That attitude has everyone accepting only “top shelf,” which is great if you can get it but isn’t essential to maximizing your joy in life.  That maximum joy comes from embracing good enough. And just like worthiness is not flawlessness, good enough is not flawless.

How incredibly ironic that many LDS singles expect perfection in an eternal companion but then also expect they’ll be completely acceptable in their imperfection.  They expect the “perfect” person to love them for who they are as they are.  It’s as though change has no place in their equation.

But change is at the heart of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  Indeed, the idea we need to change or be lost forever is core to the Atonement, the central part of our Heavenly Father’s plan.  Expecting a companion who doesn’t need to change isn’t just unrealistic; it stands at odds with the gospel plan.  That plan has us here in mortality with imperfections galore.  We’ll all have many flaws as we journey through this mortal life.

Elder Wilcox noted the same principles as he responded to this hypothetical question:

Too many LDS singles aren’t progressing in their dating journey because they insist on not changing, that anyone who can’t love them as they are obviously isn’t the perfect companion.  But the truly perfect companion is one who will both love you as you are today and not leave you as you are today.  The perfect marriage is the union of two imperfect people who work together to perfect each other.  They accept each other as they each are today, but they don’t accept staying that way.

Some LDS singles undoubtedly reject the idea of change because they know what change will mean.  Seeing themselves in all their imperfections, they know how much work correcting those imperfections will require.  It’s much easier to cling to the thought of a “perfect” companion than to put the hammer down and do the work which change in self requires.

Yet doing the work is the more practical approach.  No matter your approach to your dating journey, the fundamentals will always operate.  You don’t progress without the necessary agreement, and you don’t get that agreement unless you’re agreeable enough.  So progress in the dating journey often means traversing a longer road of change through hard work.

That’s how all of life is designed to be.  Elder Wilcox recognized that design when he declared,

Just as worthiness isn’t about perfection but about patience and persistence in walking the covenant path, so your dating journey isn’t about finding the perfect person but about finding the type of person who’ll walk with you as you help each other become perfect together.

If you’ve sincerely tried to walk that path yet feel beaten down by failure after failure, don’t succumb to surrender and change your destination away from eternal blessings.  When the destination is eternity, it’s always better to deal with frustration by changing your approach.

Many share impatience as an imperfection, so it’s not surprising many LDS singles want the changes they seek to happen now.  Yet often the changes we seek will not come overnight or all at once.  Elder Wilcox taught this principle as he shared the story of Damon, a young man who struggled with his own changes.  In the end, Elder Wilcox recommended,

Good enough is not flawless but is committed to positive change.  Embrace needed changes in you and others as well as the work those changes will require.  And embrace the Lord by partnering with Him for your journey.  You’ll find it easier to make progress and more support as you do.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Now this isn’t the f-bomb many of you are thinking of.  This was in sacrament meeting, after all, and the speaker radiated mainstream Mormondom.  But how can you understand what I’m talking about without me being just as profane?  Since I can’t think of any other way to do it, here goes.  The f-bomb she dropped was family ward.

Yes, that phrase is profane.  Words mean things.  Language matters.  And anyone who thinks it doesn’t — that this is just some petty concern — just doesn’t understand how language works and its effect upon people.

Simply put, the language we use reflects the way we think.  It expresses culture.  And as we’ve discussed often on the broadcast, the traditional culture of the LDS community has revolved around being married with kids.  Some singles have kids, but by definition no single is married.  So using a phrase like family ward just perpetuates a culture which excludes singles.

This isn’t something that’s just in the heads of LDS singles.  Nor is it solely a product of how singles think, something that can be corrected with a change in perspective.  For those who think it is, let me tell you about the cookie jar.

Yes, I said the cookie jar.  Why do we call the cookie jar a cookie jar?  The simple truth is because it’s a jar in which we place cookies.  If you take the lid off a cookie jar, you expect cookies to be inside.  That’s why it’s called a cookie jar.  If there were peanuts inside, you’d call it a peanut jar.  If there were bolts inside, you’d call it a bolt jar.  That’s just the nature of language.  Calling a container a cookie jar is like saying that is where cookies belong.

