Lesson 1: Figure out what's important to you and stick to it.

While I was on my mission I thought a lot about desires. The scriptures are full of the effects of our desires—whether righteous or wicked. (Alma 29:4). I guess in writing this, the lesson is to stick to the righteous desires & if the righteous things of God aren’t what’s important to you, make them important. Everything we do, say, think, or feel can be traced back to our desires—to what is important to us.

I had this quote hanging up on my wall in Muncie from the talk The Fourth Missionary: “Your world is in your head. Get your head right and your heart will follow, and you will be right.”

One of Satan’s biggest tactics is to try and mess us up at the root—at our desires, in our heads. If he can get us there—making us think watching that TV show is more important than doing family prayer, or that listening to that song is okay because it’s “not that bad.”—he can get us off track without us even realizing it. I know because I’ve experienced this. Before my mission I thought so many other things were important. But while I was on my mission I had to ask myself a lot of hard questions. Do I love God more than I love thinking about that song? Is studying the scriptures more important to me than sleeping? If God asked me to completely give up XY or Z, would I do it? Would I really do it?

This topic makes me think of one of the amazing people I was privileged to teach on my mission, Jennifer. Jennifer desired to have a closer relationship with God. She felt like her whole life she had known what was right & what was good & she wanted to do it. But so many people told her “Oh, that is such an outdated way of thinking. Nobody does that anymore.” The pressure to do things that were morally wrong and against what she knew was right was strong. So when Jennifer found the gospel & heard the truth, she let her desire to do good outweigh the social pressures of others. She broke up with her boyfriend and kicked him out. Her sights were set on the temple, which she knew was the only place her family could be sealed together for time and for eternity. Once Jennifer figured out how important that was to her, it made the rest of her decisions that much easier. She met with us three times a week despite a crazy busy schedule. Why? Jennifer wanted to be baptized as soon as possible because she knew baptism began her journey towards the temple and towards an eternal family. She read the Book of Mormon every day because she knew it would help her stay strong and resist temptation. She came to church. She changed her life because of what was important to her.

Before my mission I think I was kind of a pushover. I had a hard time doing what I knew was right, or standing up for what was important to me. I just didn’t like saying no to people or letting them down or causing contention. That’s because before my mission it was important for me to please people. I wanted to be someone that everybody liked. And that wasn’t always a bad thing and to some extent I still hold that quality. Except now, I am better able to stand up for what’s important to me. And what’s important to me is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Keeping His commandments. And doing my best to help others come closer to Christ too.

So, since I’ve gotten home, my decisions have been based on what’s most important to me. I’ve been setting goals & planning how I can incorporate these important things into my day. Something I realized the 2nd day I was home is that we have time for what we make time for. There are so many good things out there to fill up our time with, so for me unless I put those important things first—prayer, scripture study, attending the temple, etc.—they just won’t happen.

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s okay to have things besides God that are important to us. Something that’s important to me is writing. My family. Music. Hanging out with friends. Exercising. But there has to be an order. God is going to be the MOST important thing in my life. Writing, my family, music, hanging out with friends, even exercising come after Him. Always. Because Jesus Christ gave up everything for me. Before I left the mission field my mission president, President Porter, said that there is no such thing as balance. There’s priority. And now my priority is God and Jesus Christ first in everything. I’m not perfect at putting them first, but I’m doing my very best.

So I guess my question for everyone reading this post is, what is most important to you? What motivates you to keep going every day?

P.S. I hope this doesn’t sound too preachy or pushy or intense. But, you have to understand that these lessons I’m writing about are SO close to my heart and they are important to me. I know that they’re true because these lessons have been learned with a price and the change in my life as I apply them is incredible. So I write with so much passion because I don’t ever want to let myself forget these lessons. I’m not trying to chastise you. ;)