Above is a link to a wonderful talk given by Dallin H. Oaks. In today's society, there is never enough time to accomplish what needs to be done. Between our careers, school, children, extended family, homemaking, hobbies, and everything else in between we are always on the run! One thing that is essential to learn for a successful marriage and family is how to prioritize. When we have more things on our list than there are hours in the day, we need to learn how to put the most important things first. Something my Mom used to always say was "first things first." This meant to do the most important things very first in our day. This reminds me of a Sunday School lesson I had years ago. As an object lesson, my teacher brought a Mason jar, a bag of sand, and several large rocks. When we poured the sand into the jar first, it was impossible to fit all of the rocks in and we had to leave some out. However, when we put the rocks in first, all of the sand would settle in around the rocks and we could fit everything in the jar. The jar symbolizes one day. The rocks are the important things we need to do, and the sand represents the small things that aren't vital but that we would like to do. We need to put our rocks into our jars first, and the then the sand will always fit. For me, the rocks are things like scriptures, prayers, family time, and playing with my son. The sand might be cleaning the house, doing laundry (sometimes these things are rocks), checking Facebook, etc. It's okay if the dishes haven't been done when we go to bed. They won't get their feelings hurt if we put them on the back burner. However husbands and children might. We're not on this earth to have a clean, decorated house. We didn't come to dress nice or cook lavish meals. We came this earth to obtain a family in order to become like our Heavenly Father. We have a very limited time to do these things. We cannot forget our purpose. Elder Oaks explains in his talk that sometimes all the things we need to do feel like rocks. Everything is good! However, we must prioritize in order to fit everything into the jar. One thing might be good, but what's better? What's the best thing we could be doing? If we learn how to successfully determine this in our lives, we will always have time for the important things.
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