Eyring - This Day - April 2007

President Eyring speaks about the need to remember that we should not put off the things of today for some other time in the future.  He reminds us that today is the day we need to prepare to meet God.

• The God who gives us each day as a treasure will require an accounting. We will weep, and He will weep, if we have intended to repent and to serve Him in tomorrows which never came or have dreamt of yesterdays where the opportunity to act was past. This day is a precious gift of God. The thought “Someday I will” can be a thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity.

He gives us some good suggestions on how to make sure we are on track and making the right decisions on a daily basis.

• A morning prayer and an early search in the scriptures to know what we should do for the Lord can set the course of a day. We can know which task, of all those we might choose, matters most to God and therefore to us. I have learned such a prayer is always answered if we ask and ponder with childlike submission, ready to act without delay to perform even the most humble service.
• On many days, doing what matters most will not be easy. It is not supposed to be. God’s purpose in creation was to let us prove ourselves. The plan was explained to us in the spirit world before we were born. We were valiant enough there to qualify for the opportunity to choose against temptation here to prepare for eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God. We rejoiced to know the test would be one of faithful obedience even when it would not be easy.
• Hard as we knew the test would be, we felt joy because we had confidence that we could pass it. Our confidence came from knowing that Jesus Christ would come into the world as our Savior. He would overcome death. He would make it possible for us to be cleansed of our sins by qualifying for the effects of His Atonement.

He warns us that two things put us in danger of using today to the fullest.  He says that complacency and feeling discouraged are two things that satan uses to stop or delay our repentance.

• All of us will need His help to avoid the tragedy of procrastinating what we must do here and now to have eternal life. For most of us the temptation to delay will come from one or both of two feelings. They are polar opposites: one is to be complacent about what we have already done, and the other is to feel overwhelmed by the need to do more.

He speaks of complacency:

• Complacency is a danger for us all. It can come to naive youth who feel that there will be plenty of time in the future for spiritual things. They might think that they have already done enough, considering the brief time they have lived.
• Complacency can affect even the seasoned adult. The better and the longer you serve, the more likely that the tempter can place this lie in your mind: “You have earned a rest.”
• The Lord can help you see the danger in taking a rest because you feel you have done enough.

He speaks of the hope that the atonement brings and how it helps us overcome complacency.

• It is hard to know when we have done enough for the Atonement to change our natures and so qualify us for eternal life. And we don’t know how many days we will have to give the service necessary for that mighty change to come. But we know that we will have days enough if only we don’t waste them.

Concerning discouragement he says:

• For those who are discouraged by their circumstances and are therefore tempted to feel they cannot serve the Lord this day, I make you two promises. Hard as things seem today, they will be better in the next day if you choose to serve the Lord this day with your whole heart. Your circumstances may not be improved in all the ways which you desire. But you will have been given new strength to carry your burdens and new confidence that when your burdens become too heavy, the Lord, whom you have served, will carry what you cannot. He knows how. He prepared long ago. He suffered your infirmities and your sorrows when He was in the flesh so that He would know how to succor you. The other promise I make to you is that by choosing to serve Him this day, you will feel His love and grow to love Him more.

He concludes with a promise that if we serve God, we will get to know Him better.  Getting to know him better and having a place in our hearts for Him will help us overcome complacency and discouragement.

• By serving Him this day, you will come to know Him better. You will feel His love and appreciation. You would not want to delay receiving that blessing. And feeling His love will draw you back to His service, wiping away both complacency and discouragement.

Today is the day we need to make commitments to follow the Savior.  We need to be saying in our hearts that we recognize things that we do that cause us to place barriers between us and the presence of the Holy Ghost in our lives.  We need to commit to the Savior, and ourselves today that we will start to remove those things from our lives.  We need to commit to follow the Savior with all our heart and not delay our discipleship.  If we can do this, we will make better use of our future days and assure that we will be making steps in our lives that require less repentance, less complacency, and as a result, less discouragement in our future.  It is my prayer that we start making these changes today and not wait until tomorrow or later to get started.