Sunday Selection: Unity

In today’s Priesthood class, we studied from Chapter 23 of the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith manual. The lesson was on the concept of unity, and it inspired me to write about how we can apply this to our lives. I’m not sure how neat and tidy this post will be (how unified, if you will), because it is just a collection of thoughts that I had while participating in the lesson. So maybe I will just present it that way here, and it will be helpful:

• The lesson mentioned the concept of putting forth a “concentrated action.” That was a neat idea to me. I like the word “concentrate.” It can not only mean to focus, but it also reminds me of concentrations of fluids in a compound. I like chemistry, and it is a neat idea that the ideas, actions, and yes, foci of each individual can help complete the mixture and create a genuinely good thing.

• History shows that when groups of people have banded their strengths together and became united, the results were much better than anything their individual efforts might have done.

• During the class today, a few of the class participants mentioned sports teams and how the teams with the high-paid, egotistical stars are usually not victorious. It is those teams that are filled with selfless, no-name, blue-collar players that want to win and perform concentrated actions as a team that may not show up in the box score, but that will help the team be victorious. A good example is an offensive line on a football team. Do they receive any accolade for their work? Although they are starting to get paid like true stars more and more each year, they will never be as famous or popular (at least in the fans’ eyes) as the so-called “skill players.”

• In any war, be it from the archives of the scriptures or in the history of our own country, platoons of soldiers that were unified were proven to be victorious.

• Unity starts in the family and then moves on to other organizations in each of our lives, be it in our Church, Scouts, Quorums, student groups, or even at work. I think it is utterly important that we establish that unity at home—among the people with whom we hope to spend the rest of our eternities. We must help each other out, so that we can then concentrate our actions on serving more of our brothers and sisters here on earth.

• I was also reminded of the Power Team that we have been instructed to have within our businesses, including our real estate endeavors. Having a power team is SO important in business—you’re not expected to be the expert at everything. The best entrepreneurs go out and find those people that can be the best at each individual discipline within the business. For example, if I have a portfolio of rental houses, could I be the property managers? Of course I could, but why not team up with somebody that has taken the time to be the master of fixing toilets, summing up the books, or even collecting rent. It just makes sense that a concentrated effort would be more effective than everything being done by an individual.

There were a few scriptures that were shared during the lesson, and I wanted to share three of them:

• John 17: 21-24; Christ pleaded with the Father that those who followed Him would be one with Him, and that He would be one with the Father.

• 4 Nephi 1: 15-18; this is a follow-up to the scripture in John. After Christ visited the Nephites, the people achieved unity because of their righteousness.

• 1 Corinthians 12:26 (12-27); If one member suffers, so do the rest of them, but one member has cause to rejoice, so do the rest.