Tuesday, April 30, 2013

But what have you done?

My mother-in-law tells the story of her first ward after she was married.

The bishop had her in for a "get to know you" interview and asked her to tell him about herself.

She started with family that survived winter quarters, founded towns in Nevada, a grandmother who found the church through a vision that directed her to meet the missionaries on a bridge and ...

The bishop said "it is nice to hear about your family, but I wanted to know about you and what you had done."

She says she learned then that what was important was not where the past had been, but what she made of the future, what she was going to do.  So when she looks at herself, she asks the question, "what have I done, and what am I doing now."

There are often seminal questions we ask ourselves:

  • What do I really want to be?
  • What am I doing and where does it take me?
  • What have I, not my family or my friends, done to make the world a better place?
  • What do I care about and who?
What questions do you ask yourself?  What questions do you think you should ask yourself?