Problems To Be Solved

President Monson said, “Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.  Friends move away, children grow up, loved ones pass on….  Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey and share our love with friends and family.  One day, each of us will run out of tomorrows. Let us not put off what is most important.”  This is a reminder that I need to read often—all day long at work I am engrossed in problems that need to be solved, and it is so easy to focus more on the work that needs to be done instead of the people with whom I am working.  Life has a way of putting pressures on us that cause us to enlarge the small challenges and overlook the value of those things of the greatest worth.  It’s easy to forget the defining characteristic of a disciple of the Savior: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).  I’ve often thought that if at my funeral people say that I was smart or hard-working or successful in my career, then I’ll know I indeed failed—what I hope I hear from the other side is that I was kind and served and loved others.  Unfortunately, though, I don’t always live up to that kind of obituary and I certainly have “miles to go before I sleep.” 

                The scripture that comes to mind as I think about this is the rebuke of the Savior to the Pharisees: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matt. 23:23).  It’s all too easy in life to be like the Pharisees in that we focus on the minor details that need attending to but forget to consider the “weightier matters” that are the most important in the long term.  Note that Christ said that we should “not leave the other undone,” meaning that we do have to pay attention to the small requirements that our ours each day, but we must not miss the forest because of the trees.  It reminds me as well of the Savior’s statement, “For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always” (Matt. 26:11).  Perhaps we can extend that thought to be “the temporal things and problems that need to be done will always be with us, but the people around you we have not always.”  As President Monson taught, we must be able to recognize what is most important and put serving people ahead of getting things done.