Paisley: Music. Hi everybody. Paisley, I perfect here again,
and today we're going to take the Be of good cheer thing just
a little bit further. I got thinking about it. And being of
good cheer, it really bleeds into all of the other things
that President Nelson has told us that he needs from strong
women of the church, right? So you may remember the list I
shared, the list of things from President Nelson and sister
Eubank back. I think it was episode nine. It's the one
called we are needed us and our strong personalities, and I'll
give a quick run down here, just in a quick second. As I thought
about being of good cheer, and I thought about this list of
qualities, characteristics, things that the church and the
world need from us as strong women, I I started to think of
the difference between approaching them cheerfully,
because remember distinct and different and happy ways right
from President Nelson's talk and President Kimball, the
difference between approaching each one of these things
cheerfully versus not cheerfully. Okay, so a quick
rundown of these qualities, and think about these as we go
through them. Think about how to or think rather, think about the
difference between, if you approach it cheerfully versus
begrudgingly or not cheerfully, just not cheerfully. Let's not
get dramatic.
The first one is love,
happiness. How do you approach happiness Not cheerfully?
Virtue,
intuition,
gifts from God,
the gift and power of discernment,
building strong relationships,
administering,
teaching fearlessly,
organizing,
leading,
strengthening children and families,
understanding the power and peace of the temple endowment,
our own conversion,
our ability to receive personal revelation,
our voices,
our callings,
our conviction
being courageous defenders of truth
and protecting children and families. There's strengthening
children and families, and there's protecting children and families.
So again, think about the difference between approaching
these things with a cheerful heart versus not. Which approach
do you think would be more most effective? It's a rhetorical
question. The answer is pretty obvious, right? But in our crazy
sin sick world, what is there exactly to be cheerful about?
There's a lot of stuff going on in this world, and the media
does a really good job of pointing out all of the junk. So
what is there to be cheerful about?
And when I asked myself that question, and then I sat there
and stared at it for a second, there were a couple of things
that came to mind. The first thing that came to my mind for
myself things to be cheerful about when we've been apart for
a couple of hours, when we come back together again, my husband,
my daughters and I, like after school, or maybe I've gone out
running errands for a few hours, and I come home when my husband
gets home from work, the smiles and just the happiness To be
back together again, that makes me cheerful. The second thing
that popped into my mind was my knowledge of the plan of
happiness that also makes me cheerful, gives me reason to be
reason to be cheerful, reason to be happy.
And then I got curious, and I opened up a fairly well known AI
tool, and I asked it this question. Exactly. I typed in,
in our crazy, messed up world, what exactly is there to be
cheerful about? So the same question I asked myself now
going to ask this AI tool. Now, something to know about AI
tools. They're trainable. You can train them. They learn.
That's part of artificial intelligence, right? You teach
them things, they learn things, and they spit things out based
on the things that you've taught them, things that they've
learned. I use this AI tool pretty frequently when I can't
think. Of exactly the right way to say something, especially
when I'm posting stuff online for Paisley. And so this
particular AI tool is trained to give me the answers that I want
or the answers that it thinks that I want. And so here's what
it told me number one. So again, the question was, in our crazy,
messed up world, what exactly is there to be cheerful about? And
it gave me six things. Number one, God's love and plan,
knowing that we are children of God with a divine purpose, can
bring a deep sense of peace and joy. His love is constant, and
he has a plan for each of us, even when life feels uncertain,
true and something perfect for me. Number two, small acts of
kindness in the midst of negativity, kindness still
thrives. Simple acts of love, whether given or received, can
be powerful reminders of goodness in the world. Yes, we
can be cheerful about small acts of kindness, and we can be
cheerful and happy that they still exist, that people are
still doing these things. Number three, growth and learning.
Every challenge we face offers an opportunity for growth. We
can be cheerful in knowing that through our trials, we are being
refined and strengthened, that one's a little tougher, that
one's a little bit tougher to swallow, because that one
requires that we be grateful for our trials, not necessarily
while we are experiencing experiencing them, but we can
find cheer or happiness, or gladness or gratitude in knowing
gratitude is number four. So spoiler alert, but we can be
cheerful in knowing that the outcome of our trials is growth
and refinement. We are becoming closer to our Savior and more
like him. So number four, gratitude, focusing on
blessings, even small ones, can bring a shift in perspective.
Being thankful for things like family nature or even a simple
act of service can spark joy. Number five, community and
support, the love and support of family, friends and faith
communities can provide us with strength and comfort and provide
us with something to be cheerful about. I just added that one in
there myself. I love to go to church on Sundays. I just do I
love to be around my ward family. I don't I'm not gonna
pretend like I love everybody in my ward. I don't know anybody
who loves everybody in their ward, there's always the one
person, right? But I love being around other people that I can
share my testimony with on Sundays. So community and
support something we can find cheerfulness in. And then number
six, Christ's Atonement, through the Savior, we have the promise
of peace, healing and hope for a brighter future. His infinite
sacrifice means that we can overcome anything, and that
should give us a great cause for cheer. Because of His Atonement,
we can overcome everything, anything and everything hope for
a brighter future that may or may not be in this life, hope
for a brighter future. We have eternity. We're looking at this
through an eternal lens. It may not get better. In fact, I think
we all know that the world is going to get worse before it
gets better, but there, there is a light at the end of the
tunnel. So those are six pretty strong Reasons to be Cheerful,
but honestly, it it deepened my curiosity, because each one of
those reasons is also very specific to Christians, and a
few of them are very, very specific to members of the
Church of Jesus, Christ, of Latter Day, saints. And so it
deepened my curiosity. It got me thinking about, well, what about
other people? What do they find cheerfulness in if they don't
believe that Christ has come yet and performed the atonement?
