I am so happy to be able to share some ideas with you today that I know have been directed by Heavenly Father. I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will help me communicate the thoughts I have received, according to the desire of the Lord. What a blessing this assignment has been to me. I want to borrow a term I first heard at a workshop conducted by the Franklin Institute, now Franklin Covey. They introduced me to the concept of the belief window, which I have identified with ever since. I can still visualize a clear window suspended in front of the eyes of a cartoon face, illustrating the idea that we see the world through our belief window. The beliefs that we have are the lenses of reality for each of us. I would like to expand upon this idea and talk about your spiritual eyeglasses and leave you with the notion that what you see is what you get or what you see is what you are, as far as eternity is concerned. It is very important that gospel truths make up our belief window so that we can see the celestial kingdom clearly. Let me illustrate. The world looks very different for me depending upon the lenses, or glasses, through which I look. For instance, this first pair of glasses I am putting on has very thick lenses, and they distort my view to the point that, if I wear them very long, I am frustrated and not able to clearly see the path before me. In fact, they give me a headache. This next pair of glasses, with the eyeballs on springs, changes my view with each movement of the springs. Once again the path before me is distorted and even comical. With this pair of sunglasses I am having a hard time seeing anything at all in this room. They shut out the light. This next pair of glasses doesn’t aid my vision at all, but they glow in the dark and draw attention to me and my eyes in a dark room. I have used them for effect several times when I wanted to solicit a reaction from people. They are a fun icebreaker, but that’s all. They don’t aid my vision. This final pair of glasses totally changes others’ perceptions of me. With these lenses I can create a fictitious image of who I am. I have created a distorted picture of myself and what my belief window contains. Thank goodness for my own prescription lenses. Now I can see you as well as the printed words before me and, I hope, the path to the celestial kingdom. It really is very important that we wear the proper pair of glasses—or, in other words, that our belief window is correct. The message that I am bringing today is that your beliefs are the lenses through which you see the world. What you believe determines your focus and in turn your actions. You are seeing things as you believe they are—not […]