In my last post I wrote about how a comment made by President Faust helped me realize that the law of consecration isn’t just a theoretical concept that we might be called on to live at some future date but a celestial principle we should be striving to live right now. However, I think I still missed the point.
You see, after President Faust’s comment my mind immediately jumped forward to how my wife and I might be able to live the law of consecration at some future time when we would hopefully have “surplus.” Instead, I should have focused on what we could have been doing at that moment. If I had focused on the present I might have concluded we weren’t doing too badly.
At the time we were raising a young family of four children. My wife was a homemaker and I was just starting a new career after having gone back to school in my late thirties to get a master’s degree. I started at the bottom of my new field and we had student loans to pay back. We were paying tithing and fast offerings, trying to magnify our callings in the Church, and looking for opportunities to serve others. We didn’t have much surplus in either time or money.
Looking back now I might have been closer to living the law of consecration during that time than any time since my mission. Yet I didn’t consider this because I was so focused on the future.
Our Four Responsibilities
At a training meeting in 2003 President Hinckley counseled saints on our responsibilities:
“Each of us has a fourfold responsibility. First, we have a responsibility to our families. Second, we have a responsibility to our employers. Third we have a responsibility to the Lord’s work. Fourth, we have a responsibility to ourselves.”
For many, fulfilling these four responsibilities takes most or all of our time, energy, talents and resources and there is precious little “surplus” available to do more. In these cases I believe the Lord accepts our offering.
Attitude Is Everything
In Mosiah 4:24-25 King Benjamin teaches that, when it comes to giving, attitude is everything:
24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.
25 And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.
Modern technology allows us to monitor our heart rate simply by wearing a watch. Over 2000 years ago King Benjamin reminded his people to constantly monitor their hearts for feelings about giving to the poor. If you don’t give more because you can’t, you are “guiltless”, but if you wouldn’t give even if you had more you are guilty of “coveting that which ye have not received.” Attitude is the key.
Give Yourself Some Credit
I believe there are countless faithful Church members, perhaps millions, who are coming close to living the law of consecration already. If you are paying tithes and offerings and doing everything you can to fulfill the four responsibilities described by President Hinckley, and there is simply not any extra, but your heart is in the right place, you may be just about there.
Go ahead and give yourself some credit!