Becoming A Better Servant

There are instances in the scriptures where we as saints are compared to soldiers going to war. In a memorable passage, the Apostle Paul encourages the saints to put on the armour of God. The same counsel was also given in modern day to the Prophet Joseph Smith. For me the armour represents the spiritual preparation necessary to begin acquiring the Christ-like attributes listed in the passages.

Now, most of us wouldn't have experience with the preparation a soldier might go through.  On the other hand, most of us might have played a bit of sports now and then. (Some more than others!). We can then, look at the preparation it takes to get really good at a sport.  Using these modern day "soldiers", perhaps we can see how to become better at our spiritual preparation.

During an Aaronic Priesthood interview, I asked a young Zack McKenna what it would take to become a world class footballer.  He thought about it for a moment and then said, "All my coaches all say, Practice."

"Yeah, that's certainly right.", then I asked, "In the lead up to a match, how long would you say you spent in practice?"

Zack thought a bit more, then said, "I don't know how long, but I do try and get 10,000 touches."

I thought this was an amazing answer, absolutely stunning. "That's pretty cool, Zack.  So, in any given game, how many touches do you think you get?"

"I'd say about 300."

If you examine the practice discipline of any world class athlete, you'd probably find something like Zack's ratio of time spent in practice to time spent in performance. (I'd imagine the ratio would be even more extreme....) This is the little secret of expertise our modern day would have us ignore.  To become really good, like truly good, requires a tremendous and gigantic amount of energy, effort and time.  In addition, the nature of practice goes from general to finesse; at first your efforts might be ungainly and crude, but over time you become more proficient and your practice time is then spent fine-tuning all the little details.

Now think about what your spiritual practice routines are.  I'd ask you to take a good look at the time you spend in preparation, time spent becoming a better priesthood holder.  Are you really giving it enough energy, time, and attention required to become really, truly good?

Each of us can give sooooooo much more than we currently are.  I'm looking for spiritual Michael Jordans!!

So, lets start somewhere easy.  Can you begin working on your prayers?  Elder Bednar said that prayer is a form of spiritual work. So, can you...

1. Spend significantly more time in prayer?
2. Seriously examine how to improve your prayers?
3. Be more focused, attentive and meaningful during the time spent in prayer?
4. Listen, listen and then listen some more during prayers?
5. Consider integrating some method to capture yours thoughts and impressions that come as a result of prayer?

By focusing on an individual spiritual skill, you and I will see improvement in our service, ministry and life.