In my earlier years as a scout, I learned much. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my peers and shared many memories with them. Everything was as simple as it could be for a young man of my age. All until *Cue scary music* the (we'll say) Johnson family moved in.
Their family was like my own in that theirs was also a performing family. It was most of the Johnson side of the family with six fathers and their families. It was just the dads that performed, though. They also belonged to the church of which I am a proud member. During some church youth event that took place long ago, one of the Johnson kids (we'll say John's son) had rubbed me the wrong way. I don't remember what happened, I just remember that I felt wronged. From that day on, I felt and thought as if he were the meanest kid I had ever met. This was my perspective.
Going through everything at the time, it seemed as if everything he did fit the label that I had put on him. Everything he might have possibly done to be kind to me was an act of spitty (spite and mock pity, haha) towards me.
I felt this way for two years, never allowing him a single inch of leeway, and boy, was I awakened when I finally woke up to who he really was.
My change in attitude towards him occurred when I went to my first dance (the one that I mentioned in a previous post). I walked in during a fast song. The dance was well underway since the car I had been traveling in was late. I was in awe of the energy that permeated the building. It was like I was in an ocean of energy that moved so fluidly and beautifully that I couldn't help but get caught up in it. I was soon out on the floor with the few people I had known and met previously, dancing the night away. After that song ended, I saw him and his group of friends, resting from the tiring amount of energy spent moving around. The beat of the next song kicked in and he had started a dance circle with as many people as he could. It was quite a large group considering that quite a few people liked him a lot. In the next few moments, my brain was having trouble registering that he, who had been such a wretched and horrible person before, could ever be so good and charismatic, or have any good quality at all. After all, I believe I had come very close to hating him. While my conscious mind was undergoing this transformation, I decided to go and dance battle him.
Now, he didn't know that I was battling him or challenging him in any way. To him, it probably just looked like I wanted to have as good of a time as he was having. My brain finally got in gear and realized that I had read him wrong. I had judged him incorrectly and, after that dance, I said a very fervent prayer of repentance.
To this day, we are not the closest of friends, but we are good friends, and I would trust him with my life.
Now, we have addressed part of the power of perspective. Let us move on to the power and influence of our thoughts.
Past President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, David O. McKay, said, "There is another responsibility correlated and even coexistent with free agency, which is too infrequently emphasized, and that is the effect not only of a person's actions but also of his thoughts upon others. Man radiates what he is, and that radiation affects to a greater or less degree every person who comes within that radiation."
I have indirectly been able to witness an experiment done by cousins of my cousins. Their family decided that they wanted to expiriment with the power of words. The only question was "How would they be able to measure the affects?"
They finally came to the conclusion of an inanimate object with life sustaining properties. Food.
So what they did was buy two tomaotoes that were exactly alike in every way they could possibly measure. They put them in separate rooms and started their expirement. Calling one of them names and saying horrible things to it and praising the other in every way they could.
The tomato that they had verbally abused went sour after one week, while the other stayed good for almost a month!
The next test was on water.
They filled two glasses of water and decided not to say, but to think things, and they prayed over one glass of water, while mentally abusing the other. To measure the effects, they put both glasses in the freezer. When the glasses where frozen, the family took them out of the freezer and broke the ice out of the glasses. They put them under a microscope next, and to their surprise, the ice structer was comepletely different in every way. The glass that had received all of the positive energy was beautiful, organized and absolutely breathtaking. It was everything the negatively affected glass wasn't. The negatively affected ice was unorganized, scattered and in disarray, and quite ugly to the eye.
Now take a moment to think about what the percentage of water is in our body. If a glass of water can be affected as much as that, then how much do we change a person when we think negative thoughts about them? Or say something rude?
I hope that no one abuses this knowledge. Remember that our thoughts cannot take away someone else's agency. This doesn't mean that they cannot be influenced.
Your friend, brother, mentor, and student,
Dallin Hughes
P.S. This is just a draft with more to come when I feel it necessary to write more.
Past President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, David O. McKay, said, "There is another responsibility correlated and even coexistent with free agency, which is too infrequently emphasized, and that is the effect not only of a person's actions but also of his thoughts upon others. Man radiates what he is, and that radiation affects to a greater or less degree every person who comes within that radiation."
I have indirectly been able to witness an experiment done by cousins of my cousins. Their family decided that they wanted to expiriment with the power of words. The only question was "How would they be able to measure the affects?"
They finally came to the conclusion of an inanimate object with life sustaining properties. Food.
So what they did was buy two tomaotoes that were exactly alike in every way they could possibly measure. They put them in separate rooms and started their expirement. Calling one of them names and saying horrible things to it and praising the other in every way they could.
The tomato that they had verbally abused went sour after one week, while the other stayed good for almost a month!
The next test was on water.
They filled two glasses of water and decided not to say, but to think things, and they prayed over one glass of water, while mentally abusing the other. To measure the effects, they put both glasses in the freezer. When the glasses where frozen, the family took them out of the freezer and broke the ice out of the glasses. They put them under a microscope next, and to their surprise, the ice structer was comepletely different in every way. The glass that had received all of the positive energy was beautiful, organized and absolutely breathtaking. It was everything the negatively affected glass wasn't. The negatively affected ice was unorganized, scattered and in disarray, and quite ugly to the eye.
Now take a moment to think about what the percentage of water is in our body. If a glass of water can be affected as much as that, then how much do we change a person when we think negative thoughts about them? Or say something rude?
I hope that no one abuses this knowledge. Remember that our thoughts cannot take away someone else's agency. This doesn't mean that they cannot be influenced.
Your friend, brother, mentor, and student,
Dallin Hughes
P.S. This is just a draft with more to come when I feel it necessary to write more.
There is nothing more compelling than a personal story to draw a reader into your thoughts and this one is such a perfect illustration of your point. Very visual too, and so relatable.
ReplyDeleteMy friend taught me this system for scripture study called "Life Lessons." She learned it from a woman who learned it from a GA. Can't remember who it was. Anyway, here's the idea. Instead of choosing a topic to study, like faith, for example, you think of lessons or experiences you've had in your life, and then you assign say three qualities or principles to it.
Then you go to the topical guide in the scriptures and write a word or two that reminds you of the event. It won't mean much to anyone else but you, but you'll know immediately what it is. Like, one of mine is brownies and clean room. It's an experience I had my first year in college that taught me a great deal about non-judgement.
Then...drumroll...let's say you get asked to give a talk as a missionary, and they call you up on the spot and ask you to speak about faith or repentance. You can open your scriptures to the topical guide, and right there, along with a bunch of references to that principle, you have actual stories from your life you can reference. So fab, huh?
Your cousins sound super cool. I always talk to my garden in the summer like they are my little friends. I'll say, "Now which one of you gets to be in my Writer's Group salad?" And all the lettuce leaves stand up and open their arms wide as if to say, "Pick me!" Ha ha.
My farmer friends come over and ask me how I possibly got my garden to grow so green and lush, and when I tell them, with a wink and a smile, that I talk to my vegetables and show them gratitude, they look at me like they always do, with a tilt of their head, and a "U-huh!" :)
There is so much to say about this topic. I really like the quote by President McKay. We DO radiate who we are. Every single time we act upon the Spirit, we resonate with the light of God and we literally increase in light. Which is why we are taught that we will grow brighter and brighter until the perfect day. Sometime it would be great to discuss the topic of light itself, and the hereafter, and how it relates to charity, and pure intelligence, and...