They’ll also need an experience to move them in that direction.  Think Ebenezer Scrooge here.  He was all business and no fun.  But it wasn’t just Christmas Day that turned him around, because he constantly turned his heart away from the joy that day could bring with his oft repeated “Humbug!”  It was the experiences with the spirit of his former business partner followed by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future that turned him around.

And one of the first things he did after resolving to keep Christmas always in his heart was to laugh.

There’s a lesson there for all of us.  Laughter isn’t just an option in life but essential to true enjoyment in life.  You need to laugh to live — really live and relish life.  You need to laugh because your life really does depend on it.

That may seem extreme to some, almost as extreme as being all business and no fun.  Yet some thought upon the subject will lead to the inescapable conclusion your life really does depend on laughter.

After all, what is your life?  If you define life in terms of a mediocre existence, then you might make the case that your life doesn’t depend on laughter.

But is that the life you really want?  Do you really want to live on autopilot, just going through the same motions over and over, day after day?  Don’t you want a life you can savor and truly relish?

Of course you do.  You keep feeling the tug of that dream because you’re biologically hardwired to live it.  We are built to be social creatures, and laughter connects us with other people.  It’s also a natural stress reliever.  Certainly your best life will enable you to manage the stress everyone encounters in life.

Of course, anything taken to excess is usually detrimental.  Laughter is no exception.  Taken too far, we can forget ourselves.  I’ve seen social environments get so jovial people say and do things they otherwise wouldn’t.

Moderation is the key.  Taken in moderation, laughter can spread joy, hope, and positive energy.  It says we don’t have to choose between business and fun; we can have both.  We can attend to our responsibilities, make serious progress towards our dreams and goals, and enjoy ourselves along the way.

Part of that result comes from incorporating that enjoyment into what we do.  Appropriately placed, laughter can both promote and manifest that enjoyment.  But I believe another part lies in setting aside time with the purpose of experiencing laughter in our lives.

That’s what’s really great about Belly Laugh Day.  It’s a day devoted to laughter.  And it’s perfectly placed in the middle of winter when skies overhead in many areas are typically gray and gloomy.  That is, in fact, what inspired the creation of the holiday to begin with.

Whether or not you know about it, and regardless of how you choose to celebrate (or not celebrate) it, Belly Laugh Day provides an excursion into laughter.  You may be an Ebenezer Scrooge who is all business and no fun, or you maybe you’re stressed under so many demands at present you feel more like crying than laughing.  Either way, celebrating Belly Laugh Day can teach and remind us we need to laugh to live.  Your life really does depend on it.

How will you incorporate more laughter into your life?  Will you read a funny book?  Or watch a funny movie?  Maybe you’ll join the audience for a stand-up comic.  However you take your elixir, a little laughter can lighten your load.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Likewise, we lived with our Heavenly Parents in a comfortable home.  Then we were presented with an opportunity to embark on a great adventure that offered challenges and struggles but also the promise of great reward — to become something more than we ever could becoming staying in our place of comfort.  Although a third of our brothers and sisters rejected the plan, the rest of us thought the reward worth the risk.  And so here we are.

In this great analogy, I see yet another parallel, one that applies to LDS singles.  When you embrace your own personal ministry, you can embark on your great adventure through your single years.

God presented a plan for our great adventure through mortality.  But that plan required us to leave the comforts of our heavenly home.  In exchange, we received the opportunity to grow through making choices.

Here in mortality we find challenges and struggles as well as the chance for failure.  But we judged the potential opportunity for growth worth the risk, and so we embraced the plan.

Likewise, Joy in the Journey Radio has long presented LDS singles with the plan to experience more joy in singles life by embracing a great adventure called a personal ministry.  This choice requires singles to leave a comfortable, mediocre existence on autopilot in exchange for growth by making a unique contribution of goodness to the world.

Just like mortality, performing your personal ministry has many challenges and struggles as well as the chance for failure.  But those who embrace their personal ministry judge the potential for growth and joy well worth the risk.

How do you begin your great adventure?  Elder Uchtdorf taught you begin the great adventure of God’s plan by embracing the path of discipleship.  In like manner, LDS singles can begin their great adventure of LDS singles life by embracing the path of their personal ministry.

Walking that path means partnering with the Lord and counseling with Him regarding what your personal ministry should be and what steps you should take.  You’ll have more success if you simultaneously embrace the path of discipleship Elder Uchtdorf recommended in his remarks.

