In their laziness

Productivity tip: read your scriptures today.

A couple weeks ago, I was having one of those days. You know what I mean.

I was metaphorically dropping every single ball that I was trying to hold.

In the afternoon, I finally got my baby to go to sleep. I sat down at my computer and I immediately heard my toddler wake up from her nap.

I sent up a silent prayer of exasperation – “I’m just feeling out of it. I can’t get anything done. My motivation is gone. Can I have some help?”

And the thought came to me – you haven’t read your scriptures yet.

Yeah, it’s been a crazy day. I’ll get to that later.

And then I caught myself. Was I pushing away a prompting to read my scriptures?

I sat down and pulled out my scriptures. I started reading, and I felt immediate peace and clarity.

I only read for about 3 minutes before I needed to grab my daughter, but I felt calm.

I didn’t magically accomplish everything I wanted to that day – but I did feel peace and clarity as I focused my efforts.

I felt “in the moment” as I comforted my crying baby and just held him. The dishes didn’t seem important anymore. My daughter got really involved in a game so I could do a couple things for work really fast.

When I’m not putting the Lord first, my laziness or my “spin my wheels but never actually get anything done” attitudes slowly creep in.

But when I put the Lord first, my priorities fall into place.

This pattern is painted dramatically with the contrast between Zeniff’s righteous and industrial leadership, and Noah’s gluttonous and lazy lifestyle.

When we do what is right, we are motivated to do other things that are good.

Not that we suddenly can “do it all” – but we can more clearly see where our efforts should be or which hat we should wear.

Faith in God is a motivating influence that can permeate everything we do and give us the clarity we need.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black