Ponder the Path of Your Feet

President Monson counseled us this general conference using the words of Proverbs: “Ponder the path of thy feet” (Proverbs 4:26).  I love this short phrase because it emphasizes that we should consider the path itself and not just our current location.  The injunction isn’t just to examine where we are today, but to understand where we are headed and where the decisions we are making today will take us.  This idea I think was part of the message of the message of Elder Carlos A. Godoy who was asked the question “Will the life you are living fulfill the promises in your Patriarchal Blessing?”  In other words, where are the actions of today taking us?  President Monson’s emphasis was on making sure that the path we are taking is “the path which Jesus walked.”  Ultimately we want our path to take us to the Savior, and I think that means both living up to the potential that the Savior sees in us as well as becoming as He is.  To become like Him, President Monson suggested that we must live our lives like He did.  We have to take the same paths as the Savior: President Monson mentioned some of those paths: the path of disappointment, the path of pain, the path of obedience, and the path of prayer.  All of these imply a need to look forward on our path past our current situation.  To succeed on a path filled with disappointment and pain means that we must be looking to the future and understand that where we are today is not our permanent location.  To be on a path of obedience also suggests an expanded vision of where we are going and not just a consideration of where we are today.  Obedience requires the faith to trust that the Lord’s promises will be fulfilled in His due time.  Likewise to have our path filled with prayer means that we are constantly looking upward and forward to understand God’s will for us and have a greater vision of life than merely what we see in our current circumstance.  Ultimately President Monson’s invitation is to make the Savior the center of our lives and see to it that our current trajectory leads to Him.