Keep striving, keep trying, keep reaching for the light and the best life that can be yours.  When you choose not give up — whether in the path of discipleship or the path of your personal ministry, God extends a helping hand.

Often that helping hand will come from other people.  That’s because we need others to progress in our great adventure through mortality.  Elder Uchtdorf taught, “The only way for you to progress in your gospel adventure is to help others progress as well.  To help others is the path of discipleship.”

You’ll need the help of others in your personal ministry as well.  If nothing else, sharing your light with others means having others to share with.  But those others don’t necessarily need to accept your offerings.  Your success in a personal ministry lies in your choices and actions, not in the choices and actions of others.  It’s the same with sharing the gospel, as Elder Uchtdorf explains.

It’s normal to feel compelled to wait until everything is perfect before proceeding.  This is your biological hard-wiring defending the status quo, and the status quo will never deliver your best life, not in terms of the gospel, and not in terms of a personal ministry.

Start your great adventure through life by embracing more fully the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  And start your great adventure through LDS singles life by embracing more fully your own personal ministry.  When you do, you’ll feel more satisfaction and growth than you’ve ever known.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

I see the same scenario playing out in the realm of friendships.  That’s why I say we need to seek unusual friends.

We all have needs for friendship the same as for a romantic partner.  The needs aren’t all the same, but the process of finding someone to meet them is.  Provide more possibilities in meeting those needs, and you increase the probability of meeting those needs.

People often think about probability as some ethereal mathematical magic outside their control.  The reality is very different.  You can influence your probability of success by taking action favoring more desirable outcomes.  With more desirable outcomes possible, the probability of your success must increase.  That’s the way the math works.

To increase your probability of having the friends you need, increase the number of candidates you’d consider in that role.  That means questioning assumptions and focusing on what really matters.

Most of us don’t question our assumptions about anything.  But when your reality is less than what you want, you need to examine your assumptions.  They drive your focus, your self-talk, and your thinking, all of which combine to produce the actions generating your results.  If you need different results, consider different assumptions.

Most of us assume the friends we need will possess a certain list of characteristics.  Often but not always, that list means we’re looking for someone like ourselves.  Anyone who doesn’t conform to that list doesn’t get considered.

And what’s the effect?  We’ve made it harder to meet our own needs.  Go back to the math.  The fewer candidates you consider, the lower the probability that person you need is in your pool.  To increase your probability of success, you must increase the number of candidates you consider.  That means questioning the assumptions that prevent you from considering more candidates.

At this juncture, many will experience a knee-jerk reaction to reject all this.  That’s normal.  Our brains are hardwired to bias preserving the status quo.  Questioning assumptions threatens the status quo because it represents change.  And so outright rejection is the normal response.

But only when you open your mind and consider new and different ways of thinking can you get the new and different actions you need to produce the new and different results you want in your life.  When you question your assumptions about the kind of person would make the good friend you need, you open yourself to those new and different ways of thinking, acting, and living.  And you’ll find that some of the resulting friendships are both quite unusual and quite fulfilling.

I’ve previously shared a good example when I spoke about a friend of mine named Dick.  He’s an older gentlemen of another faith, old enough to be my grandfather.  You wouldn’t think the two of us could be good friends.  But thinking you need to be similar in age or have similar beliefs are faulty assumptions.  Adopting that thinking keeps many back from fulfilling their own needs.

I’m glad I didn’t.  What started out as a professional work relation developed into a valued mentor and friend.  And Dick felt great benefit in having someone to whom he could bequeath the legacy of his career.

I can share other experiences with roommates, classmates, workmates, and social situations where questioning my assumptions and opening myself to possibility increased the probability of finding valued friends.  Success came easier with increased probability.

Success in meeting your needs for friendship will come when you increase your probability of success.  Question your assumptions and open yourself to new possibilities.  Seek unusual friends.  The Lord can bless you and them with the sweet fruits of true friendship when you do.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

But automation isn’t all roses.  It keeps us inside a “safe” zone where we can roam freely without fear of pain or other potential pesky problems like death.  As great as that sounds, growth is never pain- or problem-free.  If we don’t step outside our comfort zone, we’ll never approach our potential, let alone achieve it.

Fortunately, you have choice.  Yours need not be a mediocre life on autopilot.  You can be phenomenal, and it starts when you step outside your comfort zone to embrace the new you.

