Mark Twain once said of New York City, “New York is a splendid desert of domed and steepled solitude, where a stranger is lonely in the midst of a million of his race” (1867).
The anti-Christ, Korihor, taught that “every man prospered according to his genius” (Alma 30:17). This struck me as one of many ways Satan attempts to distract people from God’s true plan. Selfishness leads to a lack of desire to reach out to those around us, which often leads us to loneliness. In a BYU devotional given by Neal Cox, it was said that as we stop worrying about what others think about us, we begin to worry instead about what others think of themselves. Thus, when all we think about is how much smarter we could be if we only studied a little more, how we could be ripped if we only worked out a little more, etc., we lose sight of the needs of the people sitting right next to us. Every man does not prosper according to his genius, but by the genius of God.
I thought about how much my mother loves me, as well as my Heavenly Mother, and realized that this could very well be why the theme for the sisters in the church is charity. While the men act through the Priesthood in Heavenly Father’s name, the women act on behalf of our Mother in Heaven. I know that as we resist giving heed to be more and “prosper according to our own genius,” instead trusting in God, we will not be blind to the needs of others, and will refute Satan’s ideology of prospering. We never need to worry about failure, because our Savior’s Atonement will make up for what we don’t do. If we carry on, acting with charity, we can not fail, for charity never faileth.
Seek + Hold 