I don’t know about you, but as a parent I have selective hearing. I’ve honed my ability to tune out whining and minimal bickering as well as pleas for candy in the grocery store. I’m normally very easily distracted, so even on other tasks I’ve trained myself to stay very focused or the job will go undone.

But, in this process it becomes very easy to just stop noticing things at all. There have been many times I’ve walked down the halls at church or even in the grocery store and not even noticed that someone said high or smiled at me until they’re long gone and the message finally makes it through all my carefully placed filters. Though I have perfected the ability to screen input, I haven’t perfected it as well as the Savior did. For Him it did not matter how busy He was or what the task at hand was, when there was a need, He saw it.

I need to be a little more like that at times. With so much sorrow, hurt and pain in the world perhaps I’m screening out more than I should be. I’m missing opportunities to ease those burdens that I run across on my path of life.

Though there are many things of the world I don’t need to concern myself with, but my fellow man will never be one of them. I need to become more aware, to open my eyes and ears more often and do my best to spread a little more joy and praise than I do now. I should never become so focused on my own life or goals that I don’t see someone smiling at me and not smile back. I should structure my life and time so that I can be the one to share the first smile more than I am now.

As a line from a children’s movie puts it, the disciple’s goal should be to “See a need. Fill a need.”

Early in my church membership I discovered I sometimes felt like the new kid in school. Members often talked of a past I knew nothing about. They had lived under prophets I didn’t know and experienced church events I’d never heard of. One day, while shopping at the church owned Deseret Industries thrift store, I discovered some very old Ensign magazines. The Ensign is the church’s magazine for adults. I sifted through them until I found some that were published long before I joined the church and purchased them. At home, I began to get caught up. I read the words of David O. McKay, a prophet many church members remembered and loved, and began to understand the things he had cared about. I read news stories of past events. After a while, I felt I had a better understanding of the church years I had missed by converting as a teenager.

Today, of course, this process is much easier. Many old church magazines are now online at LDS.org in the Gospel Library. It can be fun to wander through the old magazines and learn about the churches history—recent to long time members, but unfamiliar territory for you.

Spencer W. Kimball was the prophet when I joined the church. He was a prophet for a very long time, so you may hear of him often. You can read some stories from his life in an article called, President Spencer W. Kimball:No Ordinary Man By Elder Boyd K. Packer. (Boyd K. Packer, “President Spencer W. Kimball: No Ordinary Man,” Ensign, Mar 1974, 3)

In this article, for instance, you’ll read this small story that shows you who he is:

“After his call to the Twelve he suffered a series of heart attacks. The doctors said that he must rest. He wanted to be with his beloved Indians. Brother Golden R. Buchanan took him to the camp of Brother and Sister Polacca, high in the pines of Arizona, and there he stayed during the weeks until his heart mended and his strength returned.

One morning he was missing from camp. When he did not return for breakfast, Brother Polacca and other Indian friends began to search. They found him several miles from camp, sitting beneath a large pine tree with his Bible open to the last chapter of the Gospel of John. In answer to their worried looks, he said, “Six years ago today I was called to be an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I just wanted to spend the day with Him whose witness I am.'“

For a more organized study of church history, LDS.org has a section on the history of the church. Here you can get the story of the gospel from its restored beginnings, including the stories of all the prophets.

There is an entire website just on Joseph Smith you can explore, which includes images of original historical documents.

LDS.org is a wonderful way to catch up on the church’s fascinating history. You can search it in small bits as you have time, and soon you’ll understand all the references others make about our past.