30-Day Experiment on the Teachings of Jesus Christ.
for individuals and RC Team Members.
This may be the most important point of my website, because the best and surest way to know if the teachings of Jesus Christ really work and are true is to try it out for at least 30 days and see if it brings more love, joy, inner peace, purpose, and better relationships; and pray for confirmation of the truth.
It’s better, and even more accurate, to do a 90-day experiment if you have the perseverance to do so. Or simply truly focus on giving your best prayer effort for 30 days, and if it works and you feel more real love, joy, inner peace, and more loving relationships than ever before, then you’ll probably wisely choose to continue it for life.
Powerful quote to reflect on: “God didn’t send us to earth for entertainment. He sent us here for a far more glorious purpose.” Richard G. Scott
Important questions to reflect on:
Is it true that you came to Earth for a far more glorious purpose than wasting most of your time on mindless video games, television, and other unimportant, impermanent activities? Do you want to find far more meaning, purpose, joy, and inner peace in your life and relationships than you’ve ever known? Would it be a wise decision for you to do a 30-day experiment on the joyful teachings of Jesus Christ? Isn’t it true that if you truly focus your best efforts, with God’s help, you can do anything in just 30 days? And isn’t it true that whatever good and wise thing you can train your body and habit patterns to do for 30 days, you can do for a lifetime? – – If it’s really important to you?
Considering that tens of millions of God’s children around the world testify that the teachings of Jesus Christ work far, far better than anything else, do you think you should at least do your honest best for at least 30 days so you can find out for yourself whether that’s true or not? What have you got to lose? If you don’t feel significantly more inner peace, true joy, and loving relationships at the end of the 30-day experiment, you can always go back to your old way of life, right?
Jesus taught the following: “If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether the teaching is from God, or whether I speak on My own authority.” John 7:17 What if a young person only attends church because their parents practically require it? And what if the young person just sits in church and goes through the motions on the outside, but never makes their best effort to follow those teachings for at least 30 days to see if those teachings actually “work”? By “work,” I mean do they bring forth the fruits of the Spirit—bringing forth more real love, joy, inner peace, kindness, and loving relationships—than anything else promised by God Himself in the Bible in Galatians 5:22?
Along with millions of people from many different Christian denominations, I can boldly and clearly testify that I have come to know with certainty that the teachings of Jesus Christ work far better than anything else. And coming to Christ and our loving Heavenly Father in prayer and discipleship brings about amazing transformative miracles within our inner spiritual part, which cannot be denied by those who have truly put it to the test. The fact that the Bible is the number one best-selling book in the world of all time is quite convincing evidence that the teachings of Jesus Christ are worth putting to the test, to learn why more people love the beautiful teachings of Jesus Christ than any other teaching. I have also come to know with certainty that as we make personal prayerful efforts to come to Christ and our loving Heavenly Father, an inner peace and joy will come into our lives beyond anything we have ever imagined possible, even during the most significant trials of our lives, as has worked for me and many millions of others.
I think the most important lesson each of us, parents and grandparents, can help our children and grandchildren understand at an early age is: Where do true love, joy, and inner peace come from? Who is the root source of those wonderful gifts of the Spirit that feel better than anything else? The root of all that comes from our loving Heavenly Father, and it is given to each of us when we do what is right, good, honest, and kind to others. If our children (and each of us) can learn that at the earliest possible age—and know it to be true by living it out and doing the 30-day experiment, preferably together as a family—to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ with every effort and prayer we can muster, so that we can see what it really feels like inside the inner spiritual part of us. Then, if it feels better, as God promises it will, then we can continue that great habit for life. As Abraham Lincoln taught, “When I do good, I feel good. When I do wrong, I feel bad.” That is an eternal and crucial truth from God, which is very important for each of us to clearly understand – preferably at a very early age, so that we can truly enjoy “love and peace in the home” – not the tension, stress, and conflict in the home that many families suffer from due to too much disrespect, bullying, and selfishness in the home.
We can ask our children, “When you grow up and become an adult, do you want to marry someone who has developed habits of being kind, loving, and sweet… or someone who has developed habits of being grumpy and mean? Of course, whoever you marry will want the same things, so if we want to prepare to marry someone truly nice, kind, and loving, then we need to practice every day being as kind and loving as we can, so that we will be worthy and a good match for the wonderful person we want to marry.”
