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So here I am, with another week past and only one week left until school starts again. The past couple of weeks without have been very good for me, as my stress level has gradually slipped away and I've started to get a handle on where and how I need to be in post-mission life. I feel better, calmer, and more confident. I am starting to see more clearly my duties at home and to my family, and my needs and goals for the future.
"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing," the Lord counseled His early Saints, "and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God" (D&C 109:8). That commandment was recently repeated in a worldwide Priesthood Leadership Broadcast by the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. President Hinckley counseled the brethren to organize themselves to serve four basic areas of life: 1) family, 2) employer, 3) the Lord's work, and 4) themselves. I just realized as I began typing this what some of that means for me in my life.
First, I have an obligation to my family, both the one I am a part of as a son and brother, and the one I hope to establish as a husband and father. I have not been fair to the family I am a part of now. I have often been short-tempered and critical. I have been unwilling to put forth the efforts needed to better establish our home as "a house of God." In doing so I have also been unfair to my future family, for I have neglected those activities that would develop within me the characteristics necessary to be a worthy parent and spouse. I mean to repent, to serve my family as I would have my investigators in the mission field. If there are problems in our home, they can be solved by the almight power of the Lord, if only He is invited to make such changes. I realize that some of that change must begin with a change in my own behaviors, but feel confident that since I have finally realized that this is my mission at this time in my life, I will have the Lord's blessings to succeed.
In employment, I have already expressed the need to involve the Lord in all I do, and need to follow my advice. I place school at the same level as my employment.
The Lord's work is curiously listed third in the Prophet's list, but I believe I have begun to understand why. Obviously, no work in a Church calling can substitute for the work done in our own homes, and Church callings are never meant to take us from honest employment that provides for ourselves and for our families. When the servant Onesimus had fled from his master Philemon and was converted to the Gospel by Paul, the first thing that Paul did was to send him back to his master (albeit with the espistle which is now contained within the New Testament). There is no incongruity to this when we realize that all we do, everyday, can and should be considered the Lord's work. The listing by President Hinckley, then, is simply a notice of additional duties outside of those and home and vocation.
Finally, the duty to myself. This is to include time for rest, exercise, study, prayer, meditation and recreation. Most notably for myself comes the addition of an exercise routine to my schedule -- the difference in energy and positive attitude can only serve to help my spirit -- and in prayer, where I have begun again to learn the basic lessons. I may not hear the Lord's voice as clearly as I once did, but He can always hear mine, and I will rely on Him.
Of course, there are other specific ways to organize myself. There are other details which I haven't mentioned, or haven't figured out for myself yet. However, it seems to me that if I would have the blessings I long for most in this world, I must first prepare myself to receive them.
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