Admittedly, the prospect of stepping outside one’s comfort zone literally terrifies many of us.  The mind quickly presents memories of past pains that linger on into the present.  It’s like our brain is saying, “Hey, remember this?  You don’t want to go there; you might get hurt again!”

And that’s true.  You might.  But here’s another piece of truth: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  You can stay inside your little hobble with its practically guaranteed pain-free life.  And you’ll live that life first with the repressed yearning of wanting more and then with the regurgitating regrets of never responding to that call.

Again, the good news is you have choice.  If you want to have or be something more, you can have or be it.  You just need to be willing to pay the price in full and in advance to get it.

That’s how everything is.  If you want to see the show, you need a ticket.  But you’ll never get the ticket until you pay the price in full and in advance.  Only then do you get admitted to the show.

And that’s where most people get off the train.  That’s why most New Year’s resolutions don’t even last a week, let alone the whole year or even the first month.  The vast majority of us collide with that eternal truth and decide we’d rather be comfortable.  And so we revert back to our old habits and spend the rest of the year wishing we had a better life only to repeat the whole cycle again at the start of the next year.

Seriously, is that the life you want?  Do you want to go through the same motions over and over, always wondering why you can’t ever seem to escape that rut of failure?  Are you sick and tired of always getting less than what you want?  If you want a different life, you can have it.  You just need to be willing to pay the price to get it.

For many, that point doesn’t come until they get sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Only after that moment do they have resolve to push through the pain of growth, achieve their dreams, and become the embodiment of their potential.

And yeah, it’s scary.  You very well could get hurt again.  But you’ll never see the new you emerge unless you’re willing to risk.

Take love, for example.  Many burned in a romantic relationship retreat back to their hobble where they play the turtle in a shell.  These people will never know the love they dream about because they’re acting contrary to the nature of what they want.

You can’t have the amazing love we all dream about having without trust.  And trust wouldn’t need to exist unless there was something to lose.  Without opening yourself to be vulnerable, there’s no need for trust.  And without trust, there’s no way to have the deep love we all want in life.

Everything else worthwhile in life — the elements comprising your best life — operate on the same principle.  To achieve success, you must be willing to risk failure and all its attendant heartache, pain, and other assorted problems.  You must pay the price to get your ticket to the show.

And what a difference it makes when you do.  You can embrace a new you.  When you step outside your comfort zone and risk failure, you can experience the growth that will set you on the path to your best life.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

The answer is a resounding yes!  The true magic of Christmas is the joy and peace that comes from Christ.  Every day we experience Christ, we rekindle the magic of Christmas with the warmth of His joy and peace.  If we do that every day, we can experience Christmas all year long.

As with many other difficulties in life, experiencing Christmas beyond the Christmas season has root in how we think.  If we think about Christmas only as a time of year, then it’s only natural we feel the magic of Christmas when that time of year rolls around and don’t feel it when that time departs.

But change your thinking, and you change your life.  So what if we thought about Christmas not just as a time of year but a state of being?  We’ve talked recently here about joy and reaching after the state of joy rather than the feeling of happiness.  Feelings and emotions are transitory, temporary phenomena; they come and go like the weather.  But states are definitions of existence; they’re more permanent and therefore more satisfying to the soul.

If we thought about Christmas as a state of being, then Christmas wouldn’t be just something we do but something we become.  We can then experience the magic of Christmas all year because we will have become the magic of Christmas.

Our Christmas traditions can further obstruct us from experiencing Christmas all year long.  By tying our traditions to time, we also tie our experiences from those traditions to time.  This is the thinking we’ve just discussed.  But even if we transform annual traditions into daily rituals, we’ll still not feel the magic of Christmas every day if those traditions don’t point us to Christ.

Two weeks ago, we talked about the need to simplify our Christmas traditions so we can more clearly see the Savior and feel His love.  Experiencing the joy and peace of Christ is truly experiencing Christmas.  So naturally experiencing Christmas all year long means embracing simple traditions that focus us on Christ and His joy and peace.

By traditions, I mean daily rituals.  Certainly daily rituals of prayer and scripture study can help us focus on Christ and His joy and peace.  So can quiet moments of reflection and meditation.  Embracing such moments aligns us with the voice of heaven, making it more possible to experience Christ’s joy and peace.

Such moments can prepare us for prayer or help us better hear the still, small voice of the Spirit following prayer or during scripture study.  They can also help at the end of the day.  Taking a moment to reflect and meditate upon Christ and his joy and peace can calm the mind and body, allowing us to sleep better.

