God is unquestionable transcendent. God is the pure and unsullied Ming of the Universe, transcending virtue, transcending knowledge, transcending good itself. No one has ever seen God and our knowledge of him is like a confused reflection in a mirror. The divine substance exceeds by its immensity every form which our intellect attains, so while we know that God is (quod sit) we cannot know his essence or what he is (quid sit). “We have labor to perform, that we may conquer enemy and rest our souls in kingdom of God,” reports Moroni 9.6. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
God moves the World in the sense that he endues form from its material structure by inspiring it, through a series of subordinate movers or intelligences, to love him as its end or goal. Being wholly good, and therefore free from jealousy, he wished everything to be like himself. Since an intelligent being is superior to an unintelligent one, and since intelligence cannot be present in anything that is devoid of soul, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature best. When the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for spreading the good news, his captors thought they were containing him. Paul could have become discouraged and given up. Instead, he proceeded to draft much of the New Testament from a prison cell and is still profoundly influencing us today. What does it mean to you that God has made you uncontainable? What charity of greatness are waiting to forge a foundation and flourish in your life? Take more time in your day to reflect on the meaning of events. If we do not struggle to find more satisfying answers to these fundamental questions during our life journeys, later in life we risk facing fear and anger as our main companions. However, if we can begin to ponder these questions, we open ourselves to a spiritual awakening that makes the rest of our lives a deeper, richer experience than we imagined possible. There is no limit to the methods by which one can access peace and meaning. Truth is where you find it. “May God’s mercy and long-suffering rest in your mind forever,” reports Moroni 9.25. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The spiritual journey has many rewards independent of the answers that are sought. Through spirituality, one can make leaps of understanding that defy the limits of the mind; connect with others, and the World around, at levels never before experienced; and eliminate much of the fear and doubt that often plagues the emotional life. Nothing is ever wasted in the Kingdom of God. Not one tear, not all our pain, not the unanswered question nor the seemingly unanswered prayers. If we give our lives to God, nothing will be wasted. And if we are willing to be patient until the grace of God is made manifest, whether it takes a day, a month, a week, or a decade, it will be worth the wait. Take your tie on this pathway—there are people who dedicate their whole lives to the important pursuit you are about to undertake. Although you may find you can share with and learn from other spiritual journeyers, the answers you find are meant for you. Feel the experience fully, and live what answers are offered. Ultimately, your connections with your values will allow you to regulate your emotions in order to avoid giving into temptation and acting impulsively. It is important that we are able to control our emotions instead of being controlled by them. “Spirit and body shall reunite in perfect form,” reports Alma 11.43. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would a person claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of humans and citizens. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Randolph Harris II International Institute 