Family ward works the same way.  It says families belong in that congregation, implying that people without full families don’t belong.  Again, this isn’t just in singles’ heads.  It’s the nature of language, which reflects how we think.  And I’ve seen that play out.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve encountered marrieds who merely tolerated my presence in their ward.  Their attitude definitely said, “You can come here if you want, but you really belong over there in that singles ward.  If you do go there and get married, then you can come back and join us here in the main group.”

As I sat there in sacrament meeting, I wondered how I should approach the speaker about her f-bomb.  I didn’t really know her personally, nor did I have much opportunity to know her.  She and her husband has just moved into the ward.  As young as they are, I wanted to believe she said what she said out of ignorance.

In the end, I felt good about approaching her through an email message to her husband.  I tried to be delicate and firm at the same time, in the end offering the suggestion to replace that f-bomb with general membership ward or, if that was too much of a mouthful, shorten it to general ward.  I also expressed willingness to entertain other suggestions.

I never got a reply to the email.  But I can surmise based on comments she made in later weeks in Sunday School that she realized how insensitive she’d been and wanted to change.  And I felt satisfied with that.

If you’re still using that vile expression, please stop droppin’ f-bombs.  The language we use will reflect what we truly embrace in our thinking.  Let’s embrace a more inclusive culture within our LDS community by using language that reflects truly inclusive thinking.  When we do, we’ll grow from seeing each other more as God sees us.  We’ll benefit more from the contributions we make into each other’s lives.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

I remember years ago hearing a speaker at a singles conference talk about living in the moment.  She encouraged intentional living, saying living with intention can lead you to own your life.  I’m a big fan of owning your life, so I was with her that far.

Then the speaker defined intentional to mean having a plan.  The joy of living in the moment, she declared, comes from following a plan.  And that’s where she lost me, because I couldn’t disagree more.

To act with intention requires a conscious choice.  Living with intention therefore means living in the moment.  When you consciously choose in the moment what you do, you refuse to let your habits simply play themselves out.  That act allows you to embrace life and all the true joy of living.

You don’t need a plan for any of that to unfold for you.  All you need is to use the one gift from God we all have — agency.  You simply make a conscious choice.

Happiness comes not from just doing the right things but from giving your all to all the right things for you.  Giving your all is a conscious choice.  When you choose that path with full awareness and intention, the true joy of being alive can be yours.

Most don’t live like that.  They live on autopilot, a life filled with comfort and a sense of stability.  But true joy isn’t found in comfort and stability alone.  True joy comes from consciously embracing the right things.

I use that word embracing intentionally.  You can’t just execute a routine of righteous activity and expect happiness to find you.  The happy life doesn’t just come to you because it’s somehow your right or because you’re somehow deserving of it just because of who you are.  To get the happy life, you have to make it.  That requires consciously choosing the right things.  That means getting out of autopilot and its routine living.  And that means embracing all the right things for you.

In the end, your focus always determines your reality.  Focusing on what you don’t have and can’t do always brings a reality of scarcity and helplessness.  And a life that feels lacking and helpless is never enjoyable.

But the same principle works in the other direction.  Focusing on what you do have and can do brings a reality of abundance and empowerment.  As you begin to see how richly the Lord has blessed you, you feel gratitude come to you.  And life starts feeling joyful.

That focus on what you have now and can do now is key to living in the moment and making the happy life you want.  Focusing on the present and not the future is a conscious choice that helps you live with intention.  And the gift of agency from a loving Heavenly Father brings that choice within reach of us all.

The happy life doesn’t find you.  You find it by making it.  And that starts when you start living with intention.  Righteous intentional choices lift what you do to a new level because in so doing you give your all to the right things.  And when you give your all to the right things, life in return gives back to you all the joy and satisfaction of a life well lived.

