Unclutter Your Life for Good

The following is the spiritual thought I shared with the high council this morning.

President Marion G. Romney said, "Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made."

Elder Carlos Asay said, "...priesthood power is to be exercised in behalf of other people; it is not something to sit upon or to simply glory in. It suggests that priesthood callings are to be magnified."

He then defines what it means to magnify: "According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 'to magnify is to increase the importance of: cause to be held in greater esteem or respect...to make greater.'

"One magnifies a calling by learning one's duty and executing it fully; giving one's best effort...; (and) consecrating one's time, talents, and means to the Lord's work."

So, what keeps priesthood holders from magnifying their callings?

Last week I spoke with someone about home teaching, and service in the church, and dedication to our church callings. It seems that over the years, people in the church have gone from what may have at times been an over-dedication to their callings to doing just enough. Sometimes I think when we receive a calling, whether consciously or subconsciously, we ask ourselves, what's the minimum I can do in this job and still be fulfilling my calling.

We pondered: What's different today? I think one difference is that we have a lot more clutter in our lives than we used to.

This is a nice solid rock that I got from the Provo River in the Uintas. It's been banged around and weathered quite a bit, but it seems that it's formed of pretty solid materials and has handled its roughing up quite well.

It would still be useful for grinding corn, protecting yourself, or, if you had enough of these rocks, building a shelter.

If this were a priesthood holder, this would be one you could depend on.

This volcanic rock was formed full of what I call clutter. It had a lot of swirly little pieces of topaz, other silica, maybe even some beryllium trapped throughout and when exposed to the weather, the clutter fell out, and the rock was left to give way to whatever was acting on it.

This is an interesting rock, but as a priesthood holder, it's a bit on the holey side.

Elder William R. Bradford, a former member of the First Quorum of Seventy, taught in a talk called Unclutter Your Life:

"The story is told of a boy who arrived home from school and found his father standing at the open door looking into a very cluttered house. 'Is Mother home?' asked the boy. His father answered, 'I can't see her, but I know she's in there somewhere. I can hear sobbing.'"

"I believe that a cluttered life can create a great deal of sorrow and sadness and be the cause of much sobbing. I know that we can surround ourselves with the material things to the extent that we have no time for the spiritual. Look around and you will see all the gadgets and toys and the nice and the fun things that cause us to squander and pay and to wander and play.

"We give our lives to that which we give our time.

"Nothing suits the devil better than to become a silent partner with us. He also knows that while in mortality we are subject to time...by his subtle means he can...influence us to make...choices that use up our time unwisely and prevent us from doing that which we should.

"We need to develop a list of basics, a list of those things that are indispensable to our mortal welfare and happiness and our eternal salvation.

"With an uncluttered life, you will not be so busy doing terrestrial things that you do not have time to do those things which are celestial."

Elder Hales said (of provident living),

The four most caring words for those we love are "We can't afford it."

I suggest that we be more like the solid rock. When clutter presents itself, trying to occupy our time and take us away from magnifying our callings, sometimes we need to say, "Our time is precious. We can't afford it."