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Praise to Thee, O Lord, for All Creation

Dear Reader,



The Lord has given each one of us many opportunities, including the time we have in this life. Yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, a young man talked about his experience with tithing in relation to his time. He explained that many people see miracles when they pay their tithing because they are in a situation where they cannot pay their tithing and pay for something else that is really important. These miracles usually occur when the person decides to pay their tithing first. Somehow there is enough for the other things they needed to pay for as well. He took that principle and explained it from a standpoint of the time we have.

Just so we are on the same page, the Lord has given a commandment to pay an honest tithe. In other words, one commandment that we have in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is to give one tenth of our annual income to the church for many different things. This young man from yesterday went a little bit into paying tithing with your time. It reminded me of some numbers that I crunched once upon a time. Allow to illustrate how small 10% actually is.

Let us assume that the bare minimum for trying to remember the Lord in all our doings starts at these numbers: Studying the Scriptures for 10 minutes a day, going to church 3 hours each week and having Family home Evening for an hour each week. That amounts to 16120 minutes a year, which is only 3% of the time we have in a year. If we increase the study time to an hour, include institute for an hour a week and ad some time for fulfilling a calling, it still only amounts to 7% of the time we have in a year. If you think about how much time we sleep on average, that 7% is minuscule.

I really just want to make a simple point: we have so much time to use. How much are we using to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ? How much time are we using to grow closer to God? I believe that it the reason for many of the quotations about religion being a lifestyle. If we try to implement what God wants for us in every facet of our lives, it is so easy to find time for him.

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