- Alma 17: 6... Now these were their journeyings: Having taken leave of their father, Mosiah, in the first year of the judges; having refused the kingdom which their father was desirous to confer upon them, and also this was the minds of the people; 7 Nevertheless they departed out of the land of Zarahemla, and took their swords, and their spears, and their bows, and their arrows, and their slings; and this they did that they might provide food for themselves while in the wilderness. 8 And thus they departed into the wilderness with their numbers which they had selected, to go up to the land of Nephi, to preach the word of God unto the Lamanites.
- “Family comes first; schoolwork comes second; friends come third; video games are last. If your family is one of the fortunate few in which most family members still sit down to share a common evening meal, then sitting down to dinner with the family is more important than playing a video game, more important than talking on the phone with a friend, more important even than finishing a homework assignment. Homework is more important than talking with friends or playing a video game. Taking a phone call from a friend should be a higher priority than playing out a video game, though.” Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men (Leonard Sax) Page 72
- “The things that matter most must not be at the mercy of the things that matter least.” (Marion D. Hanks, Ensign, May 1991, 46)
- “Most men do not set priorities to guide them in allocating their time and most men forget that the first priority should be to maintain their own spiritual and physical strength; then comes their family; then the Church and then their professions.” Conference Report, Harold B. Lee
- “Sometimes we must help address the basic needs of those we serve before we can invite them to grow. A few years ago I received a call from Bishop Puckett asking if I could accompany him to meet a family he wanted me to serve as home teacher. Our visit was way more of a ministering opportunity than a home teaching one. The sister of concern had recently separated from her husband and faced alone a mountain of parental, financial, legal, and spiritual challenges. We went equipped to immediately offer a priesthood blessing and the full resources of a loving ward to assist. But as we settled in to offer counsel and blessings, we all noticed that of all things — her fire alarm had been triggered, and even though it had been disabled — it was emitting a periodic “beep, beep.” This was a huge distraction from everything we hoped to offer that night. So we reprioritized things, and as best we could, the three of us set off through the house to try to find way to reset that stupid alarm. There was no way we could just leave the family there to try to go to sleep that night with that annoying sound, on top of all the background stress. Finally, after a long time trying and with a lifeline call to a relative who knew the system, we were able to find and disable the alarm and to clear our heads for the influence of the Holy Ghost and the Savior’s balm. My point in sharing this experience is that even though Bishop Puckett and I had lofty goals and earnest hopes to bless that family, it was the very worldly annoyance of a smoke alarm beep that we needed to resolve first in order to minister effectively.” – President Scott Smith, San Clemente Stake Conference, June 13th, 2021