They took participants out into a very dense forest.
Wow. They put a GPS tracker on everyone.
They were given simple instructions. Walk in a straight line.
Straight. Straight. Straight as you can.
There's an oft repeated theory that people who are lost walk in circles.
Not long ago, scientists tested that theory.
Each participant had no doubt in their mind that they would be able to walk
a straight path.
But it was very dense, so it's not like they had major landmarks that they
could go off of.
Everything pretty much looks the same.
How do you feel like you did? I feel like I did well.
Pretty good. Pretty sure I went straight the whole time.
But a GPS told a different story. These are your results.
Wait, what? No way. So you took the scenic route.
I didn’t even know that
I was making a circle.
They really thought they were doing good.
They had no idea, because they were in a forest with no landmarks around.
Without reliable landmarks, we drift off course.
This, of course, applies to us physically.
It also applies to us spiritually.
It can be so easy to get off track
because we don’t realize when we are drifting.
We don’t realize when we are taking small steps away.
At the time, I didn't think there was anything wrong because
I was living my life for me.
Church became something that wasn’t of importance,
and we just started to not go.
At 14, I was kicked out of my mom's home.
I was drinking. I was smoking weed with my friends.
I didn't feel like anyone cared.
And it can be really easy to ignore
because you don't want to think really deeply about what is happening in your
spiritual life.
I don't think this experiment was to say that when you go in circles,
you’re never going to come back. People can come back and they can change.
Just as small little things can lead us off the path,
small little things can also lead us back on the path.
When darkness creeps into our lives,
our daily restoration opens our hearts to heavenly light,
which illuminates our souls, chasing away shadows, fears, and doubts.
I loved when a Elder Uchtdorf said, “Do you want to change the shape of your
life? Change the shape of your day.”
Through daily prayer and daily scripture study,
I really found that the Savior comes to me in those moments
and really ask Heavenly Father,
“What is it that you would have me to know and do this day?”
Daily restoration means daily repentance, trying to be better,
trying to move to the right direction.
And He will hold your hands to take you to where you need to be.
In the scriptures, I try to find references that speak more to me
personally that can kind of help me
and guide me through my individual trials.
I love pondering and meditating about Christ's plan for me.
I want to be led by the Spirit daily, hourly,
because I know that that's when I'm my most happy.
It's up to us each day to make these small,
simple decisions to slowly realign ourselves with what the Lord wants.
Those small acts bring me so much peace and so much more joy in my life than
on days where I might forget.
It’s just felt like a weight was taken off my shoulders.
My relationship with my family to relationship with colleagues and work—
my day seemed to just go much smoother.
I remember the peace and the ultimate joy that I felt,
thinking that I finally found something that can bring me the happiness that
I thought so badly that I needed.
No matter how old we are, no matter how much experience we have,
no one is exempt from needing guidance from a higher power,
someone who can see the whole forest.
What I love about Jesus Christ is it doesn't matter how many times you've
sinned, it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve made the same sin,
if you continually look for Him and look for Him to take the burden
and you repent of that, if you try to just get rid of it,
He’ll take it every single time. He’ll never not take it.
We all drift from time to time.
We need an ongoing daily infusion of heavily light.
We need times of refreshing, times of personal restoration.
I bear my personal witness that God is among us,
that He will surely draw near to all who draw near to Him.