New Members

Often, members of the church associate self-reliance with food storage, so teenagers often think it has nothing to do with them. However, the commandment to become self-reliant involves far more than just food, and the time to become self-reliant is while you’re young. If you can achieve this as a teenager, your adult life will be far more successful and productive.

Self-reliance in your own life means to take responsibility for those things you should be in charge of. If you joined the church without your family, you have probably already taken responsibility for living the gospel. After all, your non-LDS parents are probably not going to remind you to pray or to do your seminary homework. It’s likely they won’t enforce the Word of Wisdom unless it was already part of your life.

Even if you did join the church with your family, you should begin to take responsibility for these things yourself. The gospel is individual and you are accountable for your own choices. You’re unable to blame your parents if you don’t stop swearing, for instance.

Make a list of the parts of the gospel and of your life you should be in charge of yourself. You should be getting yourself up for seminary, doing your chores without reminders, taking on additional chores whenever possible without being asked, and reading your scriptures, for instance. Taking responsibility for your own life gives you more control over it.

When you do your chores without being asked, your parents soon learn to trust you to do them. They won’t nag because they’ll know that if one day, when things aren’t going well, you are late, that you will still get to them that day.

When you read your scriptures and pray each day without reminder, your Heavenly Father learns to trust you. What a wonderful gift it is to be a person your Heavenly Father can count on.

“We must not be nearly dependable, but always dependable. Let us be faithful in the little things, as well as the big ones. Can I be depended upon to fill every assignment, whether it be for a two-and-a-half minute talk, home teaching, a visit to the sick, or a call as a stake or full-time missionary?

Remember, “… there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
“Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, …” (D&C 121:34–35), and they are not dependable.

The Lord speaks of the chosen few, and he means those who are fully dependable. Let us determine now to be some of those few.” N. Eldon Tanner, “Dependability,” Ensign, Apr 1974, 2

When your parents, teachers, and friends can depend on you, it is a marvelous thing, something that will nearly guarantee you a successful life. When your Father in Heaven can depend on you, you are guaranteed a successful eternity. Be sure, also, that you can depend on yourself to do the right thing. Being able to depend on yourself gives you peace of mind.
Begin today, however young you are, to be self-reliant. When you are on your own someday, food storage will never be a challenge, because self-reliance will be a habit.

When you joined the church, especially if your entire family joined, you probably became very busy. There were so many new things to add to your new life, and you still kept many of the activities and traditions of your old life as well. How do you fit it all in?

You can’t do everything all at once. You have to set priorities. Even though you may have felt your day was already as busy as it could possibly be, there are still ways to fit the gospel into your life.

A Young Women’s lesson has the following object lesson:

“Ask the young women to enumerate activities they must pursue daily (attend school, eat, sleep, do homework, and others). As these activities are identified, place a stone for each one in a pint jar or bowl. (The bowl or jar represents a twenty-four-hour day.) Fill the jar with stones. Ask the young women to name other things they need to do each day (travel to and from school, make beds, dress, bathe, clean room, care for pets, pray, study the scriptures, prepare clothing, practice music, attend Church meetings, and others). As these other activities are identified, add sand, rice, or salt to the jar of rocks until it looks full. (The sand represents these additional activities.) Acknowledge that the young women’s lives are as full as the jar appears to be. Then add water, explaining that even during an apparently full day there is time for meditation, recreation, and other uplifting activities. (The water represents these activities.) All of us should strive for a proper balance in the use of our time. Accomplishing all we need and desire to do takes careful planning.” Lesson 44: Using Time Wisely,” Young Women Manual 1, (2002),194

In order to live the gospel, we have to choose which parts of our life matter the most. Which have eternal significance? Which will improve our families and our lives? Those things should get priority in our day. As a new Latter-day Saint, you want to begin to create a gospel-centered home and to build your family’s new testimony. To do this, you probably want to make the gospel a priority. What has to change in the morning in order for you to fit in prayer and scripture study? Do you need to get up earlier? Do you need to do some tasks the night before, such as setting out clothing, setting the table, and making advanced preparation for breakfast?

When I first decided to begin a professional writing career, I had three young children and a husband who traveled extensively on business. When I looked over my schedule, I realized the only way I would find time to write was to take other things out of my schedule. You can’t put something into a full day until you’ve taken something out. I stopped watching television and began getting up earlier. I wrote from four in the morning until six, after my husband had left for work and while the children slept.

You can’t fit everything into your day, but you can fit the most important things in. You just have to identify what those things are and make them the top priority.