“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is
the stuff life is made of.”
This is a quote from Benjamin Franklin.
Too often we do not take this counsel into consideration in
our lives. We, as a people, generally do waste a lot of precious time doing
things that will have little consequence in our lives here in this mortal
existence and certainly in the life to come.
Elder Bednar gave a talk recently about this subject.(View Here) or (Read Here ) Most
of us have a device in our hands that will allow us to read a number of books.
We can write essays or a journal or email friends. We can read the news or look
at videos of symphony orchestras. But a great number of people just while
away precious time playing games or posting on social media. A small amount of time doing this for entertainment
may be acceptable, but most people spend more time doing this than is
wise.
The problem is that they do not expand their vision to see
what they could accomplish. They do not really believe with all their hearts
that they were sent here on earth to learn to be like their Father in
Heaven.
Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly is the counsel
of the Lord to us in these latter days.
We will eventually have to learn everything that our Father
in Heaven knows in order to be like Him. We need to expand our knowledge in all
fields.
In the Book of Mormon, Lehi has a dream in which he sees a number of things. One of these is mists of darkness that cloud the vision of the people seeking the love of God. These are not put there by God, but by the adversary.
On your device you can read the scriptures (the iron rod in the dream) or the words of the prophets (the conference addresses). How much time do you spend holding on to the iron rod as compared to looking at social media or playing games? The iron rod will get you closer to God than any of these.
Once you are out of school, you shouldn't stop learning. In my day we had encyclopedias with a lot of information. Now you can learn about idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis from your hand held device. You can learn about stars and their motion and the tides of the ocean. You have the information that your ancestors never had and now how are you spending your time?
Grandpa says,"Spend it wisely!"
