Image from Fifth Element
When I first moved to Minnesota, I not only fell in love with the cheese curds, UFFDAH! and food trucks, but with the people as well. Why are Minnesotans so nice? It only took a short while to find out that Minnesotans are serious about making you feel like you just ate a bag of warm mini-doughnuts. Whether it is connecting with neighbors at “Neighborhood Night Out”, co-workers at dinner after work, friends from yoga class, or even a store clerk at the Hockey Giant, I find that Minnesotans really radiate niceness. And if you don’t pick up on that radiation, some even wear tee shirts that say “MINNESOTA NICE” on the front to help remind you what being a Minnesotan means.
What makes most Minnesotans want to become nice, and treat everyone with civility and kindness? I have been thinking on civility lately – you know, how polite you are in your behavior and speech – and how civility basically comes down to the kind of person you are trying to become. Read the comment sections in any major news outlet, and you will see why I am so thrilled to live around people who are just genuinely kind. It seems to be more acceptable these days to treat anyone you want with contempt if your views do not blend well with theirs. After all, what is it that makes us want to be inwardly implosive by finding the small chinks in everyone’s armor? What makes us want to be outwardly dynamic by radiating warm and positive intentions? I believe that the root of the matter is grounded in what we are individually trying to become.
When I think of my journey with God to become something better than I am, I sometimes wish I could just get a report card from God’s office to let me know how I was doing; was I getting a ‘B+’ in prayers, but an ‘F’ in pride? I have come to believe that our ultimate evaluation is not merely a tally of good and evil acts kept by a distant, intimidating teacher. Rather, in the tension of everyday relationships with family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers, we learn how to gradually perceive our own shortcomings and rely on the grace of God to improve. It is a beautiful transformation of becoming something God desires us to become. He sees in each of us a divine man, woman, or child that can reach out to Him through prayer, and can assess what action needs to unfold in our daily lives to help mold our wills to His, if we will let Him.
I have found that by living the standards and teachings of Jesus Christ, I have a clear awareness of who I am, where I am going and how I can be happy. This gives me confidence and a deep desire to work toward being the disciple of Christ that I know my Heavenly Father wants me to become, not just whatever I want to be. This knowledge gives me a greater purpose. As we work on this process we will radiate—literally sending forth and releasing—to others what we are becoming. A prophet once stated:
Every man, every person radiates what he or she is. Every person is a recipient of radiation. The Savior was conscious of this fact. Whenever he came in to the presence of an individual, he sensed that radiation, whether it was the woman of Samaria with her past life, whether it was the woman who was to be stoned, or the men who were to stone her; whether it was the statesman, Nicodemus, or one of the lepers. Christ was ever conscious of the radiation from the individual, and, to a degree, so are you, and so am I. It is what we are and what we radiate that affects the people around us.
Think about the last really nice thing someone did for you. How did you feel? Compare that with how you felt when someone yelled at you (or you yelled at them). I have felt my inner light dim when I am unkind or disrespectful. It alters the tilt of my soul and the spirit that I radiate.
Today when I was running on the Stone Arch Bridge, with the crisp September air and earthy leaf smell by the Mississippi, I began to wonder what spirit I was radiating to others around me. Could the commuters on their bikes, and the couples walking their dogs possibly feel, that I am trying to live as Jesus taught?
There is something divine in each of us that yearns for the living God and to connect with Him. Try today to bring your awareness of what you are radiating to those with whom you interact—your co-workers, your children, people on the bus or train. What acts are you actually doing that bring greater light into the world? The best men and women I know live their life so close to God that they bathe those around them with the love of Christ. Many of them are the Minnesotan Nice.
Mormon In Minnesota 