The Only Thing We Take With Us

I don't know who J. Christopher Lansing is, but I think he was right when he gave us this quote. It strikes me as odd how much time some people spend acquiring material possessions, when we really only have them for a short period of time. Even if the things themselves don't wear out, which most things do, we we eventually become separated from them, in this life, or at the very latest, when we pass into the next. There are really only two things we get to take with us into the next life, and those things are our families (assuming we've been sealed to them in the temple), and the other one, the one that I want to focus on for this blog post, is ourselves.

Though we will temporarily lose our bodies when we die, we'll get them back through resurrection, and when we do, they'll be at their prime. I don't know if whether or not we took care of our bodies will matter at all at the resurrection, since I'm pretty sure they'll be in good condition when they get back to us, but it definitely couldn't hurt to try to take care of ourselves.

A second part of ourselves that we get to keep is our minds. D&C 130: 18-19 says:

Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. 

And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.

Therefore, we should take care of our minds as well, and fill them with good things, like a knowledge of the gospel and the eternal principle it teaches. Perhaps a bit of science and math wouldn't hurt, either, if we do eventually end up designing and creating worlds. And communication is a good thing to study as well, as I'm sure that God is something of a master of language, as evidenced by the scriptures. I don't imagine geography will help much, since the earth, I hear, is going to undergo dramatic changes, physically and politically, but it would be helpful to learn how the world works and how societies work as well. I'm not sure what else it'd be helpful to study, but I'm pretty sure that most of the knowledge you could gain here will give you at least some benefit in the world beyond.

But the most important thing we take with us, in my opinion, is our spirits. In Alma 34: 34, we're told that "that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world." That, I assume, will include our personality traits and attributes, our habits and attitudes, our beliefs and behaviors, and everything else that makes us us. I also assume, and have a very good reason to believe, that part of that condition will include whether we have past sins on our consciences or not. So, it seems to me that one of the top priorities of mortal life isn't to obtain wealth and possessions (though a certain amount of wealth is necessary for survival), but rather to repent as often as we need to and become as Christ-like as we can before we die.

I hear that life is pretty short, and that the eternities that follow after death can feel like a very long time in comparison. Perhaps we ought to spend at least a part of our brief time as mortals preparing for the time when material possessions aren't going to matter at all.