I make several long drives to and from Salt Lake City each week and I decided that on those longer trips I would listen to a book instead of music. One of my recent literary (audio) conquests was The Tipping Point.
He wrote; The Tipping Point along with Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw and a variety of articles for The New Yorker.
He has a knack for taking a subject, turning it upside down and providing a unique point of view.
The Tipping Point is a book about little decisions/actions/events/things that spark overwhelming changes.
Here's an example from the book I'll condense for you:
New York City was once a crime haven. The city had been pouring money into police department and the results were underwhelming. Eventually they decided to focus on fixing the broken windows in the run down parts of town.
Boom. Crime rate decreased.
Little change. HUGE results.
I started to think about where else the Tipping Point can be found in action.
"by small and simple things are great things brought to pass..." (Alma 37:6)
The Restoration of the Gospel can be attributed to the prayer of an uneducated 14 year-old farm boy.
Today there are around 13 million members.
I am an ordinary member of the church.
I'm not the Prophet (obviously). I'm not a Stake President, Bishop or even Elder's Quorum President.
You might be just like me, a normal Latter-Day Saint just trying to do the best you can.
BUT - when we do our home/visiting teaching, clean up the chapel, hold FHE, give a talk we become MORE than ordinary church members.
It is your small acts of kindness and perhaps unsung service in the Church that touches lives for good.
You and I?
We can be the small and simple things that bring about great things.
We are the Tipping Points.
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Kyle Aldous connects his life to the scriptures daily and blogs about it in "Justified by the Scriptures". He is the PR/Marketing Director for Blickenstaff's (a new vintage toy/candy shop in the Shops at the Riverwoods). He LOVES to breakdance! He was recently married and is loving life!
Photo Credit: Barnaby Wasson
