Time

“Time is one of our most valuable possessions. Use it wisely. Remind yourselves often that things that matter most should not be left to the mercy of things that matter the least.” 

~ O. Leslie Stone, “Making Your Marriage Successful,” Ensign, May 1978.

Where Did The Years Go?

Thomas S. Monson:
"Near the end of his life, one father looked back on how he had spent his time on earth. An acclaimed, respected author of numerous scholarly works, he said, ‘I wish I had written one less book and taken my children fishing more often.’ Time passes quickly. Many parents say that it seems like yesterday that their children were born. Now those children are grown, perhaps with children of their own. ‘Where did the years go?’ they ask. We cannot call back time that is past, we cannot stop time that now is, and we cannot experience the future in our present state. Time is a gift, a treasure not to be put aside for the future but to be used wisely in the present.”

Satan's Scheme

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.

So let them go to their churches; let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" shouted his angels.

"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow.

Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CD's and their PC's going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards.

Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes.

Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. That will fragment those families quickly!"

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week.

Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy!

And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions." Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning; but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus.

Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!"

It was quite a convention. The evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there.

I guess the question is: Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge! Does "busy" mean:

B-eing

U-nder

S-atan's

Y-oke?

Inconsistent Discipleship

Neal A Maxwell in his book 'Men & Women of Christ' said:

"We can ease the stress caused by our inconsistency, pain through which we put ourselves repeatedly. Unfortunately, like Oliver Cowdrey, we do not always "continue as [we] commenced" (D&C 9:5). As with our wasteful automobile driving habits that consume extra energy because of quick starts and stops, so it may be with inconsistent discipleship we actually inflict costs on ourselves in the face of divine counsel."

It's hard to keep the momentum of change going sometimes isn't it. Sometimes we try to run faster that we are able, which leaves us too tired to complete the journey as we had planned. To be a consistent disciple we need to run as fast as 'the Lord' knows we need to run, and just as we would regularly service our cars, so we need those regular spiritual tune-ups too to keep our engine in tip-top condition. It's the only way we won't 'become weary and faint' on our journey.

I hope you will be full of energy today - if not physically, spiritually!

Being Someones Answer

"Have you ever thought that someone somewhere may be pleading with Heavenly Father for help, and you may be the one chosen to help answer that prayer? If we're willing, He'll use us. You likely have no idea how often you rescue someone. "

—Mary Ellen Edmunds, Knit Together in Love-

I hope that you can be used today by Him, and that if you are the one in need of rescue that you will be rescued.

A Wise Selection

"The Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants tells us to be 'anxiously engaged in good causes'. This suggests we can't respond to all causes. We must be selective in the things we seek to do in terms of community and civic chores. But it also suggests we ought to devote a measure of our time and talent to do these things, for they do count on the scales of action as God sees it.

"The world is full of fads. The world is full of the marches of lemmings to the sea. The world is full of causes that lead into conceptual cul-de-sacs. Our task, therefore, is to be wise in the selection of good causes, using the scriptures and the modern prophets as our guide.

"Anne Morrow Lindbergh, in her book Gift from the Sea, says: 'My life cannot implement in action all the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds.' You will care for more things than you will be able to do things about. Wise selection of causes is one of the highest forms of the uses of free agency that there is, and, really, one of the ways God tests our basic wisdom and our capacity to love."

(Neal A Maxwell, speech delivered at Catalina Young Adult Conference, 23 Oct 1972)