Unfinished Business – Sunday, December 27, 1953
This is the time of year when thoughts of unfinished business become acute, and when we are comfortable or uncomfortable according to the degree to which we have done the things, we know we should have done, the things which a year ago we resolved in good faith to do.
As to the things we haven’t done and should have done: These are the things that worry and wear us away. It isn’t so much work that wears us away as worry—worry about things we should have done sooner but have repeatedly postponed; the worry of leaving things to the last, instead of beginning to get them behind us from the first. To be actually on one’s way, to be actually going where one ought to go, to be actually doing what one ought to do is one of the most healing, restoring tonics that one could take.
Another thing the year’s end may teach us is never to make a commitment without earnestly considering consequences; never to sign a note without having in mind the day it will become due. The time for payment comes quickly. As we contemplate how quickly this year has come and gone, we may well consider how quickly all things in life come and go—how quickly all things come due. Even the day of our ultimate just judgment comes quickly.
And if we could begin a new year now with an awareness of how we shall feel when it ends, if we can live life now with an awareness of what will mean most as the days draw shorter, we shall be less disposed to make unwise commitments and less likely to leave unfinished business too late.
If there are those we have wronged, let wrongs be righted. If there is any unworthy act or utterance hanging upon our hearts, let there be a prayerful repentance before the year ends. And “by this ye may know if a man repenteth”1—that he acknowledges his sins and forsake them.
There may have been some disappointment, some falling short of what we should have done, but God be thanked for letting us live through another year—and for the prospect and the promise of the future, and for the principle and privilege of repentance. May the closing year turn our hearts to the things that matter most.
1Doctrine and Covenants, 58:43.
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December 27, 1953
Broadcast Number 1,271