President Gordon B. Hinckley explores the rewarding connection between regular pondering and meditating, on the one hand, and the advancement of the quality of our lives, on the other—as reflected in our inner peace, our relationships with family and colleagues, and our commitment to live by the word of God:
We need the Spirit of the Lord in our lives more… . But there is hardly time to reflect and think and pause and meditate. I daresay that most of those in this room today have not taken an hour in the last year to just sit down quietly, each man to himself, as a son of God, reflecting upon his place in this world, upon his destiny, upon his capacity to do good, upon his mission to make some changes for good. We need to. I recall so vividly President McKay in his old age in a meeting with his counselors and the Twelve saying, “Brethren, we need to take more time to meditate, to think quietly.” …
I’m going to make a suggestion to each of you. On the next fast day, take occasion and arrange your affairs in such a way that you can be by yourself, maybe under a tree in the backyard, maybe in the locked bedroom of your home, where you can think. Read the scriptures and think of sacred things and think of yourself. Your attitude toward your wife—are you the kind of husband you ought to be, considerate, kind, generous, or are you a bully, an abuser? You cannot be a good servant of the Lord if there isn’t peace in your heart concerning your companion… . Your attitude toward your children: Are you rearing them in an atmosphere of love, or are you the kind of man who thinks he has to deal out punishment all the time? I’m one who believes that it isn’t necessary in rearing children to beat them. I’m one who believes that they will respond to love and appreciation. Think, under those circumstances, of your personal integrity—are you a man of honesty; are you a man who deals honestly with others? Say to yourselves, I must stand a little taller and be a little better. Try it, will you? Find a place where next fast day you can spend an hour with yourselves quietly thinking of what you can do to make yourselves more worthy of the sacred call which you have. (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997], 334–335)