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| Source We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families. |
Most of us have more things expected of us than we can
possibly do. As breadwinners, as parents, as Church workers and members, we
face many choices on what we will do with our time and other resources.
I.
We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because
something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things
we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are
better than good, and these are the things that should command priority
attention in our lives.
Jesus taught this principle in the home of Martha. While she
was “cumbered about much serving” (Luke 10:40), her sister, Mary, “sat at
Jesus’ feet, and heard his word” (v. 39). When Martha complained that her
sister had left her to serve alone, Jesus commended Martha for what she was
doing (v. 41) but taught her that “one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen
that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (v. 42). It was
praiseworthy for Martha to be “careful and troubled about many things” (v. 41),
but learning the gospel from the Master Teacher was more “needful.” The scriptures
contain other teachings that some things are more blessed than others (see Acts
20:35; Alma 32:14–15).
A childhood experience introduced me to the idea that some
choices are good but others are better. I lived for two years on a farm. We
rarely went to town. Our Christmas shopping was done in the Sears, Roebuck
catalog. I spent hours poring over its pages. For the rural families of that
day, catalog pages were like the shopping mall or the Internet of our time.
Something about some displays of merchandise in the catalog
fixed itself in my mind. There were three degrees of quality: good, better, and
best. For example, some men’s shoes were labeled good ($1.84), some better
($2.98), and some best ($3.45). 1
As we consider various choices, we should remember that it
is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still
others are best. Even though a particular choice is more costly, its far
greater value may make it the best choice of all.
Consider how we use our time in the choices we make in
viewing television, playing video games, surfing the Internet, or reading books
or magazines. Of course it is good to view wholesome entertainment or to obtain
interesting information. But not everything of that sort is worth the portion
of our life we give to obtain it. Some things are better, and others are best.
When the Lord told us to seek learning, He said, “Seek ye out of the best books
words of wisdom” (D&C 88:118; emphasis added).
II.
Some of our most important choices concern family
activities. Many breadwinners worry that their occupations leave too little
time for their families. There is no easy formula for that contest of
priorities. However, I have never known of a man who looked back on his working
life and said, “I just didn’t spend enough time with my job.”
In choosing how we spend time as a family, we should be
careful not to exhaust our available time on things that are merely good and
leave little time for that which is better or best. A friend took his young
family on a series of summer vacation trips, including visits to memorable
historic sites. At the end of the summer he asked his teenage son which of
these good summer activities he enjoyed most. The father learned from the reply,
and so did those he told of it. “The thing I liked best this summer,” the boy
replied, “was the night you and I laid on the lawn and looked at the stars and
talked.” Super family activities may be good for children, but they are not
always better than one-on-one time with a loving parent.
The amount of children-and-parent time absorbed in the good
activities of private lessons, team sports, and other school and club
activities also needs to be carefully regulated. Otherwise, children will be
overscheduled, and parents will be frazzled and frustrated. Parents should act
to preserve time for family prayer, family scripture study, family home
evening, and the other precious togetherness and individual one-on-one time
that binds a family together and fixes children’s values on things of eternal
worth. Parents should teach gospel priorities through what they do with their
children.
Family experts have warned against what they call “the
overscheduling of children.” In the last generation children are far busier and
families spend far less time together. Among many measures of this disturbing
trend are the reports that structured sports time has doubled, but children’s
free time has declined by 12 hours per week, and unstructured outdoor
activities have fallen by 50 percent. 2
The number of those who report that their “whole family
usually eats dinner together” has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning
because the time a family spends together “eating meals at home [is] the
strongest predictor of children’s academic achievement and psychological
adjustment.” 3 Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark
against children’s smoking, drinking, or using drugs. 4 There is inspired
wisdom in this advice to parents: what your children really want for dinner is
you.
President Gordon B. Hinckley has pleaded that we “work at
our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because
in fact everything in life does count on it.”
He continued: “I ask you men, particularly, to pause and
take stock of yourselves as husbands and fathers and heads of households. Pray
for guidance, for help, for direction, and then follow the whisperings of the
Spirit to guide you in the most serious of all responsibilities, for the
consequences of your leadership in your home will be eternal and everlasting.”
5
The First Presidency has called on parents “to devote their
best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel
principles. … The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other
instrumentality can take its place … in … this God-given responsibility.” The
First Presidency has declared that “however worthy and appropriate other
demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the
divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately
perform.” 6
III.
Church leaders should be aware that Church meetings and
activities can become too complex and burdensome if a ward or a stake tries to
have the membership do everything that is good and possible in our numerous
Church programs. Priorities are needed there also.
Members of the Quorum of the Twelve have stressed the
importance of exercising inspired judgment in Church programs and activities.
Elder L. Tom Perry taught this principle in our first worldwide leadership
training meeting in 2003. Counseling the same leaders in 2004, Elder Richard G.