Other regular rituals can help.  While most of us won’t travel to the temple daily, regular temple attendance can help us to feel the joy and peace of Christ all year long.  I know the peace I feel inside the temple is deeper and more profound than I’ve felt anywhere else.

What other rituals can help you experience the joy and peace of Christ all year long?  And which ones will you adopt?  Whatever you do, dedicate a time and place to dedicating yourself to experiencing Christ through His joy and peace.  Then keep that sacred appointment with exactness.  You get what you give, so when you give everything to Christ, you get everything good you need in return.

The true magic of Christmas is the joy and peace that comes from Christ.  So become the spirit of Christmas.  By regularly returning to rituals that help you to feel Christ’s love, joy, and peace more powerfully, you can experience the magic of Christmas all year long.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

But it doesn’t end there.  Instead of changing their focus to what they have and can do, which will then change their reality to one of abundance and opportunity, many LDS singles pine for that perfect companion who will rescue them from their banal singles existence.  And that perfect companion is just that — perfect.

Just like Santa, that ideal conception doesn’t really exist.  The only man who comes down the chimney is already off the market anyway.  Real men and women have imperfections, so forget the chimney.  Only when you focus on the Savior and the truths He taught can you embrace the true spirit of the season.

For many singles, Christmas is an especially painful time.  But what’s even more painful is the realization that they inflict that pain upon themselves with the way they think.

The results we all want in our lives come from action and only from action.  But we act based on our perceptions, beliefs, and assumptions about ourselves and the world around us.  If you can change how you think, you can change what you do, and that changes the results you have in life.

So if you want to feel more of the joy and peace that should characterize your Christmas season, exchange thinking about your own misery with thinking about the misery of others.  Christ taught, “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39).

When you surrender yourself to that truth, “the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) — but free in what way?  You’re free to amend your errors, to change your ways, to embrace more effective ways of thinking so you can experience a more effective way of living.

I once resisted service as a balm for the woes of singles life, partly because others often threw it at me indiscriminately, and partly because I didn’t see how it solved my singleness “problem.”  I’d been serving in many ways for years and still just as single as when I came home from my mission.  Service just seemed like a band-aid, temporarily treating the pain of singles life while covering over the real underlying problem.

Now I understand that service is a band-aid for singles when they serve with agenda.  When I served, I always had an agenda.  Sometimes is was about being dutiful so I could feel good about myself.  Sometimes it was about identifying myself with the larger group so I could feel I belonged.  Sometimes it was about crafting an image I thought would help me attract the companion I longed to have.

But true service follows the example of the Savior Who always acted against the agenda of the natural man.  His agenda wasn’t about Him but simply on giving to others for their benefit.  When you forget your own agendas and act solely out of concern for those who receive your offerings, you can lose yourself in their service.

And that’s when you find yourself, because that’s when the peace and joy the Christmas season offers can come to you.  Those who cling to their own agenda, even while doing the right thing, will never feel more than glimpses of that joy and peace.

As I said during the program last week, Christmas isn’t just a time to remember Christ but a time to experience Christ.  As we simplify our traditions to create the time and space to feel the joy and peace of Christ, may we also simply our desires by stripping ourselves of our own agendas and adopting the agenda of the Savior.

What service can you give this Christmas season?  What light can you shine?  What difference can you make?  When you lose yourself in service by losing the agenda centered around your needs, you free yourself to experience Christmas as you never have before.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Then I thought that I should consider what I personally will take from the devotional and use that action to signal me towards the speaker and the message I should use for the program today.  And that approach led me to Elder Patrick Kearon.  In his remarks entitled “Bringing Christmas Into Focus,” Elder Kearon described an increased focus on the Savior gained from simplifying the season.  If we truly desire to celebrate the real reason for the season, then we need to keep that Reason in our focus.  And we can do that more easily when we simplify the season.

Like other holidays involving family gatherings, Christmas carries with it many traditions.  These traditions can bind us closer to family members and create wonderful memories of the holiday season that will give joy long after their creation.

Yet, as Elder Kearon rightly points out, those traditions can bring added stress from the sheer quantity of tasks to accomplish that we can lose our focus on the reasons for our celebrations.  We can become so absorbed in the logistics surrounding our celebrations that we forget the foundation for those celebrations.

