Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breath, shine like gold...

Dear Readers, Ok, so I can't fit the entire title into the title box. It's a good song, go look it up: "You make me smile." The title can apply to anyone, I've found. The rest of the lyrics would probably refer to a best friend or a significant other, but anyone can make you smile. They all have the own way of doing it. Some are just funny all the time and you can't help smiling when you're around that person. I know some who take care of people so well that you just smile when they're doing something for another. Others you can talk to about your problems and no matter what they say, it seems to make sense and you feel better...thus a smile. Ok, a smile doesn't always come in that case, but people usually smile after that. Anyone can have a blonde moment and make everyone smile because of it. I'm glad I've got friends who can do all of these: have blonde moments, take care of others or have an episode of hyperactivity that you can't he...

Happy Doo da Day!

Dear Readers, You'll all be pleased to know that I accomplished something recently. It involves music and I feel very proud of myself. I was selected by our music director to play in our school's concerto night sometime during the month of May. This is one of the few things I've been hoping to do for a very long time. Although, there are a few reservations about being part of this honor. One of which deals with how the selection process works. I know it doesn't matter in the least bit, but I can't help thinking about me being picked as a senior. I tried out last year and did not make it as one of the soloists. I have to assume that had to be part of the process in selecting someone when looking at the list of soloists. They are all amazingly talented people in music, many of which were part of Concerto night last night. Most of the ones who were not participated in the Spring Concert as soloists. See what I mean? It could be possible that I was picked merely because...

When You Wish Upon a Star

Dear Reader, One short day in the [Segovia] City! It is a beautiful city, to be sure. As part of our study abroad program in Spain, our group takes various trips to different cities here in Spain to see museums, palaces and history from several different eras of humanity. Today it was a pleasure to travel to Segovia. We had several adventures while we were there. First off, we stopped off at the Palacio de la Granja (Palace of the Farm). It was an attempt to replicate the Palace of Versailles in France back in the 18th century. We weren't able to enter the palace itself, but we spent about an hour walking around the numerous gardens on the south side of the palace. The palace gardens awesome. The pictures taken here don't do it justice. The gardens stretched father than you can see and the statues were absolutely beautiful. They were representations of hunting on the grounds with dogs, Greek Gods, and other famous figures from the middle ages. However, despit...