¨Have you ever heard the old saying that people who get lost tend to walk in circles?
Jan L. Souman, a German psychologist, wanted to determine scientifically if this was true. He took participants of an experiment to a large forest area and to the Sahara desert and used a global positioning system to track where they went. They had no compass or any other device. Instructions to them were simple: walk in a straight line in the direction indicated.
Dr. Souman later described what happened. “[Some] of them walked on a cloudy day, with the sun the clouds [and with no reference points in view].… [They] all walked in circles, with [several] of them repeatedly crossing their own path without noticing it.” Other participants walked while the sun was shining, with faraway reference points in view. “These …followed an almost perfectly straight course.”
This study has been repeated by others with different methodologies. All returned similar results.
Without visible landmarks, human beings tend to walk in circles.¨
Jan L. Souman, a German psychologist, wanted to determine scientifically if this was true. He took participants of an experiment to a large forest area and to the Sahara desert and used a global positioning system to track where they went. They had no compass or any other device. Instructions to them were simple: walk in a straight line in the direction indicated.
Dr. Souman later described what happened. “[Some] of them walked on a cloudy day, with the sun the clouds [and with no reference points in view].… [They] all walked in circles, with [several] of them repeatedly crossing their own path without noticing it.” Other participants walked while the sun was shining, with faraway reference points in view. “These …followed an almost perfectly straight course.”
This study has been repeated by others with different methodologies. All returned similar results.
Without visible landmarks, human beings tend to walk in circles.¨
He goes on to give to us two examples of what we can use as ¨landmarks¨ which are the Book of Mormon and General Conference. But what I would like to focus on is this line: Without visible landmarks, human beings tend to walk in circles. This I think can be used in many ways but what I like is that if we don´t have any sort of goal or purpose or something we are striving for we WILL walk in circles. We WILL NOT progress. We will be lost and many times cross over our very same trail. Without some sort of guide we are very lost. My invitation I guess you could say is that if any of you do not know what your goal is then you should find a time and talk to your so very loving Father in Heaven. He loves you and wants the best for you. He will give you a direction and help you along the way. He will help you discover a goal and has given us reference points or ¨landmarks¨ to help us get there. I know that God exists and that He isn´t just an idea. I know he has a body and is our Father. He is God but also a Father. He only wants us to be happy.
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving! We are all so very blessed and I hope we look for the little blessing God places in our lifes every day. Every day has God´s fingerprint marked on it in one way or another.
Elder Gunnell
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