With the
beginning of a New Year, many of us make New Year’s Resolutions, in hopes of
having a better life. The definition of resolution is:
a firm decision to do or not to do something. Some of us want to eat healthier & lose those
dreaded 10 extra pounds. Some may want to stop procrastinating or improve their
concentration or mental skills. Others may want to become more confident or
earn more money.
These are
all great resolutions but an important question we should ask ourselves is:
What are the highest
and most important priorities that the Lord wants each of us to focus on in
2016?
While preparing for this talk, I studied a
couple of General Conference talks from Dallin H Oaks and Henry B Eyring, which
I will be quoting from.
We need priorities. Our priorities determine
what we seek in life. Jesus taught about
priorities when He said, “Seek not the things of this world but seek ye first
to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you” (JST, Matt. 6:38, in Matt. 6:33, footnote a). “Seek … first to
build up the kingdom of God” means to assign first priority to God and to His
work. The work of God is to bring to pass the eternal life of His children
(see Moses 1:39), and all that this entails in the birth, nurturing,
teaching, and sealing of our Heavenly Father’s children. Everything else is
lower in priority. Think about that reality as we consider some teachings and
some examples on priorities. As someone once said, if we do not choose the
kingdom of God first, it will make little difference in the long run what we
have chosen instead of it.
In regards to knowledge, the highest
priority is the knowledge that we receive in the temple. That knowledge is
obtained from the explicit and symbolic teachings of the endowment, and from
the whisperings of the Spirit that come as we are desirous to seek and
receptive to hear the revelation available to us in that sacred place. If you
are already making it a priority to attend the temple once a month, maybe you
can change that goal to attend twice a month!
Nephi taught, “Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold,
the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do” (2 Ne. 32:3).
That is focus. Nephi also said that as he taught from the scriptures, “I did
liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Ne. 19:23).
That is personal application.
Our priorities are most visible in how we use our time. “Three things never come back—the spent arrow,
the spoken word, and the lost opportunity.” We cannot recycle or save the time
allotted to us each day. With time, we have only one opportunity for choice, and
then it is gone forever.
The ultimate Latter-day Saint priorities are twofold:
First, we seek to understand our relationship to God the Eternal Father and His
Son, Jesus Christ,
and to secure that relationship by obtaining their saving ordinances and by
keeping our personal covenants. Second, we seek to understand our relationship
to our family members and to secure those relationships by the ordinances of
the temple and by keeping the covenants we make in that holy place. These
relationships provide eternal blessings available in no other way. No
combination of science, success, property, pride, or power can provide these
eternal blessings!
Dallin H Oaks
said “We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are
better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and
strengthen our families.”
Because of increased life expectancies and modern
timesaving devices, most of us have far more free time than our ancestors. We
are accountable for how we use that time. In the Doctrine & Covenants the
Lord commanded the early missionaries & members “Thou shalt not idle away
thy time” (D&C 60:13),
and “Cease to be idle” (D&C 88:124).In
the hymn, Improve the Shining Moments we sing “Time flies on wings of
lightning,” “we cannot call it back. It comes, then passes forward along its
onward track. And if we are not mindful, the chance will fade away, for life is
quick in passing. ’Tis as a single day”
Because of modern
technology, the contents of huge libraries and other data resources are at the
fingertips of many of us. Some choose to spend countless hours in unfocused
surfing the Internet, watching trivial television, or scanning other avalanches
of information. But to what purpose?
The effect of these
resources on some of us seems to fulfill the prophet Daniel’s prophecy that in
the last days “knowledge shall be increased” and “many shall run to and fro” (Dan. 12:4).
With greatly increased free time and
vastly more alternatives for its use, it is prudent to review the fundamental
principles that should guide us. Temporal circumstances change, but the eternal
laws and principles that should guide our choices never change.
Henry B Eyring said: There is a danger in the word someday when what it means is “not this day.”
“Someday I will repent.” “Someday I will forgive him.” “Someday I will speak to
my friend about the Church.” “Someday I will start to pay tithing.” “Someday I will return
to the temple.” “Someday …”
The scriptures make the danger of
delay clear. It is that we may discover that we have run out of time. The God
who gives us each day as a treasure will require an accounting. We will weep,
and He will weep, if we have intended to repent and to serve Him in tomorrows
which never came or have dreamt of yesterdays where the opportunity to act was
past. This day is a precious gift of God. The thought “Someday I will” can be a
thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity.
Elder Oaks shared the following
story:
Two men formed a partnership. They
built a small shed beside a busy road. They obtained a truck and drove it to a
farmer’s field, where they purchased a truckload of melons for a dollar a
melon. They drove the loaded truck to their shed by the road, where they sold
their melons for a dollar a melon. They drove back to the farmer’s field and
bought another truckload of melons for a dollar a melon. Transporting them to
the roadside, they again sold them for a dollar a melon. As they drove back
toward the farmer’s field to get another load, one partner said to the other,
“We’re not making much money on this business, are we?” “No, we’re not,” his
partner replied. “Do you think we need a bigger truck?”
We don’t need a bigger truckload of
information, either. Like the two partners in the story, our biggest need is a
clearer focus on how we should value and use what we already have.
“Some of our most important choices concern family activities. Many
breadwinners worry that their occupations leave too little time for their
families. There is no easy formula for that contest of priorities. However, I
have never known of a man who looked back on his working life and said, “I just
didn’t spend enough time with my job.”
