In which math doesn't matter for once

Tonight I had the opportunity to share a thought at ward prayer. It's something I've been really trying to focus on improving lately. 

President Uchtdorf spoke in the most recent General Conference about regrets and resolutions. He said, 

Isn't it true that we often get so busy? And, sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of honor, as though being busy, by itself, was a sign of a superior life. 

Is it?

This semester has been, quite frankly, ridiculously hard and insanely busy. In the last few weeks, I haven't fully understood a single one of my math assignments or lectures. That means 6 credit hours are slowly slipping down the drain, dragging my GPA with them, and it's stressful! Sometimes (all the time), I feel like the only way I'll survive is if I leave all the other things I care about behind for a couple months until I can just finish these two classes. Wouldn't that be a great solution?

But the kicker is this: that sort of busyness doesn't end, like, ever. When I finish these two classes, I'll have two more after that. And then I'll have more difficult major classes (project-based, ew). And then I'll be getting married or something. And then I'll graduate and think I'm free, but no, I have to go to work. And then children come and life really kicks into gear, and then where did my young and free and easy days go?

Yikes, life sounds rather daunting when you put it that way. I don't particularly care to stick around to see the ending of that. [Edit: that was not suicidal. Calm down.]

Since all that busyness never ends, we must each find ways to work around it. Rather than being a badge of honor, that inability to focus on things of greatest importance is a major downer on life in general. There's gotta be a way to avoid that negative cycle where all the things that don't matter much in the end take up all the time that could have been spent with things that matter eternally. And this is why I love Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. He lays it out nice and easy for us:

Let us resolve to cherish those we love by spend meaningful time with them, doing things together, and cultivating treasured memories.  

Discipleship is the pursuit of holiness and happiness. It is the path to our best and happiest self. Let us resolve to follow the Savior and work with diligence to become the person we were designed to become. 

Let us resolve to be happy, regardless of our circumstances.

So here I resolve on my blog yet another resolution: I resolve to refuse to let the busyness of everyday life take away at all from the joys that can be found in spending time with those I love and spending effort becoming more like my Savior. These are the things that matter most. These are the things that will keep me happy and able to press onward, yea, even to the end of Abstract Algebra. And ultimately, these are the things that will determine the value and weight of my life whenever I reach the end of it. 

(You're welcome to join me if you wish, as always. I am, apparently, all about making sweeping resolutions and dragging people with me, so I'd love to have you along.)