Good Morning Brothers and Sisters, My name is Saylor Holloway and I was asked to talk on how we can best spend our time right now in our lives.
This last conference we heard a lot of good talks about how we can better ourselves through self reliance, missionary work, and our own conversions. President Nelson gave the last talk on Sunday afternoon that wrapped them all up and gave us important direction for our future, everything we just heard and learned we needed to take into consideration and act now.
President Nelson said “Now is the time we can learn. Now is the time we can repent. Now is the time we can bless others.”
There is a lot in life we can not control, and our life can change quickly with disasters, illness and accidents. These kinds of things and others we can’t control but we can control how we spend our time. Do the things we spend our day doing, bring us joy? Do they fulfill us or make us better people?
It’s easy to get distracted online, in a good movie, or tv series, watching the news but how do we feel when we spend most of our time doing those things.
Think about being outside, exercising, talking with our neighbors, giving service. How do those things make us feel?
In the summer, we have charts that we have to complete before we are allowed to watch a show or get on iPads. The list includes, getting ready for the day, reading, playing outside, doing something creative and a few other things. We also have to take turns playing with my little sister. After all that is done and we check it off, we can play on our devices. I don’t always like to do those the things on the list, but it helps me to stay on track to get things done. There have been days when I didn’t complete the list and just sat down to watch a show and hours have passed and then I realize I’m still in my pajamas and I haven’t done anything to begin my day. I don’t feel as good as I do when I just get up and get my list of items checked off. Sometimes when I get going on the things I’m supposed to do, I forget all about playing a game or watching a show. Instead I’ll do crafts or play outside longer.
If you’re a list maker, write on your list, time to accomplish something that will make you feel good and tackle it first. If we don’t make the time now, we might not ever. Something or someone will always fill our time if we don’t set our own goals and block out the time to accomplish them. Our time is now to improve. Don’t put it off. If you focus on all of it at once you’ll get overwhelmed. Focus on one thing at a time.
There is a picture that hangs in our kitchen. It’s a quote from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. It Says “We would do well to slow down a little, focus on the significant and truly see what matters most”.
I was diagnosed with Scoliosis over a year ago. I was a little scared. I have 3 large curves in my back, if we didn’t act quickly to correct it i would be hunched over and crooked in my back or have a very hard surgery to fix it but it would limit my flexibility. We got my brace right away. I need to wear it outside of my clothes so it doesn't blister my skin. I have to wear it 22 hours a day. It was really hard in the beginning. Especially sleeping in it. I didn’t realize how much I moved around until I couldn’t. Summer came and it was hard to be in it all the time. It was hot and I just wanted to ride my bike or swim all day and not wear my brace. I go to the doctors all the time for my back, they take lots of X-rays and make sure everything is going ok. Last week I got X-rays and my back was exactly the same. Which is good. It means I’m not getting worse, which is all my brace is supposed to do. Ive already grown so much and this week I’m being fitted for my new brace. If I had put off wearing it all the time, It would have been too late. It’s a-lot easier now, and everyone has been really nice about it. When I started this school year, I was scared cause it was a brand new school and no one else at school was in a brace. My teachers and school nurse made it very nice for me and I quickly made friends who even help me pick stuff up or buckle my brace when I need it. I’m grateful that our family’s prayers were answered.
We need to place a high priority on ourselves. I hope we can make the changes now to refocus our lives so we can become the best version of ourselves and help those around us. Just like my family and friends have helped me. We can’t do everything, but we can all do a little something. I also hope we learn to see ourselves as Heavenly Father sees us. We need to build a relationship with Heavenly Father. And the time is now.
I know this church is true. I know we can pray to Heavenly Father and he will hear us and help us. I know we can study the gospel and attend church to strengthen our testimonies and become closer to our Savior.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.