Official Report 1510KB pdf
Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection, and our time for reflection leader today is Paul Rand of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Good afternoon. It is an honour to be invited to give this time for reflection.
I have three children and all of them, at various points, can be guilty of doom scrolling, which is the habit of scrolling through videos or other social media on their phones for inordinate amounts of time. I would love to say that I am completely innocent of the habit, but I sometimes find myself getting sucked in and losing time to my screen.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the prominent leaders of the church, Dallin H Oaks, said:
“The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives. As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best.”
So it is with our time. I have a busy life; I am a husband and father, and I have a full-time job and a time-consuming leadership role as a local church leader. There are not many days when there is not a meal to be made, a lift to be given, a student to speak to or a meeting to attend. I am constantly juggling and negotiating that struggle with what are the good, better and best uses of my time.
However, in among that wrestling with calendars and syncing up schedules, I find that I need to start off my day in a quiet contemplative way, spending some time to study things of my faith that are of the most importance to me. That helps to centre me. It does not always guarantee that my day does not get crazy after that, but it starts me off in the right way.
I am aware that many of you will have busy lives. You will have meetings and commitments that take up large chunks of your time. If I may give you an invitation, it would be to consider how you use your time and determine what are the good, better and best uses of it. Whatever your belief, give yourself regular time to quietly contemplate, serve others and spend quality time with the people you love. Thank you.
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