I once found a meme that said, “My biggest fear is that I’ll marry into a family that runs 5Ks on holidays.”
It made me laugh a lot because a few years ago, my husband’s family decided to do a 5K on Thanksgiving morning.
I am NOT a runner. Like. At all.
But I signed up and started training with my husband.
It took a few weeks, but eventually my speed and my endurance started picking up.
By the day of the race, I felt pretty good! I wasn’t super fast, and I had to walk a couple times, but I finished the 5K.
“Preparation” is a funny concept.
Because, you could say that I prepared for that 5K.
And, I did! For the month beforehand.
But I also had not gone running for months before that.
Imagine what I could have done if I had been running every day for a year, or five years before that race.
I could have won the whole thing! Or at the very least, it could have been a total breeze.
And this is not to beat myself up for what I did at all – I am still proud of my “couch-to-5K”.
But I’ve learned that preparation never stops.
We are CONSTANTLY preparing ourselves for the future – whether we are doing so intentionally or not.
The Lord warns us in D&C 1:12, “Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh;”
We are preparing for the future right now – for better or for worse.
We are preparing for the next General Conference, for that upcoming competition, for that big life decision you don’t even know about yet.
And ultimately, we are preparing for Christ’s Second Coming right now.
There’s not some future day to “start preparing”.
Just like my 5K, I may formally decide to do something new to prepare for my Savior’s return someday.
But in reality, everything I am doing right now is shaping who I will be, what my abilities are, and what my mindset is.
And ultimately, we are always preparing for something.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
