From Jerry Sittser’s book “The Will of God as a Way of Life”
We should keep perspective. Lynda wrote in her last letter just before she died. The recipients of that letter, friends living in the Midwest, mailed a photocopy of the letter back to me. Her concluding line reflected her philosophy of life so well: “I am trying to live my whole life in the light of eternity,” An eternal perspective will affect how we make choices. It stresses important over urgent, need over want, service over pleasure, people over things. A seminary professor told me just as I was beginning my first pastoral charge, “People and the word of God are eternal. Most everything else is temporal. Make sure you invest in the eternal.”
Again, Ignatius offers sound advice. He counsels that before making decisions, we should try to picture ourselves standing on the threshold of death, peering into the abyss of eternity. Would we choose differently if we made our choices with the end of life in mind?13
Commitment to a healthy community of believers helps, too. Relationships protect us from myopia, selfishness, and stupidity. They provide a mirror by which we can see ourselves and they can help us to gain perspective when problems and immediate concerns turn us inward and threaten to dominate our lives. Spiritual advisors and Christian friends in particular are well suited to guide us, point out our strengths and weaknesses, and challenge us to think about life from an eternal perspective. The church provides a rich resource for us when we are making decisions. There are good and godly people everywhere, if we bother to look for them. I have never been wanting for good advisors who call forth the best in me.
There is another community of wise and seasoned people to whom we can look for advice, too. I am referring to saints who lived long ago. I receive guidance from people whom I have never met, never spoken to, and never known personally. Though strangers to me, they have exercised profound influence over my life. I consult them when I have to make a decision by reading their writings and biographies.~Jerry Sittser, the Will of God as a Way of Life (Grande Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2000,2004), 101-2
* (Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
