No Neutral Works

Hello Everyone, hope your week is going well.  The weather here is starting to cool off from the 90's to the 70's which is a pleasant change.  But this week I'd like to talk about something most of us are familiar with: Work.

We all know that there is no substitute for good, hard, work.  There's a well known quote, no clue who it's by I don't remember that stuff anymore, that roughly says that hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard.  We can be as talented and gifted as if we fell straight from heaven, but if we don't work hard, we'll lose those talents and others will pass us by on their road to success.  

But today I'd like to talk about good works.  And I'm not going to compare good works and bad works, because the words good and bad already paint an image that is easy to compare.  I'd rather make a more fun comparison: good works and neutral works.  

 

Alma 5:35 reads:

"Yea, come unto me and bring forth works of righteousness, and ye shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire"

 We are asked as members of the church and as believers in Christ to bring forth good works; to bring forth good fruit.  We're not told to bring mediocre works or C-Grade works.  We're told to bring good works, plain and simple.  Sometimes the Devil leads men the easiest  as he just gets them, not to do bad things, but do just not do the good things.  Instead of holding Family Home Evening a Father could take on extra hours at work to provide more for his family.  A youth could forgo attendance at Seminary so that they can attend study courses before school.  In these situations the latter options aren't bad, they just aren't the best.  

I'll remind you briefly of Dallin H. Oaks' talk in the October 2007 General Conference titled "Good, Better, Best".  He reminds us that sometimes we need to give up the good for the best.  There are many good ways to spend our time, but we only have so much on this earth.  And are the things we're doing now of greatest worth?  Because "time only is measured unto men" we have an obvious need to learn how to prioritize well, else we will reach the end of our lives and find we've missed out on many a good opportunity and we have squandered our potential (Alma 40:8).  

Time management is hard, trust me.  It was one of the toughest lessons I've learned on my mission. But as I've worked hard and refined my use of my time, I've found that I rarely let my head hit the pillow at the end of the day, wishing I had done more.  I know that if we learn to prioritize on bringing good works, rather than neutral works, we will reach the end of our life and just before we enter into our eternal rest, we'll be at peace knowing that we have been good stewards over our time here on Earth.  

I hope that you all have a great week!  I can't wait to write again.