A Work to Do

I’ve been thinking recently about my own purpose or mission in life and the kinds of activities that should be most important to me.  There are so many good things that we can fill our lives with that it becomes very hard at times to know what the best things are.  As Elder Oaks taught, “Just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it.”  So we have to figure out what the very best pursuits and activities are for us to be involved in and which will ultimately help us do what the Lord wants us to do and became who He wants us to become.  Joseph Smith recorded this interchange with the angel Moroni that helped him start to see his purpose in life: “God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people” (JSH 1:33).  Joseph indeed had a work to accomplish from the Lord, and he spent his whole life seeking to fulfill his responsibility in restoring the doctrines and ordinances of the gospel.  The verse begs the question then for each of us individually, what work does God have for us to do?  What is our greatest mission in life? 

               Obviously understanding the Lord’s will for us individually takes serious searching on our own and communion with Him, but I think the scriptures do give us some clues as to what the Lord sees as the most valuable ways to spend our time.  For example, these were the first instructions that were given to Adam and Eve about their life as they were in the garden: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Moses 2:28).  Of all the things the Lord could have mentioned first about how they were to live their lives, He invited them to have children.  Having children and subsequently teaching them the gospel, as Adam and Eve did, was at least a major part of Adam and Even’s mission on earth.  Lehi certainly seemed to imply that when he highlighted that one of the effects of not partaking of the fruit would have been that “they would have had no children,” a terrible outcome from God’s perspective (2 Nephi 2:23).  Having children and being part of a family central to God’s plan for us.  As modern prophets have taught: “The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”  

Another important purpose of our mortal life, according to the scriptures, is to learn obedience.  Abraham recorded this conversation between the Gods as they were in the premortal realm: “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:25).  We are here in large measure so the Lord can see if we will obey His commandments and so that we can learn to submit our will to His.  Jesus summarized His own life in those terms to His disciples: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38).  The Savior asks for that same kind of obedience from us.  He told Hyrum Smith as he sought for direction early in the Restoration: “Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength” (D&C 11:20).  The Lord’s work is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, and man’s work is to learn obedience and to keep His commandments with all our hearts. 

A third important purpose of our life is service.  Isaiah summarized his life by saying, “the Lord—that formed me from the womb that I should be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him” (1 Nephi 21:5).  His life was to be a servant to God and to his fellow man, especially in “bringing Jacob” back, or in other words in preaching the gospel.  In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord spoke to John and Peter Whitmer who were wondering what the activity of greatest worth would be for them.  The Lord responded the same way to both of them in what is now two different sections of the Doctrine and Covenants: “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father” (D&C 15:6, 16:6).  The Lord also suggested this as one of our great purposes in life as He spoke of laboring “all your days in crying repentance until this people” (D&C 18:15).  Serving others, especially by preaching the gospel unto them, is what the Lord desires all of His disciples to do.  And that includes, perhaps most importantly, the teaching we do to our own children, families, and loved ones.

               Being a part of a family, learning obedience to the Lord, and serving our fellowmen are all essential for us in this life to fulfill the measure of our creation.  Perhaps Lehi stated our purpose on earth most succinctly: men are “that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25).  Family, obedience, and service are a crucial part of what will bring us that joy in life.  Understanding these general principles can help us as we search for more specifics about what God wants for us personally.  Surely as we seek His guidance, the Lord will in His own time show us His “work for [us] to do” here in mortality.