Remembering that foundation usually comes in still, quiet moments of reflection.  Elder Kearon spoke of his enjoyment of staring at Christmas tree lights and how they remind him of the Light of the world.

As I pondered Elder Kearon’s questions, I saw great wisdom behind them.  I could see that, especially in the last few years, my own focus during Christmas time has been obscured by adopting the tradition of buying gifts for each member of the family, including the extended family with in-laws, nieces, and nephews.

This didn’t happen all at once.  But it crept upon me so slowly I hardly know when it began.  We give gifts to remind us of the gift God has given all of us in His Only Begotten.  Yet I could see how my approach to that tradition — buying a separate gift for each individual — had created unneeded effort and expense that distracts my focus away from God’s gift of His Son.

It wasn’t always that way.  In my younger days, I needed to obtain only four gifts — one for each parent and one for each sibling.  But as life unfolded and extended families appeared and grew, that number has multiplied.  Now, looking at the added expense as a college student, I think Elder Kearon’s questions are more than appropriate; they are essential for feeling the joy and peace that should attend the Christmas season.

In response, I have determined to simply my gift giving.  Instead of a separate present for each individual, I will once more give four gifts: one for each parent and one for the family of each sibling.

And I determined to gift something I had never before gifted — treats and time.  By gifting a box of snacks, I provide my extended families with an excuse to spend time together as they gather to partake and share the goodies I gifted.  Thus, the real gift was the chance to make treasured holiday memories.

The best part for me was how simple it all was.  One visit to Amazon and I had everything purchased with instructions on where to ship everything.  It was all done in a matter or minutes, and I felt looking back a peace that comes from making the right choice.

How will you simplify your Christmas season so that you can focus more on the Savior?  Will you do as I did and adjust your gift giving?  Perhaps you will take Elder Kearon’s suggestion to embrace temple service that “corrects our focus, magnifies our joy, and unites families here and on the other side of the veil.”  Or maybe the Spirit has inspired you along a different direction.

Whatever your situation, take action to simplify the season this Christmastime.  When you do, you can focus more on Christ and feel more clearly His peace.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Yes, the improvements are impressive.  But what impresses me most is that the Church has made its improvements in the short space of three years.  I suppose they have some folks employed full time and devoted to the project, because otherwise so much improvement in so short a space of time is rather miraculous.

But I suspect that the real miracles are the ones that participants in the Light the World initiative this year will perform.  They may not seem like miracles to those who perform them, but they very well could be miracles for those who receive them.

And we each have that power for good.  So if you haven’t yet familiarized yourself with the details of the latest Light the World initiative, take a moment to do so.  And to help you get into the spirit of the season, Joy in the Journey Radio will be replacing the normal talk segments after this monologue with extra music.

So let the music inspire you as you take a moment to reflect upon how you will light the world once more this Christmas season.  When you share your light with others, you find light in your own life.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

This perspective on three popular holidays placed close together on the calendar encourages us to experience the traditions associated with those days not as rote routines but as an invitation to improve upon ourselves.  Seen in this light, Thanksgiving then becomes more than just a day to reflect on our gratitude.  It’s more than just thank you.  It’s an invitation to adopt gratitude as a lifestyle.

Indeed, gratitude properly understood is more than giving thanks.  Gratitude is a state of being.  When we’re truly grateful, gratitude becomes so infused within us that it defines us.  We feel it so intensely we can’t help but broadcast it to all around.

And those around us will want to spend more time around us.  Let’s face it; grateful people are simply more pleasant people.  They are more easy to please and more quick to please others.

Thus, when it becomes a defining characteristic, gratitude gives birth to many other virtues.  Grateful people more willingly have compassion and render service.  Grateful people are more humble and more easily taught.  Grateful people are more cheerful and friendly.

This is more than just saying thank you when appropriate.  This is more than remembering to include thanks in our prayers.  This is gratitude as a lifestyle.

So of course that idea begs the question: How do we adopt a lifestyle of gratitude?  What changes can we make so expressions of gratitude become not just a rote activity or compliance with an excepted norm but rather a manifestation of our character?

For me, the answer to such questions lies in a practice I adopted some time ago.  When I kneel to offer my morning prayers, I do not ask for anything.  Instead, I simply express gratitude.

I struggled at first with this practice.  That’s to be expected since I wasn’t used to it.  But as I persisted, it became easier for me to think of things for which I’m grateful and to express gratitude for them.

