Some thoughts from my talk yesterday . . . .

Remember the story of Naaman who went to Elisha to be healed of his affliction. Elisha sent a servant to tell Naaman to wash himself seven times in the River Jordan. Elisah was offended, angry. The prophet Elisha hadn’t bothered to come and then, what an insignificant thing to do to wash in the river. Naaman’s servant said, “If the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saideth to thee, “Wash and be clean?” Naaman listened to the servant, washed himself and he was clean.

Elder Rex. D. Pinegar said, “Are we not sometimes like Naaman, longing for big or important things to do and bypassing simple things which could change our lives and heal us of our afflictions?”

President David O. McKay said:

“There is no one great thing that we can do to obtain eternal life, and it seems to me that the great lesson to be learned in the world today is to apply in the little acts and duties of life the glorious principles of the Gospel. Let us not think that because some of the things . . . may seem small and trivial, that they are unimportant. Life, after all, is made up of little things. Our life, our being, physically, is made up here of little heart beats. Let that little heart stop beating, and life in this world ceases. The great sun is a mighty force in the universe, but we receive the blessings of his rays because they come to us as little beams, which, taken in the aggregate, fill the whole world with sunlight. The dark night is made pleasant by the glimmer of what seem to be little stars; and so the true Christian life is made up of little Christ-like acts performed this hour, this minute, in the home, in the quorum, in the organization, in the town, wherever our life and acts may be cast.”

President Howard W. Hunter said, “Frequently, it is the commonplace tasks that have the greatest positive effect on the lives of others.”

In Alma 36-37 it says, “Behold, I say unto you that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.”