Using Good

Life gets so busy and hectic that it is often easy to get so caught up in the routine things that need to be done that we forget about the goodness and power of God that could be helping us. We are taught in the scriptures that all good things come from God (Moroni 7:12). And anything that comes from God is empowering, enriching, and encouraging. In other words, good is more powerful than evil. The supreme example of this is the Atonement which will eventually triumph over all evil.

The problem is that we get impatient. We don’t wait long enough. We nicely ask our children or spouse or others to do something and when they don’t do it in the time frame we want, we lose our patience and resort to tactics such as yelling, manipulating or other bad practices to get what we want. 

I love the story of how President John Taylor once used the Truth Tool of music to help good conquer evil. Two men came into his office while he was President of the Quorum of the Twelve who wanted him to settle a bitter quarrel they were having. President Taylor invited them to sit down and then told them he would be happy to help them, but first he wanted them all to sing a hymn. The three men sang, and when they were finished President Taylor said that singing inspired him so that he couldn’t just sing one hymn he wanted to sing another. And so they did—and then they sang another and another until the men were melted to tears, shook hands, and left without ever telling President Taylor what the problem had been.

Just as President Taylor did, there are many ways we can use good to solve our problems if we just remember that good will always triumph over evil if we are patient and persistent in using good.