News Release

Elder Ian S. Ardern Urges Wise Use of Time

New Zealand-born General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Ian S. Ardern, encouraged a world-wide audience of members and friends of the Church this month to “focus attention on the wise use of time.”

“With the demands made of us, we must learn to prioritize our choices to match our goals or risk being exposed to the winds of procrastination and being blown from one time-wasting activity to another,” he said in the Saturday afternoon session of the faith’s General Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah on 1 October.

“We are well taught about priorities by the Master Teacher when He declared in His Sermon on the Mount, ‘Wherefore, seek not the things of this world but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness.’”

Elder Ardern continued: “The poor use of time is a close cousin of idleness. As we follow the command to “cease to be idle” (D&C 88:124), we must be sure that being busy also equates to being productive.

“For example, it is wonderful to have the means of instant communication quite literally at our fingertips, but let us be sure that we do not become compulsive fingertip communicators. I sense that some are trapped in a new time-consuming addiction—one that enslaves us to be constantly checking and sending social messages and thus giving the false impression of being busy and productive.”

For a full transcript of his address, click here.

 

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