Procrastination

I'll be the first to admit that I am a big time procrastinator. Perhaps you have seen one of those t-shirts that has a logo such as "I put the PRO in Procrastinate!" Well, that's me. For a while, one of my favorite slogans was this: If you wait until the last minute, then it only takes a minute to do! But then, like always, reality decides to set in. Procrastination has always led me to stress, anxiety, and lack of productivity that could have easily been avoided if I had simply started getting things done while I still had the time. Idleness keeps us from accomplishing our full potential. The Lord has stated that "Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer. (D&C 42:42)"

Here is a Sloth. He likes to Procrastinate.

We all know that procrastinating never got us anywhere. Let's see what the Scriptures have to say about it.

Alma 34:32-35 says thus:

"32  For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

33  And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

34  Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

35  For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked."

Let us all learn to use our time wisely, for we will never get it back. Benjamin Franklin once said, "You may delay, but time will not." Our time is a precious resource, and when we spend it correctly we can accomplish great things, but if we swindle it away, we can look back at our lives and realize that not much has happened.