The Solemnities of Eternity

President David O. McKay said, “The greatest battle of life is fought within the silent chambers of your own soul” (Conference Report, Apr. 1967, 84–85, quoted here).  Perhaps part of what he meant here relates to how we determine to spend the time each day we have with ourselves in thought.  No matter how busy our schedule is each day, it is certain that we will have at least some time where we are alone in our thoughts.  One of the greatest challenges we have in life is then deciding what we will think about and ponder. 

Ultimately it’s our thoughts that lead to our actions and shape our destiny, and I believe this is why King Benjamin warned us to watch ourselves and our thoughts (Mosiah 4:30).  So how would the Lord have us spend the time that we have in our thoughts each day?  At the end of an 1831 revelation through the Prophet Joseph, the Savior said, “Treasure these things up in your hearts, and let the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds” (D&C 43:34).  That's the gold standard for our thoughts: the solemnities of eternity.  I like this idea of something resting upon our minds—it’s almost as if the Lord is telling us to lay up His words in our minds, and then when our minds are able to rest from the hustle and bustle of the day where much mental energy was needed, they will naturally fall back to thinking about the things of eternity.  It’s what we should think about when we have nothing to think about.  In a later revelation the Lord counseled, “Cast away your idle thoughts” (D&C 88:69).  That is very hard to do, for it is much easier to expend less energy in our thoughts by simply letting whatever situation or surrounding is most immediately present before our eyes fill our minds.  But the Prophet Joseph told us, “Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2011), 261-70).  Stretching implies great effort, and so we have the challenge to raise our thoughts higher than the mundane to reach towards heaven.  One needed step in order to do this was given in the olive leaf revelation: “Sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God” (D&C 88:68).  Sanctification is a lifelong process and as we become more like our Father our thoughts will become more in tune with His.  Ultimately we must work to cast out idle thoughts and cultivate the “solemnities of eternity.”  We must “remain steadfast in [our] minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer” (D&C 84:61).  And with that great consistent effort to ponder the things of God instead of the things of the world, we can hopefully “lead [our] soul unto salvation.”