You’ll always get what you give, so give your all to the right things for you and get the life that’s right in all ways for you.  You can breathe with confidence, walk with boldness, and bring your focus away from the future and more to the present moment.  You’ll then open yourself to a life you can savor regardless of your circumstances.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Something’s missing here.  It’s this truth: Results come only from action.  If you don’t have the results you want, you’re not taking the right action.  So instead of rationalizing your way out of doing what you need to do, learn what action you should take, and then take it.  Your time is now.

Life won’t always go as desired.  When it doesn’t, don’t just say, “Well, it must not be the Lord’s timing.”  Concluding so prematurely will keep you from the real solutions you need.

Too many LDS singles use the concept of the Lord’s timing as a crutch to excuse themselves from further involvement in their own eternal progression.  We all want to believe we can get what we want without making any changes in ourselves, that we just need to keep the standards and then the Lord will just deliver our desired companion when the time is right.  It’s an enticing  yet deceptive argument.

The universe doesn’t work that way.  To reap the harvest, you must sow the seed for that harvest.  To get a different harvest, you must sow different seed.  And you choose what seed to sow.  You can make you more attractive to your hoped for eternal companion.  Giving your all to the right things always produces the right results.

Ultimately, happiness is not about doing the right things but rather giving your all to the right things.  Without question the standards are some of those right things.  So is holding to the iron rod.

And so is eliminating habits that encourage potential companions to decide against you.  So is changing the way you think so your approach to life broadcasts an attractive rather than repulsive energy.  So is conquering your fears holding you back from achieving your potential.  So is partnering with the Lord so you can know what steps you need to take today to turn your life around and capture all the joy He wants you to have right now.

Rushing to conclude the Lord’s timing isn’t right just because you’re still single blinds you from seeing all you can do that’s right for you.  You’ll never get right results without right action.  No matter how much you’ve done, there’s always more you can do.

Results come from action and only from action.  Stop using the Lord’s timing as a crutch to justify inaction.  You don’t get results from anything but action.  Someone must act for you to get results.  That someone is you, and your time is now.

That undoubtedly irritates some of you, especially if you’ve sincerely given your all to secure your companion.  And I’m not discounting the Lord’s timetable for each of our lives.  He knows not only what’s right but when it’s right.

That’s why you need to partner with Him. When you do, you’ll know what you should do with the time you have now.  For most LDS singles, now is the time to take action to move towards eternal blessings.  It’s not just about keeping the standards.  It’s changing the way you think so you embrace a new way of being that makes you more attractive.

That’s the real secret.  Marriage is best pursued indirectly, not directly.  When you choose to make the right changes in you, you drastically increase the likelihood someone you want will want you.  Partnering with the Lord will help you know what changes are best for you to make today that will attract a brighter tomorrow.

The Lord does have a right time for each of us to receive eternal blessings.  But unless you’ve got revelation your time isn’t now, you’re choosing to be single when you use the concept of the Lord’s timing to justify your own inaction.  For most LDS singles, your time is now.  So get busy giving your all to all the right things for you.  When you do, you’ll move yourself closer to the blessings you desire.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

How did friendship come to be so bad?  That’s totally upside down.  Friendship is good, and when you understand the fundamentals of the dating journey, you can easily see you do want the Friend Zone.

It’s hard to get anywhere in any journey without having a good map and then getting your bearings on that map.  That’s what knowing the fundamentals of the dating journey does.  They provide that good map and help us get our bearings.

One of those fundamentals is understanding the different stages.  And the first stage of the dating journey is the Friendship stage.  You’re in this stage when you first meet someone, and you’ll be in this stage until you start dating.  In this stage, there’s no commitment of either party to each other; anyone can come and go as they please.  That lack of commitment is necessary to foster each person opening up enough to let someone else know them better, which you need to foster true friendship.

Friendship is the foundation of all successful long-term relationships.  That’s why the Friendship stage is the first stage of the dating journey.  Without friendship, a married couple won’t have the stamina to get through the difficult times and challenges that sooner or later come to every marriage.  If you want to build something that lasts, begin with a solid foundation.

