“Small and Simple Choices,” For the Strength of Youth, Feb. 2024.
Small and Simple Choices
Being a youth isn’t a practice run for adulthood. The choices you make right now determine who you’re becoming.
Illustrations by Iker Ayestaran
Before there were electric lights, people sometimes spent weeks each year dipping weighted wicks into wax, letting them briefly cool, and dipping them again—hundreds of times. Each time the candle went into the wax, it came out larger than it went in. The process may have seemed slow, but one layer at a time, the candles became what they were designed to be—strong for carrying light to all.
Sometimes it can feel like you’re waiting for life to start, but the good decisions you make today add layers of strength onto the person you are becoming. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said: “Don’t wait to live. This isn’t a rehearsal; this isn’t a dry run; this isn’t a pre-performance routine. This is it. This is real life. Don’t wait. Savor every minute.”1 We don’t have to wait to become strong in carrying the Light of Christ.
We Change by Choice, Not by Accident
When Nephi didn’t understand his father’s teachings, he could have gotten frustrated, but he asked God to teach him instead (see 1 Nephi 10:17). When his bow broke, he could have given up, but he humbled himself and made a new bow instead (see 1 Nephi 16:18–23).
When his family reached the seaside and God commanded Nephi to build a ship, he could have tossed his hands in the air, angry that God was asking him to do another hard thing. Instead, he asked God for instructions and got to work (see 1 Nephi 17:9–11). Each time, he had a choice to pull away from God or to add another layer of strength.
We can’t expect that one day we will be strong, bright candles of faith unless we let our everyday choices strengthen us. Reading scriptures, repenting daily, praying always—they may seem insignificant in the war against Satan, but these simple acts of faith add layers to our strength to choose righteously no matter what Satan throws at us!
So what are you choosing? Are you choosing to add layers to your faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, or do you think you can face Satan without it? Are you striving to choose righteousness over rebellion?
One Layer at a Time
The prophet Alma wrote, “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6). Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley, wife of Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, encouraged us: “When we look back on decades of life, we see that the seemingly insignificant things we do over and over actually weave the pattern of our lives. And if those small and simple things are good, we will end up having lived a fulfilling life—and that is a great thing!”2
By our choices, we, like the candle, can be made stronger one layer at a time in the hands of our Maker. What will you choose?