Our Single Priority

To my daughter, 

            One of the biggest challenges in life is to keep our activities in line with what is truly most important. As life gets busy, it is easy to get distracted from the most important things by those which are good. I read an article recently in which someone suggested that the word priority originally was supposed to only be singular. What he meant is that although we talk often about “priorities” (meaning multiple important things), the word priority was supposed to mean “the very first thing — before all other things. By definition, you cannot have more than one priority. And for 500 years, the word meant a singular idea, and then it evolved and now we talk about ‘priorities’ all the time.” He continued, “Of course, you can have more than one important thing in your life — we all do. But we have to ask ourselves, every day, ‘What is the most important thing I need to do today?’ We ought to keep coming back to the question.” So as you consider the activities you are involved in right now you might think about what is the most important. 

            The Savior gave us guidance on answering this question in the New Testament when someone asked, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” He responded this way, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:36-38). In other words, to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul is the most important thing we can do. That is our single priority. I know that I sometimes forget that and in the busyness of life put too much focus on some item that needs to get done. But if we can truly love the Lord with all our heart, and seek His guidance each day to know the things that we should be doing, He will help us see how best to spend our time and what really matters each day. I encourage you to pray each day and ask your Father in Heaven to help you see those things you should be doing. Show your love for Him and express your desires to do what He wants you to be doing, and you will find that He guides you to do things which you would not have done otherwise.

            When Alma taught the people of Gideon in the Book of Mormon, he said this, “For behold, I say unto you there be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people” (Alma 7:7). This was spoken about the first coming of the Savior, but I believe that it is equally applicable to us today. The most important event in our future is the return of the Savior to the earth. We don’t know when that will be, but the Lord exhorted us to be prepared in these words, “Wherefore, be faithful, praying always, having your lamps trimmed and burning, and oil with you, that you may be ready at the coming of the Bridegroom—For behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, that I come quickly” (Doctrine and Covenants 33:17-18). He will one day return to the earth, and He invites us to be ready with our lamps and oil—a symbol of our faith and righteousness and spiritual preparedness. As you show your love to your Heavenly Father through actions such as the study of the scriptures and sincere prayer and partaking of the Sacrament, you will be filling your lamp with oil and will be ready for that most incredible and important future event: the Second Coming of the Savior. 

Love,

Dad