The Friendship stage is where building that solid foundation starts.  You don’t necessarily need to have that foundation completed before proceeding to the next stage.  In fact, you’ll be building that foundation of friendship all along your dating journey.  But you should have the core established before going further.

Many singles encounter difficulty in their dating journey when they try to rush it.  Seeing singleness as something to escape, they want it over as quickly as possible.  That propensity to rush leads them to think they’re in one stage when they’re really in another.

Singles progress more effectively through their dating journey when they consciously choose to be in the stage where they are.  You may want to be dating someone, but if you’re in the Friendship stage, then be there.  That doesn’t mean you don’t look for opportunities to date.  It means you focus on friendship building skills you’ll need when you’re with whoever you do eventually marry.

So when you’re in the Friendship stage, be in the place where you are.  Focus on building friendships and enjoying people for who they are and what they have to offer without any expectation of getting something in return.  There’s no commitment in this stage of the dating journey, so you don’t have to accept anything you don’t like.

When you focus on being where you are, what was once complex and confusing becomes simple and clear.  Truly being in the place where you are allows you to let go of worries and concerns about the future.  You can’t cross a bridge until you get to it, so focus on crossing when you get there.

Being in the place where you are also allows you to experience more joy in your journey.  Because you’ve pushed aside concerns about future stages for when you’re actually in those stages, you’ve cleared the space for more joy to come into your life.  You can learn to enjoy people for who they really are without concerns about what they might offer you in return.  The friend zone then changes from the equivalent of some God-forsaken wasteland to a wonderful paradise of plenty where life just becomes enjoyable.  And isn’t that what we all really want in the end?

Yet whatever the cause or extent of injustice, there’s hope.  Though not speaking directly to singles, Elder Renlund taught the best way for singles to confront the injustice in their lives — find peace in Christ.  He knows our wounds from infuriating unfairness and can heal our hurt.  When we embrace the Prince of Peace, we can have faith He’ll right every single wrong.

The peace we seek in a world of infuriating injustice begins inside.  Once we get good with ourselves on the inside, we can then turn to help others on the outside.  And in helping others become better, we ourselves become better.

That process can’t begin anywhere but on the inside.  The strength needed to follow the Savior’s example in serving others comes only from within.  Only by getting good with you on the inside can you be in position to strengthen and uplift others.

That requires dealing with unfairness in your life productively.  Of course, Christ offers the most productive way of confronting any challenge in life.  And so, Elder Renlund points us to the Savior:

The Lord understands what it’s like to carry your burden.  He can make your burden light because He’s already carried it.  His life wasn’t exactly free of injustice, and the Atonement brought to Him whatever suffering you’ve experienced that wasn’t in His life.  He willingly carried all that burden because of His love for you.

And because of that love and willingness to accept your sufferings — burdens which weren’t at all fair He should carry — you can trust Him He’ll support you in this present world and someday somehow correct whatever injustice you experience.

He’ll also help you find advantage in that injustice.  As the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi taught, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things” (2 Nephi 2:11).  Every obstacle you face must therefore also come with its opposite.  What’s the opposite of an obstacle but an opportunity?  So there must be an opportunity with every obstacle.

Likewise, every injustice must come with its opposite.  If an injustice is something horribly wrong, then its opposite must be something fantastically right — a delight, a joy, a thrill, a gratification.  So every injustice must come with a gratification.

The gratification that comes might not relate at all to the injustice.  But one gratification we can all have from whatever injustice we experience is that which comes from supporting someone else in similar circumstances.  Elder Renlund spoke of this:

Your injustice gives you an experience by which you can extend compassion and support to others with similar experience.  The never-marrieds who experience injustice in the search for eternal companionship as well as those experiencing injustice in divorce or being widowed can reach out to other LDS singles with similar experience.  You can leverage your injustice to lift others higher.

