Line of Best Fit

A scatter plot is a graph with a bunch of different data points that don't all fit into a nice, straight line. However, you can do some analysis of the distance between each point and create what's called a line of best fit, which outlines the general trend of all the data points. We can imagine that every action we take is like a point on a scatter plot - some might be really good, some might be really bad, and most are probably somewhere in the middle. When we commit to obeying God's commandments, it helps us aim for a specific section of the scatter plot. It helps tighten our focus and helps us to try to match up our line of best fit with the straight and narrow path of the gospel. We may not always hit that line, but the more actions we take, the more dots we get, that our close to the gospel path, then the closer to that path everything will average out to be. If we set some impossible goal and get three really high dots but then burn out and get fifteen really low dots, then our line of best fit may end up lower than when we started. Over and over the Lord tells us that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. If we pick one goal that points us in the right direction and is small and simple enough that we can get consistently close to it, then our line of best fit is going to be headed in the right direction and we'll have increased our capacity so that our next goal is perhaps a little less small and a little less simple. It's OK to occasionally have outliers if most of the time we're clustering around that straight and narrow path. And if we're noticing a lot of dots are hitting a place we don't want to be, then we know what area we want to focus on to realign that line of best fit.