Begin with the End in Mind | Russell M. Nelson, September 1984

When we die, what do we want to have defined our lives? For Russell M. Nelson, it is service to mankind, family, and faith in God.

This devotional was given on September 30, 1984.

Read the speech here:
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/russell-m-nelson/begin-end-mind/

Read more on overcoming adversity here:
https://speeches.byu.edu/collections/overcoming-adversity/

Read more from Russell M. Nelson here:
https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/russell-m-nelson/

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Our being here reminds us of those days when we were where you are now in your schooling. We had three important goals. One was to get married. Then, once married, our next goal was to get by financially. Then our goal was to get through. We got married when Sister Nelson was an undergraduate student and I was in my second year of medical school.

Because I was under legal age, parental consent was required. My father was very amused when I called him away from his work to sign for me so I could get a marriage certificate. With Sister Nelson’s (and parental) help, we were able to make it through medical school after we each received our baccalaureate degree. I then informed her that it was customary to have a year internship. Following that I was determined to specialize, and I let her know that it would require additional training.

I’ll confess to a bit of naivete. If we had known that the interval between my getting my doctor’s degree and our finally going into practice would be twelve and a half years with six children added, we might not have been quite as enthusiastic in the beginning. So I pay great tribute to her for her role in our partnership. I owe so much to her.

Now I pray for the Spirit of the Lord to direct our discussion tonight.

I have entitled my remarks “Begin with the End in Mind.” I suppose some of this comes from my surgical background. An elective incision is never made without planning to close it. The same principle is generally applicable in all fields, however. Track stars don’t begin a race without knowing the location of the finish line.

So, in your important race, I would plead for you to begin with the end in mind. To assist you in defining that end, I would ask you this simple question: What would you like said about you at your funeral? Or, if you were to write your own eulogy and you could have only three sentences (no big flowery speeches, please), what would you want to say?

If it’s fair for me to ask that of you, it’s fair for you to ask that of me. If I were to write what I hope might be said about me, those three sentences would include:

I was able to render service of worth to my fellowmen.

I had a fine family.

I evidenced unshakable faith in God and lived accordingly.

Some of you have already defined your goals. Some have even developed a system of priorities to give order to your interests and responsibilities. I applaud such discipline and think it’s useful, but I believe that this ordering process may often be a little artificial. Rarely do we fragment the life that we live. It is not possible to influence one facet of our life without that affecting other aspects as well. So, in my own experience, I have preferred not to compartmentalize my interests, but to synergize them. Let me explain what I mean.

Nephi said, “I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Nephi 19:23). He was advising us to weave the fiber of scriptural wisdom into the fabric of our own being.

King Benjamin taught this interrelationship:

When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. [Mosiah 2:17]

As I ponder serving God, I recognize that I cannot serve him without first serving the children that he has sent to bless our family. Then, as I ponder service to our children, I know I cannot serve them to the fullest without first serving and honoring my wife, the mother of those children.

She is my highest priority. When we were married, we vowed that we would “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (see Matthew 6:33). Do you see how these goals and priorities all are indelibly intertwined? To say that your highest priority will be to your occupation or to your family or to the Lord is really much more difficult than it is to merge strengths and pursue those interests concurrently.

One of the most remarkable things about these three objectives is that they all have one requirement in common. That requirement is education. The educational process is crucial for success in each objective and is never ending.

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