Getting Acquainted with Wendy Watson Nelson's "Change Your Questions-Change Your Life"

Last night as I was winding down the day, Willyne handed me the book I mentioned in my title and asked me to look it over for 5-10 minutes.

There is a lot in this book.  My 5-10 minutes turned into 30, and even then I did not want to put it down and go to bed.  I'm sure I will be writing more about this book in the days and weeks to come, but for tonight I will focus on just one point from the book.  Sister Nelson gives a challenge to ask one of your toughest life questions each day for 30 days -- and see how you are blessed by trying to find the answer in the scriptures.  (Which she calls our answer books).

My initial reaction was to think that was fine if your tough question was something like how do you repent when you are about to give up hope thinking your sins are impossible to overcome.  But would the scriptures really have the answer to pressing questions in say, your business?

I was in the temple tonight.  It has been a tough week, and I needed a recharge, so even though I didn't think I had time to go, I went anyway.  I knew I needed some kind of inspiration, but not really sure what as I sat in the temple session.  Then I remembered Sister Nelson's book from last night and decided to put it to the test.  As I thought about it, the question I decided to focus on tonight was "How do you reconcile the two seemingly conflicting commandments to "be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of own your free will" and "don't run faster than you have strength"?

I was amazed.  First I pondered which scripture to start with.  I thought of the "don't run faster" classic, but that didn't feel right, and instead I settled on "Organize yourself, prepare every needful thing."  I wound up reading D&C 88:118-125.  That sent me to D&C 89, especially the first three and the last four verses.  That sent me to the topical guide on health, then strength, then diligence.  Many of the scriptures there didn't apply to my exact question, but some in each category did, and very well.

The main points I got out of this were,

1.  Be organized
2.  Don't waste time on trivial things, and especially not on sin.
3.  Go to bed early, get up early
4.  Keep the word of wisdom
5.  Be very diligent. There is no time to waste.
6.  We should do many things, but in an order, not all at once.
7.  We should take care to preserve what we have.  (That was an interesting one I hadn't noticed in the scriptures before)

I feel like I have enough material on this one question to profitably study for at least a week and really get a complete answer to my question.

I'm still overwhelmed with everything I need to do.  (My to do list is about 4 pages long, single spaced, and no matter how much I get done in a day, it seems to continue growing -- hence the strong need to do something about that)  But I feel more assured having had this experience in the temple tonight.

I will  write more notes on this as I study it further -- I'm pretty excited about this!