An experiment on the words of Jesus Christ will not work well or at all if it is forced or pressured on someone. All forceful methods are from the devil and his team, not from God. Forcing someone to be good, kind, and loving does not work. In fact, forceful methods provoke inner feelings of rebellion and anger, not love, compassion, kindness, and joyful, selfless service to others.
Here is my suggestion for your 30-day experiment:
1. Plan some fun, healthy, and uplifting activities together as a family for at least a few minutes each day, such as playing fun games like pickleball or ping-pong together, enjoying beautiful walks in nature together, singing uplifting songs together using the singing app we share on this website, sharing and discussing Power Quotes Bible verses with each other, praying together as a family and openly thanking God in prayer for each of your family members and their efforts in trying to live a relationship-centered, Christ-centered life, etc.
2. Read at least one page a day from your New Testament (the second half of the Bible that focuses on the teachings of Jesus Christ) and/or the Book of Mormon, and underline with a red pen or other marker at least one item on each page that can help you with any of your relationships, or that is meaningful to you. If you don’t yet own a Bible or a Book of Mormon, you can go to ComeUntoChrist.org and request them free of charge. Pray sincerely each day to feel God’s love, joy, and inner peace as you study the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and to ask for His help in feeling and knowing that these two books are true and come from God, through His prophets.
3. Keep a prayer in your heart and mind almost constantly: Focusing on constant prayer is an important key to a truly successful life-transforming experiment with the teachings of Jesus Christ. How do you pray? It’s simply an open and honest conversation with our Heavenly Father. Simply begin by addressing Him with words similar to, “Dear Heavenly Father”; then simply speak to Him as the dear and loving Father and eternal friend He is, and at the end, simply close, “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” You can pray silently in your mind, or preferably verbally out loud in a private place, and God will hear your prayers. You can sincerely ask Him to allow you to feel His love for you and His peace, giving you more inner peace, love, and purpose in your life. I suggest you ask our Heavenly Father for guidance on how you can uplift and strengthen each of your family members and others with whom you interact.
4. Concentrate far more than ever on following every teaching of Jesus Christ in every word, deed, and thought, and on showing kindness, respect, and love in all your interactions with every family member and everyone else.
5. Find at least a little time each day to serve and encourage others in your family and beyond. The Bible says that Jesus “went about doing good,” so if we are to test his teachings and follow his example, we should do the same—and continue to do good and “random acts of kindness” for our family members and others.
6. Verbally express your love to your family members every day. That expression of love will become increasingly sincere as you pray to feel God’s love for you and others, and pray for the ability to share God’s love with others. If you’re not yet in the habit of saying “I love you” to family members and other such words, don’t worry; today is a good day to start doing so with God’s help. (Don’t be embarrassed if you find it difficult to say at first: that’s just the devil and his minions trying to keep you from showing the love God wants us to show to your family members and others.)
7. Look everyone in the eye and give them a kind, loving smile to help them feel important and loved. Greet everyone with kindness, respect, and love in your eyes and heart. This will take practice, effort, concentration, and much prayer. Don’t worry if some of them are surprised by your new, kinder, gentler, and more loving ways. You will all get used to it and learn to love it. It feels much better than sulking or being patient sometimes.
8. Listen prayerfully and with your heart to understand others more deeply.
9. Always pray for the ability to forgive everyone. Consider the amazing example of Jesus Christ, regarding what He prayed as He hung in agony on the cross as He pleaded, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” Bible: Luke 23:33 and 34. I believe the best guide Jesus ever taught to help us forgive others is when He commanded us to pray even for our enemies in Matthew 5:43-44: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
10. Record at least a few of your inner thoughts and feelings daily in a journal you could call your “Jesus Christ Teachings Experiment Journal.” This could be a paper journal, or you could record it in the “Notes” section of your cell phone or in a Word document on your computer. You’ll enjoy reading those notes later as you look back on this 30-day experiment that changed your life.
11. Read and reflect on the powerful quotes from the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other sources on the website, and choose some of your favorites to share with others at our Christ-Centered Team meetings.
12. Share the positive things you’re learning with your family members. Invite them to do the 30-day experiment together.
13. Do your best in your schoolwork and in all other areas that are worthy of your time. If you’re in school or at work anyway, why not do your best while you’re there?
14. Prayerfully evaluate your current and future long-term goals and priorities daily.
15. Try to make a truly positive difference in at least one life each day. It can be something as simple as a kind smile, a sincere compliment, or listening to someone in need.
