How do we become committed to the gospel so that we are fulfilling our callings, sharing the gospel, serving others, showing up for activities, and so forth? I have been surprised to learn that some of the young women in our ward won't commit to a meeting or activity even just two days ahead of time because they "don't plan that far ahead." Sometimes teachers just don't show up on Sunday. Is that because people like to leave their options open in case they want to sleep in or something "fun" comes up to do instead? Is it poor planning, or no planning? Poor time management?

An eternal perspective and regular prayer and scripture study can help one realize the importance of the gospel and help one to set priorities. Still, we have to want to do those things and put our lives in order. We have agency and choice. So what do we do to want to commit and to make good choices?

I think about what Alma said about faith in Alma 32. He talked about nourishing even just the desire to believe and encouraging it to grow. That is what we can do about commitment--nourish even just the desire to be a committed Latter-Day Saint. The prayer, scripture study, and being open to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost can give us the knowledge about the gospel that we need in order to be committed to it. Perhaps, too, we need to teach ourselves and our children to make and keep commitments even in small everyday ways. We can commit to daily prayer and scripture study, commit to do our daily chores, commit to go to work or school or church, or other routine matters in our lives. How well do we already keep such commitments? Can we do a little better?

Do we need to learn how to manage our time better? Maybe we just need to sit down and think through a day or a week and make some notes to ourselves about what we need to do and when.

Those things will help with the mechanics of commitment, but ultimately we need to learn to know and trust our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we grasp the importance of commitment and of what we should commit to.

I don't have all the answers and I am certainly far from perfect, but it concerns me that people today don't seem all that committed to things. What do you think would help turn this around?
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