Scott said: “Adjust your activities to be consistent with your local conditions
and resources. … Make sure that the essential needs are met, but do not go overboard
in creating so many good things to do that the essential ones are not
accomplished. … Remember, don’t magnify the work to be done—simplify it.” 7
In general conference last year, Elder M. Russell Ballard
warned against the deterioration of family relationships that can result when
we spend excess time on ineffective activities that yield little spiritual
sustenance. He cautioned against complicating our Church service “with needless
frills and embellishments that occupy too much time, cost too much money, and
sap too much energy. … The instruction to magnify our callings is not a command
to embellish and complicate them. To innovate does not necessarily mean to
expand; very often it means to simplify. … What is most important in our Church
responsibilities,” he said, “is not the statistics that are reported or the
meetings that are held but whether or not individual people—ministered to one
at a time just as the Savior did—have been lifted and encouraged and ultimately
changed.” 8
Stake presidencies and bishoprics need to exercise their
authority to weed out the excessive and ineffective busyness that is sometimes
required of the members of their stakes or wards. Church programs should focus
on what is best (most effective) in achieving their assigned purposes without
unduly infringing on the time families need for their “divinely appointed
duties.”
But here is a caution for families. Suppose Church leaders
reduce the time required by Church meetings and activities in order to increase
the time available for families to be together. This will not achieve its
intended purpose unless individual family members—especially parents—vigorously
act to increase family togetherness and one-on-one time. Team sports and
technology toys like video games and the Internet are already winning away the
time of our children and youth. Surfing the Internet is not better than serving
the Lord or strengthening the family. Some young men and women are skipping
Church youth activities or cutting family time in order to participate in
soccer leagues or to pursue various entertainments. Some young people are
amusing themselves to death—spiritual death.
Some uses of individual and family time are better, and
others are best. We have to forego some good things in order to choose others
that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and
strengthen our families.
IV.
Here are some other illustrations of good, better, and best:
It is good to belong to our Father in Heaven’s true Church
and to keep all of His commandments and fulfill all of our duties. But if this
is to qualify as “best,” it should be done with love and without arrogance. We
should, as we sing in a great hymn, “crown [our] good with brotherhood,” 9
showing love and concern for all whom our lives affect.
To our hundreds of thousands of home teachers and visiting
teachers, I suggest that it is good to visit our assigned families; it is
better to have a brief visit in which we teach doctrine and principle; and it
is best of all to make a difference in the lives of some of those we visit.
That same challenge applies to the many meetings we hold—good to hold a
meeting, better to teach a principle, but best to actually improve lives as a
result of the meeting.
As we approach 2008 and a new course of study in our
Melchizedek Priesthood quorums and Relief Societies, I renew our caution about
how we use the Teachings of Presidents of the Church manuals. Many years of
inspired work have produced our 2008 volume of the teachings of Joseph Smith,
the founding prophet of this dispensation. This is a landmark among Church
books. In the past, some teachers have given a chapter of the Teachings manuals
no more than a brief mention and then substituted a lesson of their own choice.
It may have been a good lesson, but this is not an acceptable practice. A
gospel teacher is called to teach the subject specified from the inspired
materials provided. The best thing a teacher can do with Teachings: Joseph
Smith is to select and quote from the words of the Prophet on principles
specially suited to the needs of class members and then direct a class
discussion on how to apply those principles in the circumstances of their
lives.
I testify of our Heavenly Father, whose children we are and
whose plan is designed to qualify us for “eternal life … the greatest of all
the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7; see also D&C 76:51–59). I testify of Jesus
Christ, whose Atonement makes it possible. And I testify that we are led by
prophets, our President Gordon B. Hinckley and his counselors, in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
References:
1. Sears, Roebuck
and Co. catalog, Fall and Winter 1944–45, 316E.
2. See Jared R.
Anderson and William J. Doherty, “Democratic Community Initiatives: The Case of
Overscheduled Children,” Family Relations, vol. 54 (Dec. 2005): 655.
3. Anderson and
Doherty, Family Relations, 54:655.
4. See Nancy Gibbs,
“The Magic of the Family Meal,” Time, June 12, 2006, 51–52; see also Sarah Jane
Weaver, “Family Dinner,” Church News, Sept. 8, 2007, 5.
5. “Each a Better
Person,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2002, 100.
6. First Presidency
letter, Feb. 11, 1999; printed in Church News, Feb. 27, 1999, 3.
7. “The Doctrinal
Foundation of the Auxiliaries,” Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, Jan. 10,
2004, 5, 7–8; see also Ensign, Aug. 2005, 62, 67.
8. “O Be Wise,”
Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2006, 18–20.
9. “America the
Beautiful,” Hymns, no. 338.
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