“The older I grow, the more I appreciate the uniqueness of an individual life. Literally, no two people are alike. Each one has a specific genetic inheritance indelibly stamped upon every cell. Environmental influences from the company one keeps, and experiences that one endures, blend to enrich and educate the person who ultimately emerges from this marvelous experience we call life.”

With rare insight, gained through service as both a world-renowned heart surgeon and a Church leader, Elder Russell M. Nelson, a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, writes about the unique powers and potential of each individual.

“The potential for divine power is within us,” he says. “It awaits the grasp of each willing child of God.” Some of the attributes each person must develop in order to achieve divine power are:

• Learning: “We must gain learning, but we must apply it wisely. Otherwise we have politics without principles, industry without morality, knowledge without wisdom, science without humanity.”

• Love of neighbor: “Most who have separated themselves from full fellowship in the Church have done so not because of doctrinal disputations but because of hurt, neglect, or lack of love. Progress toward full participation in the blessings of the gospel needs no new programs, only new vision of love, which can be rendered best by friends and neighbors.”

• Obedience: “Our choice to serve must be an informed choice based on eternal truths, for we do not obey blindly, but because we can see.”

• Self-mastery: “Your spirit acquired a body at birth and became a soul to live in mortality through periods of trial and testing. Part of each test is to determine if your body can become mastered by the spirit that dwells in it.”

• A strong marriage: “It takes a man and a woman to make a man or a woman. Ordinary and imperfect people can build each other through their wholeness together.”

• Obedience to law: “Freedom to act and mastery of our actions both emanate from law.”

“The source of our spiritual power is the Lord,” he concludes. “This power differs from electrical power. An electrical appliance consumes power, while the use of God's spiritual power replenishes our power. While electrical power can be used only for measured periods of time, spiritual power can be used for time and eternity.”