Most of society spends a lot of time with their eyes focused on what’s in the palm of their hands. They seek out popularity, power, love and happiness from a small device just inches from their faces. When, most of the time, the world around them is full of beauty, hope and joy. All they had to do was look up.

By looking up, someone may be able to share a friendly smile with a stranger who may be suffering from a bad day. By looking up, a young person was able to notice their elderly neighbor struggling with bringing in their groceries and was able to lend a helping hand. By looking up, someone consumed by their work, stops in the middle of their day to take notice of the clouds on the horizon, the breeze rustling the trees, or the sunshine on their face. They take a moment to remember to give thanks for the blessings in their life and who gave them those blessings. By looking up, you were able to take in the first sunset you had seen in months and enjoy it with a family member or a friend.

Our savior made a world for us that is filled with beauty, offers joy and is full of hope. WE are responsible for finding those things. WE have to choose to see the beauty in the world around us, choose to find joy and be joyful and choose to be hopeful and have faith.
The temptation to continue to search for these things in the palm of our hands can be overwhelming: 2 Corinthians 11-3 says, “lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

 In other words, Satan works hard to sneak his way into our lives through that small device in which we’ve placed such a great dependence on. He makes evil look good and good look evil. Satan wants to keep us from a simple and readily offered love from our savior. It is also our savior who offers peace from affliction, compassion and an eternity with him. All we have to do is look up.

This world that was made and given to us by a loving heavenly father and his son Jesus Christ is full of blessings. These blessings can be as simple as the air we breathe, clear blue skies and snowcapped mountains. Oftentimes the most simple of things that surround us are the ones we take for granted. There are many places throughout this planet where these blessings that we take for granted are a dream that others may never experience. Instead they rely on other blessings in their life to maintain their faith. They have learned to find joy elsewhere. 

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” 3 Nephi 13-21 says. 

We challenge everyone to take more time to “look up.” Then may we ask ourselves, what beauty, love and joy can we find and share with everyone? You may be thinking, next you’re going to tell me by doing this it’s going to make the world a better place. That may be true, yes, but true change only happens within ourselves. 

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves,” author Leo Tolstoy said. 

So, if we want to ‘fix’ anything or anyone, what better way to start than within ourselves. We need only to look up.

“The sun shall be no more thy light by day: neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the LORD shall be unto thee all everlasting light, and thy God thy glory,” Isaiah 60:19 says. 

(Shane Shoopman is the Powell 3rd Ward Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He writes Perspectives with his wife Stephanie Shoopman.)