That means every confrontation you have with injustice presents you with a choice.  You can retreat into yourself and become embittered.  Or you can give of yourself and become empowered.

You make your choice with your focus.  Focusing on how wronged you’ve been creates a reality of wrong, which leads to bitterness.  Focusing on how you can leverage the injustice to help others creates a reality of hope, which leads to empowerment.

We all know which choice is better.  As Elder Renlund counseled,

Though the injustice you face may make it easy to feel the Lord has abandoned you, He hasn’t, nor will He ever so long as you turn to Him.

Only the Prince of Peace can grant a fullness of the peace we all seek in the face of injustice.  So whatever injustice you face in your life, take the Lord at His word that someday someway He’ll right every wrong you experience, and give Him your burden.  When you do, He can heal you and help you leverage your pain for your gain in helping others.  Instead of becoming bitter, you become better.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

When the options before you seem untenable, it’s time to get some new ones.  Most people simply accept what they’re given, but the truly successful open new doors when the old ones close, even if that means making the new doors themselves.  If you feel your dating options are limited or even non-existent, it’s time to expand your horizons, dare to step out, and strike new ground.

The key to increasing your success is thinking probabilistically.  Target actions that increase your probability of success.  Often that means increasing the likelihood of crossing paths with acceptable prospects.  When you know what activities those types of people have in their life, it’s easier to find new opportunities to meet them.

For example, if you want a worthy companion you can take to the temple, you need to cross paths more with temple worthy people.  What activities do temple worthy people have in their life?  Service is a big one.  How do you cross paths more with people who have service in their life? By serving more yourself.

So expand the scope of your service.  Really delve into your ministering assignment.  Get more active with family history in family history centers.  Pray for and be attentive to service opportunities in your ward.  Spend more time in the temple.  My grandfather met his second wife while serving in the temple.

You get more opportunity to meet quality people when you cross paths more often with quality people.  The probability you’ll do that increases substantially when you position yourself for that crossing to happen.  And the best way to do that is to identify what the people you want to meet do in their lives and then do the same things in yours.

The advent of social media offers an amazing opportunity to do just that.  The business model social media platforms use lets you leverage them for free.  And when you understand the fundamentals of the dating journey, leveraging social media for dating becomes quite natural.

Too many LDS singles frustrate their own progress by thinking huge commitment when considering dating.  They aren’t being in the place where they are.  The dating journey has various stages, each with more commitment than the one before.  The first stage, Friendship, has zero commitment.  Guess what stage you’re in when you first meet someone?  Yep, Friendship.  So focus on building friendship when you meet people since that’s the stage you’re in.

Join groups that attract the type of people you want to meet, get active in group discussions, and you’ll increase your probability of crossing paths with quality prospects.  Then be in the place where you are — whatever stage of the dating journey you’re in — as you get to know people.  Your journey will go better when you’re in the place where you are.

My final suggestion I’ve mentioned before.  Long-time audience members will recognize my encouragement to adopt a personal ministry.  Find some contribution of goodness you can make, and then devote yourself to making that contribution.

Adopting a personal ministry makes you a more interesting person, which in turn makes you more attractive in dating.  And the people who’ll cross your path as you perform your personal ministry are more likely to be quality prospects interested in devoting themselves to causes similar to the one you embrace with your personal ministry.  What a wonderful foundation for a friendship that could grow into a wonderful foundation for marriage!

If you’re frustrated with the dating options LDS singles typically pursue, expand your horizons by imagining new options that approach dating in different ways while still based in the fundamentals of what you’re trying to do.  We all have opportunities all around us, and when we embrace new and different ways of thinking, we can see more of those opportunities and then take advantage of them.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

How many of us are doing that?  How many of us are taking the action needed to improve our lives?  Again, only action produces results.  And it doesn’t matter how undesired your reality is today.  You can flip any reality into something better when you flip your focus.

