Comments on 2 Samuel

"When I was a boy, we lived in a home surrounded by an orchard. There never seemed to be enough water for the trees. The ditches, always freshly plowed in the spring, would soon fill with weeds. One day, in charge of the irrigation turn, I found myself in trouble. As the water moved down the rows choked with weeds, it would flood in every direction. I worked in the puddles trying to build up the bank. As soon as I had one break patched up, there would be another. A neighbor came through the orchard. He watched for a moment, and then with a few vigorous strokes of the shovel, he cleared the ditch and allowed the water to course through the channel he had made. He said, 'If you want the water to stay in its course, you’ll have to make a place for it to go.'
"I have come to know that thoughts, like water, will stay on course if we make a place for them to go. Otherwise, our thoughts follow the course of least resistance, always seeking the lower levels. Probably the greatest challenge and the most difficult thing you will face in mortal life is to learn to control your thoughts. In the Bible it says, as a man 'thinketh in his heart, so is he' (Proverbs 23:7). Those who can control their thoughts have conquered themselves."

This is an excerpt from an April 2008 Liahona article by Boyd K. Packer. It was adapted from his October 1973 general conference address and is entitled "Worthy Music, Worthy Thoughts." If you would like to read the article in its entirety click this link.