16. Prayerfully evaluate all your habits and replace all undesirable ones with good ones.
17. No swearing, cheating, lying, smoking, mind-altering substances, etc. for 30 days.
18. Even if some of your family members or others will be surprised, for 30 days, with much prayer and care, choose to focus on becoming one of the kindest, most caring, and thoughtful people they have ever met.
19. Sing gospel songs and/or hymns daily by yourself using the Sing-Along app mentioned on this website, or preferably with a family member joining you to bring more of God’s Spirit into your home. Help your family members and yourself understand that it doesn’t matter whether any of you can sing beautifully or not; the important thing is to sing loudly with your heart, feelings, and a prayerful attitude while singing the beautiful songs.
20. For you young single people: Keep in mind that when you get married someday, you’ll want you and your future spouse to treat each other with great kindness, respect, and love in every interaction, every day, won’t you? The only way to do that is to get into the habit long before then—preferably starting today—of treating your family members that way now, long before you get married.
This experiment may take about 30 minutes per day, so how will young people and adults find time for it, even though working on relationship-building is the most important thing of all during our time on earth? I pause to remember back in high school, when I spent an average of about 3 hours a day of my precious time throughout high school working on 3 different sports during the school year, and much more time on top of that with my mind thinking about sports, rather than on much more important things. I learned some useful lessons in sports, but being involved with a Christ-centered team would have been far more valuable to me. If you choose to focus a little on this program, you may cut back on some of your TV, video game, or cell phone time each day, but I promise you it will be worth it. Considering that nothing is as important or joyful as learning how to build and enjoy better relationships, it will surely be worth investing time wisely in it. And if you think your family members are too busy, simply share a couple of powerful quotes and an uplifting song to sing while you have dinner together, or just a few minutes before bed at night. A crucial part of the 30-day experiment is simply to focus on being very kind, caring, loving, and considerate to each family member in every little interaction throughout the day, keeping in mind that relationships matter far more than anything else really does. Take no more time to be kind in each of your interactions than to be grumpy, touchy, impatient, and selfish. The attitude and priority of choosing to live relationship-centered is what makes the joy-producing difference.
Even if you never start or join a Christ-Centered Team, I hope each of you readers will at least realize more clearly, at some points in this website, that making a firm personal decision to live a Christ-centered life is the wisest choice for a truly joyful life. You may be thinking, “But Charles, I’m too busy (playing video games, watching TV, playing sports, working, doing homework, etc.) to take the time and focus on a 30-day experiment in the joyful teachings of Jesus Christ.” Are you too busy with eternally unimportant distractions to spend time on what matters most during our time on earth and forever, which is obviously relationships, aren’t you?
Considering that the “average child” in the United States spends more than 7 hours each day in front of a screen (TV, video games, computers, cell phone), etc., you don’t want to be an “average child” who wastes 7 precious hours a day in front of a screen that has no eternal value, do you? Are there things you’re spending time on that are less important than putting in the effort and focus to learn how to live a much more joyful, satisfying, and meaningful relationship-centered life? Are you wasting a lot of precious time on things that won’t really matter 50, 100, or 200 years from now?
Our loving Heavenly Father has arranged for quality, loving family relationships and other quality relationships to continue after we leave this life, but none of our worldly things or riches that we have worked to accumulate can go with us, can they? How much more joy, inner peace, and love will we all feel in our homes and lives if each member of our family decides to try this 30-day experiment in the teachings of Jesus Christ?
What if you shared this website with your closest friends, and what if you, as friends, decided to try this 30-day experiment to see if our relationships felt more joyful and wonderful? What if you chose to help spread this website and the principles it contains to others? These are mostly simple teachings and principles from the teachings of Jesus Christ, which have been proven to work far better than anything else in bringing real joy and loving relationships.
You might be thinking, “But Charles, do you think about the horrible things some people have done in the name of ‘religion’?” My response: Oh, yes, I know about those horrible things, but if you stop to study them more deeply, you’ll see that in each case, they were evil people pretending to be “Christians,” but Jesus taught that by their fruits or works you will know their true followers, and whether they show true love to one another. When someone abuses others, they are obviously not acting like a true Christian, even if they say they are.
Are you wise enough to pause and reflect on what matters most? And start devoting more time and effort to what matters most to living a joyful and meaningful life and making a truly positive difference in the world?
Pause to consider how good it would feel to truly make a positive difference in the lives of other children of God, rather than wasting time in this earthly trial and school?
Love is an action word, isn’t it? If you say you love someone, but don’t show it with your actions, words, tone of voice, etc., then do you really love them, and do they feel your love?