Some may find that a bold claim.  If you’re engulfed in your own negative experience, you’ll rightly wonder how simply looking at something different can change anything.  But we’re talking here about focusing, not just looking.

Just because you look at something doesn’t mean you’re focused on it.  When you drive a car, for example, you’ll look ahead for the most part because that’s the direction you’re going.  But occasionally, you look in your mirrors to get a sense of what’s around you.  That’s part of safe driving.  But how safe would you be looking mostly in your rear view mirror?  You’d find driving your vehicle safely difficult if you did that.

That’s the difference between focusing and seeing.  Everyone has undesired experiences in life.  Simply looking at them won’t create a negative reality.  Only when you constantly choose to keep your vision fixed on the negative are you focused on the negative.  And a focus on the negative means a reality filled with negativity.

Changing a negative reality is as simple as choosing a positive focus.  If a negative reality results from a negative focus, then a positive reality will result from a positive focus.  But how exactly does that work?

Many think reality is the collection of what happens to you, but this perspective drives a focus on what others do or don’t do, and the resulting reality is one in which you’re disempowered to change your own life for the better.

What happens to you does play a role in shaping reality, but you play a much larger role with the meaning you assign.  You’ll get a certain result depending on your actions.  And, yes, other people play a role in determining that result.  But whatever the result, you choose what that result means.  And that meaning plays a larger role in creating your reality than what others do.

The same undesired experience can come to two different people, and you can find one in complete turmoil and the other in complete peace.  The same thing happened to both, so why don’t both have the same reality?  It’s because reality is more than just what you experience; it’s also what meaning you choose to give your experience.  And the way you assign meaning is through your focus.  You choose your focus, and thereby you choose the meaning you assign to your experiences, and thereby you choose your reality.

When you understand how it all works, the ramifications can overwhelm.  If you choose your reality, then the one ultimately responsible if you don’t like your reality is you!  That realization usually precedes one of two responses: You’ll either cower back and hide, or you’ll stand up and embrace it.

Cowering can be comfortable, but that choice disempowers you, surrendering you to a victim mentality that keeps you in the prison of always blaming others for why your life isn’t what it should be.  But your best life has you empowered with a victor mentality that liberates you.  And that’s where the harder choice to stand up and embrace the truth comes in.  To have your best life, you must stand and own it.

If you don’t like your current reality, you can flip it when you flip your focus.  Stand up, own your life, and start making intentional choices to seize your power of agency and move yourself towards your best life.  You’ll feel the empowerment that comes from taking control of your life.  You’ll feel the satisfaction that comes from making progress towards your goals.  And you’ll learn how to stay positive no matter what negative experiences come your way.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Most people, single or married, simply accept what they're given.  They don't chase what they want.  The result is they often don't get what they want.  And not getting what they want, they end up unhappy.  They settle for a life far beneath their privileges.

It doesn't have to be that way for anyone.  And yes, anyone includes YOU!  I don't care what's happened to you or where you're from or how old you are or any of that business.  Results come from one thing and one thing only, and that's action.  Period.  Take the same actions, you get the same results.  Take different actions, you get different results.

Once you stop over-thinking it and just accept the simplicity of that truth, it's easier to see other truths, like the need to own your life.  After all, if your results come from your actions, then the only way your life gets better is with better actions.  And that means accepting responsibility for how your life results and start choosing actions that will produce the results you want.

Most don't really struggle with grasping the Law of the Harvest.  They know they need more effective actions to get more effective results.  What many struggle with are the details.  They don't know exactly what actions are the more effective ones.  "What specific actions," they ask, "do I need to take to get the specific results I want?"

If you're asking that question, understand you'll never know the answer you should have for that question if you don't get your thinking right.  Sound bonkers?  It's still completely true.  We don't just act; we're not hardwired that way.  We're biologically hardwired to play out habit.  And that means some thinking had to occur before we took any action.

Without understanding why you've chosen to act as you have in the past, you won't know what you need to choose in the future to get different results.  Understanding the connection between what you've done and what you got will help you know what changes you need in what you do to get changes in what you get.