What do they find? How do they find their cheerfulness, if they
don't believe in Jesus Christ at all? How do they find their
cheerfulness? What is it that they so I went to a different AI
tool, one that I don't use very often and rarely use for Paisley
stuff. I went to a different AI tool, and I asked it the exact
same question.
Here's what it came back with. In our tumultuous world, finding
Reasons to be Cheerful can be challenging, but it's essential
for our well being. Here are a few ways you can cultivate
cheerfulness, and I'm going to stop right there. Yes, it gave
me three ways, and I'll share those in just a second. But
first I wanted to put. Point out two really important things in
that statement. Number one, being cheerful is essential for
our well being. It's not just a gospel principle, it's a mental
health necessity. Everybody needs to find cheer in
something. And then number two, the list to keep me was not a
list of things to be cheerful about. It was a list of ways to
cultivate, create, develop cheerfulness. So it wasn't
things to be happy about. It was ways to make yourself happy sort
of okay. So here's the list. Ready. Number one, smile on
purpose. Even during tough times, intentionally smile. It
can positively impact your mood and those around you. Number
two, hold your tongue when tempted to complain or
criticize, pause, silence can prevent regrettable words and
help you navigate stress gracefully. Just take a pause.
Is this something I need to say? Is it something that needs to be
said? The answer is yes, just say it. The answer is maybe not
right now, save it and then number three, fake it till you
make it sometimes. Acting cheerful, even when you don't
feel it, can lead to genuine positivity. Try faking a laugh
or confidence when needed. I'm not I'm not sure that I
completely endorse number three. Number one feels a little
forced. I mean, it is smile on purpose, right? You are
purposely the advice is to smile until you feel it. Which number
three is? Fake it till you make it. They're both kind of the
same. I don't know today, today's world is all about being
authentic, right? Be your authentic self. I don't know how
to smile on purpose. I've we've talked about this before in
other episodes, I am not blessed with a smiley face. I am blessed
with a resting grump face. Smiling on purpose gives me a
face ache. It's like a headache, but it's in your face like it.
Smiling on purpose makes my face tired, and at the end of the
day, it hurts. So smiling on purpose is very difficult. I'm
not saying that it won't work. We should probably try it. Those
are the three ways that our friendly AI gave us to try and
cultivate cheerfulness. Now if you're faking it till you make
it, or if you're smiling on purpose, yes, it can have an
effect on those around you. They think you're happy, they're
happy anyway, okay, the hold your tongue. One, yes, the hold
your tongue one, that's just general good advice. In my
opinion, when you're tempted to complain or criticize, take a
pause. We're trying to cultivate, create, develop.
We're trying to cultivate cheerfulness. So complaining or
criticizing probably not the best way to go. It's the other
two, the smile on purpose and the fake it till you make it
that I kind of struggle with a little bit. It might just be me,
though I'd love to hear your opinion. It also so this other
AI also provided a link to a site called Reasons to be
Cheerful. I'll make sure and put it, put a link in the episode
description. I didn't I had no idea that there was a website
for that Reasons to be Cheerful. I think it was Reasons to be
Cheerful, dot world. But again, I'll make sure it's in the it's
in the video description. Also, just so, you know, I checked the
website and they have recent content. So, like, they had
something that they posted today, so it's even current.
Somebody has taken the initiative and put it, brought
it upon themselves to make sure that they are getting good
content out there under Reasons to be Cheerful. I thought that
was really cool. Okay, so that list of six other things that
the first AI gave us God's love and plan small acts of kindness,
growth and learning, gratitude, community and support and
Christ's Atonement. You know, I could go back through the
church's website and find quotes about each one of those and how
and what it means to be cheerful about each one of those things,
and why those are things that we can be cheerful about. We all
know that we could go back and find quotes for that. I don't
think we need to. I think that what we've been given is fine. I
will say this, though, and I know that I've said this before,
but it's been a while, so I'll say it again. I think that the
world has happiness and cheerfulness confused with
excitement and thrill. I don't think that's what happiness or
cheerfulness means. And I think if you sit and you think about
the differences between cheerful and happiness, joy versus
excitement and thrill, maybe some stimulation. I think we're
talking about two different things, but the world likes to
confuse happiness and cheerfulness with excitement and
thrill to get you to think that you have to have excitement and
thrill in your life in order to be happy. And I, I just think
that that's one of the big I think that's one of the big
messages that the world is trying to confuse us with right
now. Anyway, that's it for today. That's all I wanted to
talk about today. Keep learning, keep growing, and be of good
cheer and until next time my friends. Thank you. You.