Good, Better, Best
Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
I found Elder Oaks talk directly applicable to me this week. I’ve been in a what may be termed a “spiritual tailspin.” And it’s just so easy, much easier that I ever thought possible, to just keep doing everything the same and little by little lose my faith. Pretty soon the very things that the Lord has provided for me to feel his love (church, scripture study, journaling and prayer) no longer have appeal and I consider them “a thing of naught” and “trample them under my feet.”
Sure, I would may never say it quite like that to those around me, myself, or even my God, however, by my actions, or rather lack thereof, I confirm my disinterest in feeling God’s love. It’s all so very subtle and nearly imperceptible it’s scary. When I don’t hold onto the iron rod I get distracted and wander on over to all the “cool” things and end up “amusing [my]self to death-spiritual death.”
I have struggled nearly my whole life with distraction. It wasn’t until my mission that I learned seriously about planning and prioritizing. Even then I would spend so much time picking everything apart and getting distracted by the details that I would eventually feel that nothing was getting done, stop planning and continue on in the week with a very shaky plan.
When I returned from my mission I took a class on Steven Covey’s book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It was great class, but distractions still abound to get me off task. Noise and distraction from the BEST things may just be a plague of our generation. There’s so much time that’s filled with sound that we can’t hear the quiet voice of the Spirit.
Elder Oaks said something that I found very pointed and applicable to myself. I’ve made some minor edits so that I don’t miss its meaning for me:
“[Playing on Facebook, Youtube and the internet] is not better than serving the Lord or strengthening the family… [Be careful Ryan, you are] amusing [yourself] to death-spiritual death.”
My good friend Heather talked to me last week about simplifying and said that we almost have to think “What can I plan out of my life?” A good institute teacher and friend, Brother Bassett has also talked to me on a personal level about this same concept. He said the secret is not to learn to juggle everything, but rather it’s to prioritize things and learn to do what’s on top, and drop what’s on the bottom.
Ryan, what can you cut out? How will you decide? You have so many passions, hopes and likes. Trying to accomplish it all leaves you unfulfilled and you may just find that you never fully accomplished any, but rather sit in pile of undone dreams.
I’ve tried for so long to get it right with planning and prioritizing. I think that one key is to always be reviewing your priorities as they are known to change in different seasons of life. Another thing I’ve learned is to seek for the spirit, so that rather than Ryan’s priorities I have God’s priorities to work from.