Thoughts About Thoughts | Dean L. Larsen
I've been intrigued for many years by the compelling power, positive and negative, of thoughts. As we think, so we will become. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dean-l-larsen_thoughts-thoughts/ "I would like to share with you this morning some thoughts about thoughts. While serving as a mission president, I was interested in the frequency with which missionaries in our personal interviews would ask me this question: “President, how do I control my thoughts?” In that intensive environment, where a keen level of spirituality was so essential to the success of the missionaries, it didn’t take long for these young men and young women to realize that a high level of spiritual power was necessary for them in order to succeed and that thoughts were very instrumental in the acquisition of that power and influence. I’ve been intrigued for many years about thoughts and the compelling power of thoughts. In the children’s classic The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnette, Mrs. Burnette gives us these observations in children’s language: One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts, just mere thoughts, were as powerful as electric batteries, as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison is. To let a sad thought or a bad thought get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in, you may never get over it so long as you live. Thoughts have a great deal to do with how we live, whether we’re enthusiastic or depressed, whether we enjoy success or experience a degree of failure, whether we enjoy spirituality or suffer from a lack of it, and in many respects, I believe, whether we are obedient or disobedient to the laws of God. Some modern behaviorists have indicated that the human thought process is very much like the operation of a computer where the conscious and subconscious mind is concerned. The input which we take into that process has much to do with the output in terms of attitude, mood, and behavior. The Lord has recognized the great power of thoughts, and he warned those whom he addressed in his Sermon on the Mount against the influence of evil or negative thoughts. Proverbs tells us that as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). To paraphrase that slightly, I think it would be very accurate to say that, as a man persists in his thinking, so he will become. There is that kind of power in thoughts. The Lord has even indicated that we will be judged in some measure on the basis of our thoughts. In the Doctrine and Covenants, section 88, he describes the ushering in of the millennial period and the summoning forth for judgment of all those who have inhabited the earth during its millennia of existence. He describes those who lived upon the earth in the first thousand years who are called forth by the sounding of a trump. He also says, “And then shall the second angel sound his trump, and reveal the secret acts of men, and the thoughts and intents of their hearts, and the mighty works of God in the second thousand years” (D&C 88:109). “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” - Dean L. Larsen Dean L. Larsen was a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 6 July 1976. Follow BYU Speeches: https://www.facebook.com/byuspeeches/ https://twitter.com/BYUSpeeches?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.instagram.com/byuspeeches/ https://www.pinterest.com/byuspeeches/ © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
I've been intrigued for many years by the compelling power, positive and negative, of thoughts. As we think, so we will become. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dean-l-larsen_thoughts-thoughts/ "I would like to share with you this morning some thoughts about thoughts. While serving as a mission president, I was interested in the frequency with which missionaries in our personal interviews would ask me this question: “President, how do I control my thoughts?” In that intensive environment, where a keen level of spirituality was so essential to the success of the missionaries, it didn’t take long for these young men and young women to realize that a high level of spiritual power was necessary for them in order to succeed and that thoughts were very instrumental in the acquisition of that power and influence. I’ve been intrigued for many years about thoughts and the compelling power of thoughts. In the children’s classic The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnette, Mrs. Burnette gives us these observations in children’s language: One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts, just mere thoughts, were as powerful as electric batteries, as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison is. To let a sad thought or a bad thought get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in, you may never get over it so long as you live. Thoughts have a great deal to do with how we live, whether we’re enthusiastic or depressed, whether we enjoy success or experience a degree of failure, whether we enjoy spirituality or suffer from a lack of it, and in many respects, I believe, whether we are obedient or disobedient to the laws of God. Some modern behaviorists have indicated that the human thought process is very much like the operation of a computer where the conscious and subconscious mind is concerned. The input which we take into that process has much to do with the output in terms of attitude, mood, and behavior. The Lord has recognized the great power of thoughts, and he warned those whom he addressed in his Sermon on the Mount against the influence of evil or negative thoughts. Proverbs tells us that as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). To paraphrase that slightly, I think it would be very accurate to say that, as a man persists in his thinking, so he will become. There is that kind of power in thoughts. The Lord has even indicated that we will be judged in some measure on the basis of our thoughts. In the Doctrine and Covenants, section 88, he describes the ushering in of the millennial period and the summoning forth for judgment of all those who have inhabited the earth during its millennia of existence. He describes those who lived upon the earth in the first thousand years who are called forth by the sounding of a trump. He also says, “And then shall the second angel sound his trump, and reveal the secret acts of men, and the thoughts and intents of their hearts, and the mighty works of God in the second thousand years” (D&C 88:109). “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” - Dean L. Larsen Dean L. Larsen was a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 6 July 1976. Follow BYU Speeches: https://www.facebook.com/byuspeeches/ https://twitter.com/BYUSpeeches?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.instagram.com/byuspeeches/ https://www.pinterest.com/byuspeeches/ © Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.