So I wrote him last week complaining about how I just want to graduate, how I'm done with school, etc. He wrote back with this:
"they were talking about taking moments to slow down and enjoy quality time with others and doing other things than (we'll say) "work" in the American society view of things. They talked about how they couldn't imagine the Savior running from appointment to appointment, constantly in a rush, and always being "busy". And so I imagine for us that we should be following the example of the Savior (imagine that, haha). And so, in following His example, we will have times to rest and enjoy other aspects of life, such as developing our talents (we had that lesson in our Sunday school class this past week), spending time with loved ones, and serving others. I always like to imagine that it's easy to "work" and "be busy". We can fill our days with things that will take up our time. But it's more important for us use our time wisely and do the things that matter most. And so it goes from work and being busy to working smart (and effectively) and being productive.
There have been times when I've wanted to go and just do stuff, skip the studies, whatever. But as I think about it, will I really be effective without my study? Ummm, answer: definitely not. And so I have to think for the future and not just the moment. And so Ben, if you are excited to get out of BYU and have more opportunities to help other people find joy and happiness, what are you doing now to prepare yourself for that point? If you don't read your scriptures (as often as you know you should), do you feel that you will be able to help those people as effectively as you most definitely will be able to in studying them everyday? Something that I've been seeing a lot recently is that really our incentives should be in helping others, not just in helping ourselves. That's where true happiness comes from. And so, if you want to be able to help others, sometimes it comes in the form of helping ourselves, but just so that we will be that much more able to help them. And so it always goes back to them."
From his advice I decided to make a list of things that matter most to me. So here it is.
1) Truth
So most people would put God first. God became God because he was subject to the laws of truth. Thus, if God ceased to be God, truth would still exist. Would I still exist though?
2) God
So He's helped me more than anyone else. He loves me better than anyone else. So obviously He gets the top spot.
3) My family
So this is kinda an abbreviated list. Right now I would do anything for my family, and I know I'm only going to love my family in the future more than I know now. I wouldn't trade my current family for any other one, and I'm excited to expand here in the future. I was talking to my boss the other day and I remembered a quote from somewhere that said "Of all the titles God could choose, Father is the one most important to Him." Becoming a father is one way I'll come closer to my #2. I love how all of these are interconnected. 4) God's family
No matter how much I find finances and computer programming interesting, communicating with others is what always makes me happy. After everything is all said and done, my family is in pretty good shape. My parents are still together, my older siblings are happily married, we're all in college and things are going well. With everything else in order, the next best thing I, or anyone can do, is help God with his #1 - or maybe its His #2. Whatever the case, His purpose is to "Bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Man." We're pretty important to Him. And if we're all that important to Him, I think we should all be pretty important to me. Since my mission I've been investing my time to prepare to go and serve God's children again. It feels like it's taking forever, but I know I'll get there someday. And since everything else is going well, this is where I'm investing most of my time at the moment. And this is where I'll be investing most of my free time for this life. And it's going to make me really happy :D
No comments:
Post a Comment