Essential, Necessary, and Nice-to-do

Last night I was blog hopping, and I jumped over to my friend Natalie's blog. She recently attended Women's Conference which is hosted at BYU in Provo, UT annually. I loved Natalie's post and would typically just link you right to her writings, but her blog is private. So, a big thank you to Natalie for sharing this information with me. It's what I needed to hear.
Julie B. Beck is currently the General Relief Society President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Sister Beck is one of my all-time favorite speakers. I hear what she says. She speaks to me. In the keynote address of the opening session of Women's Conference Sister Beck spoke, among other things, about priorities. Specifically about what are "essential things, necessary things, and the nice-to-do things."

“Whatever happens in that home and family happens because [the mother] cares about it and it matters to her.”

“She guards that gate and things matter to that family if they matter to her.”

“When our priorities are out of order, we lose power.” “We need power and influence to carry out the Lord’s work.”

Wow! I stayed up most of the night last night thinking about, praying about, and organizing what to do about this message I received from Sister Beck. I considered that I had my priorities in order, for the most part I do, but I learned that I certainly spend too much time in the nice-to-do category! I'm gonna fix that!
Essential things are eternally essential things like prayer, scripture study, and personal revelation. Necessary things are those things that are "necessary to create an environment where the Spirit of the Lord can be [in my home],” said Sister Beck. Things like teaching children, cleaning the home, and kindness to your spouse. Nice-to-do things are things like recreation, hobbies, girls night out, blogging- oh my, and crafts. Things that are fun, but “these things won’t save us,” Sister Beck said. I don't think the advice was to eliminate the nice-to-do things, but to consider how much time is spent on the nonessentials.

“To walk with the Lord, we have to know what is essential, what is necessary, what is nice to do. … Influence and power come when we prioritize correctly.”

So may I just forewarn you that I am adjusting my priorities. That if I say no on the "nice-to-do" things, it doesn't mean I don't love you or enjoy your company. It just means that I'm trying to course correct. Nothing more.
One last quote from Sister Beck, “Taking care of our posterity takes precedence over all other needs.” “The vision of our family is the vision of our purpose before the Lord.” I like the way Natalie ended her post, and I agree completely. Natalie said, "The adversary is chuckling at us as we are putting our time into things that have no real benefit. Now - I don't mean never do this stuff - But I had a real reality check that the FIRST things I need to worry about each day are ESSENTIAL things - even before Necessary things - I am excited to see where this journey will take me to..."