How you spend your time matters the most

I shared this with my BYUI students so I thought I would share it with you as well. At the end of January, I was able to attend a women’s gathering up at BYUI with my sister-in-law. We had the privilege of listening to Wendy Nelson, wife of Russell M. Nelson. The theme of her whole talk was that how we spend our time really matters. I couldn't write down everything and I can't find the link to a video of her talk anywhere.

After she shared an experience of taking time to clean out her garage, she realized that she neglected the spiritual aspects of her life. When she was driving to speak at a stake meeting, she received these two words in a personal revelation—weightier matters. She then shared this scripture which really stuck with me because she personalized it and put her name in it. Here is how it goes:

It is Matthew 23:23, it says “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.”

In her version, she wrote about cleaning her garage, she neglected to go to the temple. So I thought I would do one for me…

Here is the version with me: Woe unto Angie! for ye go on Facebook and Pinterest too much and spend too much time grading papers, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, reading your scriptures and attending the temple: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

She tells us to make the most of our time. She challenged us to reboot our spiritual lives. Here are the steps for this challenge:

1.     Set aside the things that do not matter.

2.    Create your wakeup call – after 7 days – see what activities are a time waster. Make a list of your highlights and lowlights.

3.    Sacrifice time to the Lord by doing temple work – see what you discover.

4.    Sacrifice time to do family history – again, see what you discover.

She ended with Jeffery R Holland who said in a 2006 conference talk, “…Anything we can change we should change.”

This week, I challenge you to find how to make the most of your time.