One of my favorite scenes in the film Jack Reacher is when Jack is in Helen's office helping her understand why her client is innocent.  To open her mind to new possibilities, Jack has Helen look at people working late in a neighboring building.  He slowly steps her through seeing through new eyes what she's seen before too many times to count.  And he does it by entertaining an important philosophical question of what it truly means to be free.

True freedom exists in how you think.  Changing how you think lets you see more clearly the connections between what you've done and what you got.  You can see new possibilities for getting something different.  You can see the changes you need in yourself to embrace those possibilities.  And you can see how that future can be yours regardless of what's happened to you or where you're from or how old you are or any of that business.

Break yourself free of a life far less than the one you're capable of living.  God gave you agency so you could choose for yourself what you'll do.  Choose to learn the connections between how you think, what you do, and what you get.  Then choose to leverage that knowledge in better actions designed to yield better results.  When you consistently choose to plant and nurture seeds of more effective action, over time you'll reap a harvest of more effective results.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Take God’s approach to the Creation, for example.  He knew what He wanted, and He took action to make it happen.  He didn’t sit around believing everything would somehow work out just because He was righteous.  He took action that brought about what He wanted.

Likewise, you can sit around and pretend the blessings you want will come simply because you’re righteous.  Or you can follow God’s example and take action to create your best life.

I love how the Creation starts the scriptural record.  That placement reinforces the metaphor that story is for creating your best life.  And anyone can follow God’s example to do just that.

God didn’t simply start creating.  He worked from a plan requiring action.  In so doing, God took responsibility for producing desired results.  And He remained resolute in executing that plan.  How is simply staying on the covenant path hoping your blessings come “when the time is right” working from an action plan?  That choice places responsibility for how your life results in God’s hands.  That’s not the example God set.

To follow God’s example, own your life.   Don’t push responsibility for the results in your life to anyone else.  You take responsibility for your results in your life.  Every result you want in life comes by obedience to its respective principle (D&C 130:20-21).  Only action produces results.  So get your action plan together and start taking action.

Many LDS singles stop here.  They just don’t know the specific actions they need to take in order to produce the result they desire.  It’s hard to have a plan when you don’t know what to put in the plan.

Again, let’s “look to God and live” (Alma 37:47).  God had helpers during the Creation.  He gave them His vision of what He wanted, and then He worked with them as they together performed the Creation.  God didn’t work alone and didn’t force anyone to do what He wanted.  Instead, He exercised His influence and respected agency.

You shouldn’t go it alone, either.  Make sure you include the right people in your action plan who’ll help you achieve your results.  Of course, the most important helper in your plan should be the Lord.  When you partner with Him, He can help you make more out of your life than you can without Him.

And there’s others you should consider.  Family, friends, and Church leaders can provide valuable support along your journey.  Especially helpful is an advocate, someone who provides counsel, support, and accountability for specific actions.  Some will trust their bishop or a ministering brother or sister with that role.  Others might look to a sibling or special friend.  Still others might find that help in Joy in the Journey Radio, and we’re here for you if that’s your choice.

Do you see how just going through the motions of being righteous and waiting for the “right time” doesn’t match how God acts?  Following His example of taking ownership, developing a plan, and then securing a team to work towards a common result will more likely produce the best life we all seek.

And yes, not everyone will be on board.  Some people will disappoint you, but let’s again look to God’s example.  He always respected agency.  He never forced anyone to help Him achieve His plan.  Instead, He chose to act in ways that would influence others positively in their choices.  You can do likewise.  As you achieve your potential by making needed changes in you, you can radiate an energy that will influence others positively in their choices.

So quit sitting on the sidelines and get in the game of life!  You’ll never score any points unless you’re on the field.  Don’t sit around pretending the blessings you want will come simply because you’re righteous.  Follow God’s example, own your life, get your plan together, and take action to create your best life.  When you take responsibility for your results and then take the right actions, you’ll get the right results.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.