Opportunity Cost

Truth: it was the spirit that first taught me this principle. I was sitting in a distance ed class, listening to some lecture, when a young man that I greatly admired came up and knelt next to my chair. He asked if he could ask me a question, and then proceeded to give a 'hypothetical situation' that went something like this:

"So let's say I have this friend, and he and I grew up members of the Church of Jesus Christ all our lives. We both have been taught correct principles, but one day he decides that because he has been keeping the commandments that he is missing out on lots of experiences and opportunities that he could be having. So he decides that he is going to go have all of these 'experiences' that keeping the commandments prohibits him from having, while I choose to keep living the Gospel. So Krystal, my question is, am I missing out on experiencing those things because I am keeping the commandments?"

I'll never forget the shock I felt when this question was posed. The kid posing it was pretty much the most righteous and rock solid kid I knew. And I also don't think I'll ever forget realizing that I had no clue what the answer to his question was. But as I sat there and looked at him, my mouth opened, and out came words that definitely were not my own.

"Yes." I said quite simply. "You are missing out." And then as I noticed the shocked expression crossing his face, my mouth opened again, and out came more words that I had never heard before.

"You are missing out on all of those experiences he is having because you are keeping the commandments. You won't know what those things he is doing feel like. However, your friend is also "missing out" on some experiences that you are having. He won't know the blessings of honoring his priesthood, and of having a clean conscience. You see, in life we all have to miss out on something - the trick is deciding between what we are ok with missing out on and what we really want to experience."

Imagine my shock a year or two later when in a college business class the teacher defined a term she called 'opportunity cost,' which is of course the price of what you could have done in exchange for what you actually did.

Isn't it incredible what the spirit can teach us? I've been thinking a lot about opportunity cost lately. What am I giving up in order to be doing what I am doing now? What do I really want? What am I ok with missing out on? Are my actions actually helping me achieve my goals? I think sometimes in life we don't think enough about opportunity cost. We don't keep things in perspective. We shuffle around trying to gratify out immediate wants without stopping to think about how what we are doing now will affect our future ultimate ambitions. We set these ambiguous goals, and then sit around and hope they'll happen without making a solid plan to achieve them. Shame on us.

When I think about this in terms of building an eternal marriage and family it get's awfully confusing. How do I know that I'm really headed towards what I want most? What opportunities am I unknowingly giving up by my actions? I guess if I worry about it too much I'll just get a headache. So for now I'll just keep trying - because another glorious Gospel truth is that as long as we keep trying our best, God will not let us fail. I also believe that he won't let us miss out on what we need to learn and experience if we are giving our best effort to him.