One frequent invitation in mental health counseling is to challenge and change our thoughts, our feelings, and our behavior. Often our anxiety, depression, stress, and relationships can improve when we make adjustments to our perspective and changes in our behavior in the situations and relationships that cause us distress. If we change our thoughts, our feelings and behavior can change. If we change our feelings, our thoughts and behavior can change. Or, if we change our behavior, our thoughts and feelings can change.
This principle is illustrated in the story shared by our dear prophet President Russell M. Nelson:
Not long ago, the wife of one of our grandsons was struggling spiritually. I will call her “Jill.” Despite fasting, prayer, and priesthood blessings, Jill’s father was dying. She was gripped with fear that she would lose both her dad and her testimony.
Late one evening, my wife, Sister Wendy Nelson, told me of Jill’s situation. The next morning Wendy felt impressed to share with Jill that my response to her spiritual wrestle was one word! The word was myopic.
Jill later admitted to Wendy that initially she was devastated by my response. She said, “I was hoping for Grandfather to promise me a miracle for my dad. I kept wondering why the word myopic was the one he felt compelled to say.”
After Jill’s father passed on, the word myopic kept coming to her mind. She opened her heart to understand even more deeply that myopic meant “nearsighted.” And her thinking began to shift. Jill then said, “Myopic caused me to stop, think, and heal. That word now fills me with peace. It reminds me to expand my perspective and seek the eternal. It reminds me that there is a divine plan and that my dad still lives and loves and looks out for me. Myopic has led me to God. (Let God Prevail, General Conference, October 2020.)
Jill changed her thinking and she found peace.
This coming weekend, those who we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators as well as other general authorities and general officers of the church will invite us and encourage us to change our thoughts and behavior and we, too, may find peace through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
May the Lord bless us not to be myopic, but to have open minds and humble hearts, to “think celestial,” as we receive counsel, guidance, and instruction from the Lord through His servants.
