Personal Radiation

A stand out message that I really felt hit home with me from the General Women's meeting I recently went to was regarding our capacity to influence others.

A message from David O. McKay was shared relating to our personal radiation. It is just too good that I couldn't not share it with you all.

 "There is a responsibility that no man can evade. That is the responsibility of personal influence ... Every man (& woman) has an atmosphere or a radiation that is affecting every person in the world. You cannot escape it ... It is simply the constant radiation of what a man (or woman) really is. Every man (& woman) by his mere living is radiating positive or negative qualities. Life is a state of radiation. To exist is to be the radiation of our feelings, natures, doubts, schemes, or to be the recipient of those things from somebody else. You cannot escape it. Man (& woman) cannot escape for one moment the radiation of his (or her) character. You will select the qualities that you will permit to be radiated. That reminds me of the following poem, the author of which is unknown.

            You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
            By the very manner in which you speak,
            By the way you employ your leisure time,
            By the use you make of dollar and dime.
            You tell what you are by the things you wear,
            And even by the way you wear your hair,
            By the kind of things at which you laugh,
            By the records you play on your phonograph.
            You tell what you are by the way you walk,
            By the things of which you delight to talk,
            By the manner in which you bury deceit,
            By so simple a thing as how you eat.
            By the books you choose from the well fitted shelf.
            In these ways and more you tell on yourself."