Priorities

Why do I complicate life so much that I feel frustrated that I don't have enough time in my day?

Ray was up at 2 am. I never could get back to sleep, but as I lay there trying - I began thinking about the pioneer museum we went to yesterday.

It's always neat to be reminded how long it took people to do the things we take for granted every day: washing clothes by hand, milking cows, making cheese, harvesting grain, making flour, making bread, weaving fabric, spinning yarn, making silk, making lace, sewing clothes, raising animals, chopping them up for food, preserving the food, planting, harvesting, etc., etc., etc....

They somehow had to make time for it all and yet their lives were so simple - not easy - but simple.

Here I am with machines that wash and dry the clothes for me, a dishwasher, a fridge, a freezer, a grocery store with more than I could ever want, a stove and an oven with knobs to turn them on, etc. And yet, I feel like I don't have enough time in my day....

Why do we make our lives so complicated? As I lay thinking, I wondered if it has to do with focus.

It seems like the pioneers had to focus on the essential. There were just things that had to get done to survive so they got to work and just did them. Then at night, when the work was done, they would sit together as families and read from a great book (often the Bible) - usually while they did some kind of quiet work as they listened.



In the process, they learned - and taught their children - to work hard, be honest, have virtue, be grateful and to value those things that really matter.

I think our problem now is that the essential things for our survival are so easy to obtain. We are left with all sorts of choices about what to do with our time.

With so many choices we go on a search for what we most want to do, and in the process we neglect those essential things that strengthen our character and guide us on the path that will bring us the most happiness.

I think all of us need to step back sometimes to evaluate if what we are spending our time on is the essential or if it's just fluff.

The essential things to me are:
1. Drawing closer to God
2. Helping others draw closer to God
3. Building relationships

Thinking that through, I wrote a list of the essential things for me to be doing:
-Scripture study and prayer
-Going to the temple often
-Family scripture study, prayer and home evening
-Working with my family
-Serving each other and others

Here's the really important things for me to do:
-Reading good books as a family (builds our character)
-Playing with my family
-Studying good books on my own (they offer insights into truth and inspire me to contemplate on my life and my mission in it).
-Staying healthy (alertness and energy)
-Magnify my callings
-Writing (papers - about the books I read, or blogging - I get insights as I write and I learn as I try to organize my thoughts into coherent sentences).
-Developing my talents
-Learning in different ways - art, science, math, etc - to open my eyes to more truth and beauty and to inspire the kids to want to do the same.

That's my list. Maybe I missed something, but it seems to me that I must do the things on my essentials list and work very hard to do the things on my very important list. That's pretty simple. I don't need to try to cram anything else in.

I've already established good habits for most of my "essentials" and many of my "very important". Now I just have to prayerfully make a schedule or plan that will allow me to consistently accomplish the rest of these simple things and then... RELAX - for the rest is just fluff.