Vision meets Discipline

A few weeks ago President Taylor gave the missionaries some guidance to help us as we serve. He asked us what we wanted to get out of life and how we were going to get there. I thought it was interesting that he used life rather than what we wanted to get out of our mission, but the formula is the same.     Vision + Discipline = Destiny

Vision consists of the what and where. Where do I want to end up and what do I want. In the gospel this can be seen as the plan of Salvation. We would all like to end up in the Celestial Kingdom. That's the vision. On a smaller scale, a vision could be graduating from college with a specific degree. Nephi gives us a great example of vision when he is asked to get the plates from Laban. He sees the plates in their possession! At that point he did not  know how he was going to do it he just knew that he could. "And it came to pass that I Nephi said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord has commanded, for I that the lord giveth no commandments unto the children of man save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." 1 Nephi 3:7 He had a vision!!

With vision comes discipline or the how.  How do we make it to the Celestial Kingdom? It takes discipline to live righteously, have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. Sometimes we have to give up something that is of worth to us. Discipline means putting a side what we want right now for what we want in the long run. Countless prophets in the Book of Mormon and the Bible saw the world fall into apostasy, but they saw the end, they saw us today and knew that with discipline at the end all will be made right!! We just have to discipline ourselves to make our vision a reality.

The final result... our destiny. Vision is what gets us started and discipline is what gets us there! The result hangs in the balance of how we are going to do and if we are going to make it to the vision that we have. It can be done!! It is done everyday!!! Nephi takes a seemly impossible task and with the help of the Lord is successful and achieves his vision! So what's your vision? Where do you want to end up? It can be as simple as "I would like to make it through each day" or something larger like "I would like to graduate with a doctorate degree". What ever it is, it can be done! With the proper vision and discipline to make it through each day until the end it can be achieved!! The things that are learned through the process are priceless!

I know that this formula works!! I know that if we keep Heavenly Father involved  in our lives , like Nephi did, anything can be achieved! Start today!! Pick a vision, set some goals, have discipline and achieve great things! Our time on Earth only comes once! Make the most of it!