In choosing how we spend time as a
family, we should be careful not to exhaust our available time on things that
are merely good and leave little time for that which is better or best. A man
took his young family on a series of summer vacation trips, including visits to
memorable historic sites. At the end of the summer he asked his teenage son
which of these good summer activities he enjoyed most. The father learned from
the reply, and so did those he told of it. “The thing I liked best this
summer,” the boy replied, “was the night you and I laid on the lawn and looked
at the stars and talked.” Super family activities may be good for children, but
they are not always better than one-on-one time with a loving parent.
Parents should act to preserve time for family prayer,
family scripture study, family home evening, and the other precious
togetherness and individual one-on-one time that binds a family together and
fixes children’s values on things of eternal worth. Parents should teach gospel
priorities through what they do with their children.
Suppose Church leaders reduce the
time required by Church meetings and activities in order to increase the time
available for families to be together. This will not achieve its intended
purpose unless individual family members—especially parents—vigorously act to
increase family togetherness and one-on-one time. Team sports and technology
toys like video games and the Internet are already winning away the time of our
children and youth. Surfing the Internet is not better than serving the Lord or
strengthening the family.
I remembered
getting an email from the church last summer which was titled “How to make your
prayers more meaningful.” I don’t think I ever read that email then, but as I
was preparing for this talk I knew that one of the priorities that I wanted to
talk about was daily prayers.
President Hinckley used to say that sometimes when we pray
it’s like we’re picking up a phone, ordering groceries, and then we hang up the
phone—we put in our order, and we don’t think any more about it than that. But
if we take a few minutes just to think about our particular need in a given
moment, then prayer becomes more meaningful.
In 2 Nephi
32:9 it
says, “Behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye
must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray
unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance
unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.”
It’s important to remember we shouldn’t just be praying
about ourselves, because there are a lot of people in our sphere of
acquaintance who have great needs as well, and we ought to be remembering them
and what kind of help they need from the Lord. Those kinds of prayers are like
when Enos prayed. He prayed about himself first and then about the Nephites and
then the Lamanites—even his enemies were a part of his concern. That really
makes prayer meaningful, to focus on others.
When you’re grateful, when your prayers include a lot of
thanks to the Lord for your blessings, they become much more meaningful.
Another priority we need to focus on is personal scripture
study each day.
Latter-day prophets counsel us to study the scriptures
every day, both individually and with our families. They encourage us, as Nephi
encouraged his brethren, to liken the scriptures to ourselves, finding ways
that the sacred accounts of old apply in our lives today.
You will benefit greatly by following
this counsel. Daily, meaningful scripture study helps you be receptive to the
whisperings of the Holy Ghost. It builds your faith, fortifies you against
temptation, and helps you draw near to your Heavenly Father and His Beloved
Son.
Develop a plan for your personal
study of the scriptures. Consider setting aside a certain amount of time each
day to study the scriptures. During that time, read carefully, being attentive
to the promptings of the Spirit. Ask your Heavenly Father to help you know what
He would have you learn and do.
The last priority I want to talk
about is being a disciple of Christ. Elder Gregory Schwitzer shared the
following in General Conference last October.
If ever there was a time when the
world needs disciples of Christ who can communicate the message of the gospel
with clarity and from the heart, it is now. We need the clarion call of the
trumpet.
Christ was certainly our best
example. He always demonstrated courage to stand up for what was right. His
words echo through the centuries as He invites us to remember to love God and
our fellowman, to keep all of God’s commandments, and to live as lights to the
world. He was not afraid to speak against the earthly powers or rulers of His
day, even when such were opposing His mission given to Him by His Heavenly
Father. His words were not designed to confuse but to move the hearts of men.
He clearly knew His Father’s will in all He said and did.
I also love the
example of Peter, who confronted the men of the world with courage and clarity
on the day of Pentecost. On that day people were assembled from many countries
criticizing the early Saints because they heard them speak in tongues and
thought they were drunken. Peter, having the Spirit rise in his soul, stood up
to defend the Church and the members. He testified with these words: “Ye men of
Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken
to my words.”3
He then quoted from
the scriptures containing the prophecies of Christ and bore this straightforward
testimony: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath
made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”4
Many heard his words and felt the
Spirit, and 3,000 souls joined the ranks of the early Church. This is powerful
evidence that one man or woman who is willing to testify when the world seems
to be going in the opposite direction can make a difference.
When we as members
make the decision to stand up and powerfully witness for God’s doctrine and His
Church, something changes within us. We take His countenance upon us. We become
closer to His Spirit. He in turn will go before us and be on “[our] right hand
and on [our] left, and [His] Spirit shall be in [our] hearts, and [His] angels
round about [us], to bear [us] up.”5
True disciples of
Christ are not looking to make excuses for the doctrine when it doesn’t fit the
world’s current concepts. Paul was another valiant disciple, boldly proclaiming
that he was “not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth.”6 True disciples represent the Lord when it may not be
convenient to do so. True disciples desire to inspire the hearts of men, not
just impress them.
I’m thankful for this opportunity
I’ve had to put my focus on the most important priorities that I feel our
Heavenly Father wants us to do. I know with all my heart that this gospel is
true.
I want to be a true
follower of Christ. I leave this message with you in the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