Eventually the practice evolved into expressing thanks for blessings I have not yet received.  For example, heading into my recent midterm exams, I of course thanked heaven for being able to study and progress towards a career of my choice, for help in completing assignments, and for assistance in learning as I prepared for my exams.  But I also thanked God for the help He would yet offer me.

And He did help me.  I didn’t do as well as I would have liked, but I did OK.  And I again offered thanks, this time for what He had given me.

Adopting this practice of expressing only gratitude in my morning prayers has been instrumental in my efforts to adopt a lifestyle of gratitude.  Spending the first several minutes of my day immersed in gratitude colors the rest of my day, imbuing it with a spirit of gratitude that influences me in my work and my interactions with other people.

I’ve also felt it inspire other virtues within me, such as a greater tendency to be kind to others, a greater propensity to help others where I can, and a greater faith that the Lord will provide for me.  In conjunction with the increase of virtue has been a decrease of vice.  I’ve felt less desire to steal or cheat because gratitude has inspired me with feelings of abundance and plenty.  And I’ve felt less desire to covet because gratitude has reminded me of the Lord’s tender mercies and His plan to bless me with what I truly need.

Gratitude is more than just thank you; it’s a lifestyle.  When we exercise our efforts to adopt gratitude as a lifestyle, the Lord blesses our efforts by blessing us with the fruits of gratitude.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

The scriptural basis for the four-area life model they present for making goals — spiritual, social, intellectual, and physical — really impressed me.  I’ve long adopted that model, but I hadn’t made the connection with its scriptural foundation: “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

The Savior experienced the opportunity for growth in mortality we all experience.  Linking our own personal development approach with Christ’s is absolutely brilliant.  The Savior grew spiritually (“favor with God”), socially (“favor with man”), intellectually (“increased in wisdom”), and physically (“increased in . . . stature”), thereby providing an example for us to follow.

Let’s examine how Joy in the Journey Radio will be helping LDS singles follow that example starting in the coming year.  Let’s take a look at what’s next.

We’ve always applied the restored gospel to the challenges of LDS singles life.  Focusing on Conference addresses and applying them to LDS singles, even when that application is not so apparent, is one such example.  Another lies in the Sermon on the Mount study tradition I’ve shared with the audience.  Such practices will continue as an important part of the program.

We’ve also delved into the social aspect of some of those challenges, particularly dating and relationships.  I want to delve further into this topic in the coming year.  But we’ll also examine all types of social relationships, not just romantic ones.  Building and maintaining true friendships can bless our lives as well as the lives of others.

I’ve shared one such friendship with a friend of another faith named Dick.  This gentleman graduated from college back in the 50s, so he’s definitely not anywhere near me in age.  But he’s been a good mentor and friend.  In addition to working together professionally, we occasionally had lunch as well as spouts of spirited but friendly banter as we played bocce in his backyard.

Despite the many differences between us, our friendship has truly enriched my life.  Seeking after such unusual friends will similarly bless the lives of LDS singles.  And so we’ll be learning about social skills that can support that effort.

Many in personal development and leadership circles cite reading as an essential for success.  I’m sure that faithful LDS singles read the scriptures, but there’s a whole world of secular knowledge that can enrich our lives and give us opportunity to bless the lives of others through the acquisition of new knowledge and new skills.

The Lord has said, “. . . seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118).  Earlier in that same revelation, the Lord speaks of learning

Reading is one of the best ways to gain this knowledge.  But here in the 21st century, a lot of knowledge transfer takes place with video, especially via YouTube.  That means some of the “best books” aren’t printed pages bound together but videos and films.  And so occasionally we’ll offer reviews of “best books” LDS singles can apply in their lives, both traditional tomes for reading and videos and films for viewing.

Finally, we’ll be including more content about the physical area of life, which most people think comprises our physical health and wellness.  And indeed it does.  But inasmuch as our physical bodies provide a connection between us and the physical world, we could include anything else offering such a connection in the physical arena.

And so we’ll examine topics like exercise and healthy eating.  I know some singles dread these topics, so we’ll look at more interesting and engaging perspectives on them.  We’ll also look at other connections to the physical world, like personal finances, career, and your home and car.

I feel really excited about what’s next for the program in the coming new year.  This course correction will help many LDS singles live their best life.  As we together increase in favor with God and man as well as in wisdom and in stature, we’ll transform ourselves into better people who can offer more value in every area of life.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.