My "To Be" List

On Sunday, my friend Lauren gave a wonderful talk in church about Lynn G. Robbin's conference talk "What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?" Elder Robbins says,


"Many of us create to do lists to remind us of things we want to accomplish. But people rarely have to be lists. Why? To do’s are activities or events that can be checked off the list when done. To be, however, is never done. You can’t earn checkmarks with to be’s. I can take my wife out for a lovely evening this Friday, which is a to do. But being a good husband is not an event; it needs to be part of my nature—my character, or who I am."


I've been thinking about Lauren's talk all week and finally sat down last night to make a "to be" list for myself. This was so hard! I sat there for several minutes before I could really write into words the kind of person I want to be. Here's what I finally came up with, and I'm sure the list will grow overtime. I know I'll never be perfect in any of these areas, but now that I have these goals in mind, I think I'll improve a little everyday. 


I want to be...

• A missionary who never complains about anything, ever (specifically the weather)
• An active listener of the Spirit
• Obedient with exactness
• A listener
• Happy and positive and cheerful at all possible times (Recognizing that there is a time for sorrow/remorse)
• A scriptorian