"Life offers you two precious gifts - one is time, and the other is freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for base desires. You may invest it in greed... Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are no bargains, for in them you find no lasting satisfaction.
Every day, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years you must sometime be accounted for. And it is in this life that you walk by faith and prove yourself able to choose good over evil, right over wrong, enduring happiness over mere amusement. And your eternal reward will be according to your choosing."
-Elder Richard L. Evans
The Pace of Modern life
When stress levels rise, when distress appears, when tragedy strikes, too often we attempt to keep up the same frantic pace or even accelerate thinking somehow that the more rushed our pace, the better off we will be. One of the characteristics of modern life seems to be that we are moving at an ever-increasing rate, regardless of turbulence or obstacles. Let's be honest' it's rather easy to be busy. We all can think up a list of tasks that will overwhelm our schedules. Some might even think that their self-worth depends on the length of their to-do list. They flood the open spaces in their time with lists of meetings and minutia - even during times of stress and fatigue. Because they unnecessarily complicate their lives, they often feel increased frustration, diminished joy, and too little sense of meaning in their lives.
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
October General Conference 2010
The Real History
When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sounds of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? when the surf of the Centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time. The women of God know this.
-Elder Neal A. Maxwell
The Women of God, Ensign (CR), May 1978, p. 10
Journal Keeping
The art of pen is to rouse the inward vision. -George Meredith
What should we write?
*A true and faithful record of your personal life
*An illustration of your love for family, friends, the Gospel
*Your interests
*Your spiritual Gifts
*Faith received during trials
* Testimony and gospel insights/understanding
*The happenings in the church, God's blessings, your official acts in the Church
*An account of the dealings of God with you daily
*Miracles
*Goals
... My soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children. -2 Nephi 4:15
We often leave the most precious personal direction of the Spirit unheard because we do not record and respond to the first promptings that come to us. -Elder Richard G. Scott
The prompting that goes unresponsed to may not be repeated. Writing down what we have been prompted with is vital. God should not, and may not, choose to repeat the prompting if we assign what was given a low priority as to put it aside. -Elder Neal A. Maxwell
Journal keeping is a discovery. We make the trip alone, but we find things of value along the way to bring back, to treasure, and to share. -Barbra Stiener
1 Nephi 6:3-6 Write worthwhile things
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