Essay – The Essentials- What Is Most Important
As we go through life, we are constantly making decisions
about what is important and what is not.
Is it important to do this thing, or that thing? Is it important to take this job, or to take
that one? Is it important to say this to someone, or better to say nothing?
It is hard to know what is most important.
As the prophet Amulek taught, “This life is the time for men
to prepare to meet God[i]”.
That reality should help us take the long view—the timing of eternity.
When she was nine years old, my daughter Ivana had a sore
ankle that didn’t get better. It got
worse and worse so we decided to take her to the doctor. When we went to the doctor he told us that we
should immediately take her to the hospital.
This was a little startling and scary for us. She had an infection in her ankle that was
very serious and depending on how severe it was, she could even lose her
foot. It turns out that she had the same
infection that the Prophet Joseph Smith had in his leg, when he was a boy. Ivana was in so much pain. The only relief she could get was if I held
her leg above the ankle and gently squeezed it enough to reduce the blood flow
just a little. Now I understand what was
meant when Joseph said, that the only relief he could get was when his brother Hyrum
was holding his leg.
Ivana was in agony and for me it was the most heart rending
experience of my life, to see her suffering so much and not to be able to do
anything about it. Jo and I held her and
cried as she moaned and cried out every time her leg was moved. I would have given anything to take her pain
away, even to take her place. It was the
most difficult thing that I have ever experienced. She underwent surgery and recovered
completely.
I share this story to point out that at that time, there
wasn’t anything that was more important to me than her well being. Work, activities, food, all meant nothing
compared to my concern and love for her.
Clearly, the love for our family members is one of the most important things
in life.
The love for family
and others
Consider what is most important. For example, is it important for children to
learn how to work? Yes. Is it important for children to have and to
fulfill responsibilities as part of the family? Yes. Is it important enough for a parent to yell
and get upset at a child when to do not clean their room? Why not?
Because what the child will remember in future years, is not whether
there room was clean or not, but the way they were treated. So it is important for a child to clean the
room, but how we communicated with them, and how we treat them is more
important.
How we communicate
with others.
One thing that helps us prioritize and identify what is most
important is perspective. As we get
older, we can look back and easily identify mistakes that we made, and what we
should have, or could have done. As we go through the process of trying to
identify want is most important, we should consider an eternal time line. Dallin H. Oaks said, “The most important principle
of timing is to take the long view. Mortality is just a small slice of
eternity, but how we conduct ourselves here—what we become by our actions and
desires, …will shape our destiny for all eternity.” [ii]
In all the important decisions in our lives, how can we know
what is most important, what is the “right” thing to do?
Timing is important. As
I look back at how I raised my children I think, did I teach them to love the
scriptures? Did I hold family prayer enough? Did I teach as much as I should have?
Did they learn what was most important? Perhaps or perhaps not. The time for us to do the important things
passes rapidly. Often when people identify their biggest regret in life, it is
that would have spent more time with the people they love.
The things we do or do not do set in motion things that we
can no longer control.
I enjoy this particular poem as it reminds me to enjoy the
journey, and to try things that are outside of my comfort zone.
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.[iii]
Jesus Christ – what was most important to him.. not
suffering, not his mortal body.. but his love for us, and our eternal
salvation.
That the LORD thy God may show us the way wherein we may
walk, and the thing that we may do.[iv]
“This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and
now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief.
Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest
lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that
help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you
not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that
illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want
to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now. “[v]
Essentials Kit
Comedian Brian Regan talks about the time the airline lost his
luggage. “Well, hopefully it will be on the next flight, if not it’ll
come in on tomorrow morning’s flight. We’ll deliver it to your hotel. In the mean time, you don’t need to worry, I
have this for you. He reaches under the
counter. He hands me a little bag this big with a zipper on top and it say,
Essentials Kit. Oh! These are the essentials! Then I over packed. I thought I needed all that stuff I
meticulously put in my suitcase. I stand
corrected. If that was really an
essentials kit, if you had one, you’d never have to go to work again. What every happened to Harry? Oh, he don't need
us. He happened upon an Essentials Kit.
He opened it up, and it was filled with food, shelter, and love!"
“This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and
now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief.
Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest
lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that
help us distinguish between what is important and what is not.”[vi]
Love for God
Christlike love for everyone Prayer
Fight
Work
Provide spiritually and temporally
Be prepared
[i] Book of
Mormon - Alma 34:32
[ii] Dallin
H. Oaks, “Timing,” Ensign, Oct 2003, 10–17
[iii] Louis
Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern American Poetry. 1919
[iv] The
Holy Bible - Jeremiah 42:3
[v] Thomas
S. Monson, “Finding Joy in the Journey,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 84–87
[vi] Thomas
S. Monson, Ensign, Nov 2008, 84–87