Don't Just Check It Off Your To-Do List... Know and Understand the Why

 

My Love for the Savior Is My “Why”

By Elder Ricardo P. Giménez

Of the Seventy

In our world, we usually focus on what we do and on consistently accomplishing tasks and goals. In a spiritual sphere, we have the opportunity to go beyond just doing things or achieving goals by understanding why we are doing them. If we can understand and connect that the reason behind our actions relates to our love for the Savior and our Heavenly Father, by taking advantage of these opportunities we will understand that even though doing righteous things like having Church activities or traditions and appropriately doing them is a good thing, when we connect them with the “why,” we will be blessed to understand the reason. It won’t be just doing good things or doing them right; we will also get them right.

For example, when you set a goal to read the scriptures, offer sincere prayers, or prepare an activity for your family or ward, is the real goal simply to accomplish these tasks? Or are these actions the means, the tools at your disposal, to achieve the true goal? Is the purpose merely to hold an activity because we have done it for many years and then check the box that we have completed it? Or, once again, are these the means we use to learn, to feel, and to connect with the Savior?

Please don’t misunderstand my point about having activities and traditions or setting goals and working hard to achieve them; there is nothing wrong with this. However, I invite you to open your hearts and minds to the opportunity and blessing of understanding why we do these things and how we practice our religion....

Ponder this in your hearts and minds: Do you believe President Nelson’s invitation had the intention of helping us prepare a checklist where we will accumulate more knowledge and complete tasks so we can check off his invitation from our to-do lists? Or is he inviting us to consider the aspects of these eternal truths and principles as an opportunity to understand the “why” and connect the Savior’s covenantal love for us with our lifelong discipleship journey?

Let me illustrate the principle that I am trying to convey. One option, which is probably extreme, could be to read all the messages from general conference all at once; then, when I am done, I will check this invitation from my to-do list without doing anything else with what I read. I understand this is an extreme case, but it is not unreal. Probably, many are at some point between this and the ideal.

The invitation is to study and ponder the messages from the general conference and use them to determine and understand what we each can do to improve.

When we accept the invitation, understanding the “why” behind it, we will have more opportunities to become closer to the Savior. We will begin to understand that because I love the Savior, I want to learn more about Him by studying the words of the living prophets. And because I love my fellow man, I will share the teachings of prophets, seers, and revelators with others, starting with my loved ones.