Choose Life with your Livelihood

In the resource video for this month’s tenet of life culture, Alicia shares numerous ways everyday actions and choices can lead to life. This inspired me to make my own list.

Choose life by making ends meet in our families. Livelihood is generally defined as the means by which people obtain the necessities of life. I prefer a broader definition that refers to the full range of means that families or groups utilize to make a living and all the work it encompasses. It brings to mind an old pioneer adage that suggests what this might look like: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.” This is a process fueled by daily decisions regarding earning and spending, planning and saving, thrift, patience, hard work, and relying on Heaven’s help. As we teach these valuable lessons to our family members, this view of increasing our harvest and making the most of what we have blesses succeeding generations.

Choose life through families and embracing marriage. This sacred relationship is to be nurtured and preserved, wherein husband and wife work as equals for the benefit of the family. 

Choose life in our use of our procreative powers. Sex is intended to generate life. We must strive to invite children to come to a family situation offering love and the best possible chance to thrive. When reality is less than ideal, we can recognize all children as gifts and blessings and do all we can to support and nurture them and their parents.

Choose life through lifelong learning. Education, formal or practical, is a proven path to stability, self-fulfillment, productive change, and increased livelihood choices.

Choose life through honoring your elders. Be kind and patient and demonstrate their great worth to you and your family. Listen to them and learn and record their stories. It will bless your life to get to know them, and the generations that preceded them. Rather than being content to gather facts and dates, dig deeper and get to know them and what you can learn from them. In this address, expert Amy Harris encourages us to develop “genealogical consciousness,” which posits that others in the future, mostly strangers, will also be lifted and led to their family ancestors because of the details we discover and record. It’s an unselfish act of love. 

Choose life by seeing and valuing every person as part of your global family. The Bible story of David being chosen as king despite his outward appearance teaches us “for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) Adjust your vision accordingly. 

Finally,

Choose life by remembering our livelihood is a gift and stewardship. With wisdom and generosity, share your bounty as seeds for others to expand their life’s possibilities.

Photo Credits: Baby and Mother – Zach Vessels on Unsplash; Animal and red umbrella – Nathan Cima on Unsplash; Family outside – joann-mark-kuzmietsov on Unsplash; Family in kitchen – Pexels by Vanessa Long;