STIMULATOR message for the week of November 16, 1971
Message from President Eugene C. Ludwig, dated November 16, 1971.
“THE ONLY GREATNESS IS UNSELFISHNESS!” “600” in 1971 (To date — 639)
Dear Missionaries,
The most difficult obstacle for most of us seems to be to give wholeheartedly of ourselves and to do away with selfishness. We see this from childhood to manhood. Childhood behavior consists of the following — give me this, give me that, I want that, that’s mine, it’s not my fault, he did it, or I did that! These selfish desires continue into adulthood and many adults haven’t developed the social maturity to see the negative affects of self-love and unrighteous desires.
The Savior’s teachings admonish us to live outside ourselves. Self-love prompts us to live within ourselves. When we live within ourselves, we tend to try to monopolize and force things our way, to use people and situations to accomplish our selfish desires. This kind of destructive behavior may be unconscious and saps our system of vital energy. When we are selfish and our desires are not fulfilled, our mental processes think negatively, we start to talk to ourselves and find fault with people, situations, and conditions and bring upon ourselves problems, frustrations, and a loss of the very things we selfishly hope to achieve. We can begin to overcome the destructive nature of self-love, if we will first admit to ourselves that to a degree we are a victim of self-love, and through a truthful, honest analysis of our actions, attitudes and feelings realize to what degree.
Start a program of self-improvement in daily climbing into the cockpit of your own mind and analyze what you are thinking and the motive behind your thoughts, listen at times when you are talking to yourself (which is a good percentage of the time) and analyze what you are telling yourself. Concentrate on how often in your internal conversations you are finding fault, tearing down, belittling others, and in your external conversation determine how often you build yourself by subtly belittling others, especially those who may be in competition with, or who presides over you. Count how often you evaluate yourself by using personal pronouns, such as I, me, my, mine!
If through honest evaluation we admit to self-love and then work to overcome it, we will find our energy level will increase, “…as we do unto others as we would have others do unto us…”. Others will respond more positively to us, success will surround us and peace will whisper feelings of confidence and joy. “It is wisdom to know other, it is enlightenment to know one’s self.” (Lao Tzu)
Faithfully yours,
President Eugene C. Ludwig
“TO HANDLE YOURSELF USE YOUR HEAD — TO HANDLE OTHERS USE YOUR HEART!” (Award of Excellence to Elder Kenneth Holman)
Click here to return to the Stimulator menu page
Click here to return to the Missionary Matters menu page
Click here to return to the Temples Menu page
Click here to return to the Main Menu page