Making a Difference

I've gotten to thinking, everyone makes a difference and everything that everyone does makes a difference on everyone's lives. Every single little decision that anyone makes can start a chain reaction of events. I mean, if I chose to use the rest of my milk in my cereal this morning, then I wouldn't have milk to make that special casserole for dinner the next night. That is, unless I went to the store to buy more, but then I'd have to choose if I wanted to walk or drive. If I wanted to drive, I'd have to find someone with a car, which then affects whoever owned the car. They would then have to take time out of their schedule to drive me to the store so I could pick up some milk. If I took too long in the store, I could accidentally make them late for their class. If they were late for their class, they might miss an important piece of the lesson and decide to attend a tutor session. At this tutor session, they could meet someone of the opposite gender and become friends. After a while they could start dating and soon they get engaged and are married. If I had not decided to eat cereal that one morning, or if I decided to walk to the store, or if I hadn't taken so long, or if the friend hadn't decided to go to tutoring, those two people might never have met! So many decisions were involved.

Now, that was just a random (and maybe extreme) scenario that I came up with, but think about it. Everyone has an impact on everything. No matter how small we may feel, we are always important. I mean, in my above scenario, I basically brought two people together, inadvertently.

I always think about the story of Alma and Abinadi in King Noah's court. How important were both of those men's decisions in that moment? Abinadi's case may have seemed hopeless and futile. He preached so hard to so many, but only converted one man. But that one man that he converted started such an incredible chain of events that impacted so many throughout the rest of the Book of Mormon. If Abinadi had decided not to preach in King Noah's court, Alma would not have heard the word and would not have began his own preaching, then Alma the Younger would not have come about, nor Helaman, or the stripling warriors, or the conversions that Alma the Younger brought about, or anything after that.
Also, if Alma had not decided to listen to Abinadi's words, all that I just listed above would not have come to pass. It is really quite extraordinary, in my opinion.

So if we can make such a difference without trying, imagine what we can do if we get out there and try to do something about our problems. As Dr. Seuss, the source of all wisdom, says: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, things aren't going to get better. It's not."