hope is critical to both faith and charity

The things we hope for are often future events... The things we hope in sustain us during our daily walk... Hope is critical to both faith and charity. When disobedience, disappointment, and procrastination erode faith, hope is there to uphold our faith. When frustration and impatience challenge charity, hope braces our resolve and urges us to care for our fellowmen even without expectation of reward. The brighter our hope, the greater our faith. The stronger our hope, the purer our charity. The things we hope for lead us to faith, while the things we hope in lead us to charity. The three qualities—faith, hope, and charity—working together, grounded on the truth and light of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, lead us to abound in good works.


Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Infinite Power of Hope,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 21–24

No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.


Luke 9:62 Luke 13:25

can never be recaptured

There is a time appointed for the performance of every righteous work. Time lost can never be recaptured; it is gone forever.


Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, Vol.1, p.480 - p.481 Alma 34:33

Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it.


Miguel de Cervantes - (1547-1616), Spanish writer. Don Quixote, in Don Quixote, pt. 1, bk. 4, ch. 2 (1605; tr. by P. Motteux).

But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.


Samuel the Lamanite. Helaman 13:38. Book of Mormon.

But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!


Nephi, 2 Nephi 9:27 (See also Alma 34:32)

And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for 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.

For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.


Amulek - Alma 34:33-35 (See also Ecclesiastes 5:4)

For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God…


Amulek - Alma 34:32

Life Wasted - Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam, 2006

You're always saying that there's something wrong...
I'm starting to believe it's your plan all along...

I seen the home inside your head,...
All locked doors and unmade beds.
Open sores unattended
Let me say just once that

I have faced it,... A life wasted,...
I'm never going back again.

I escaped it,... A life wasted,...
I'm never going back again.

Having tasted,... A life wasted,...
I'm never going back again.

You're always saying you're too weak to be strong...
You're harder on yourself than just about anyone.

Darkness comes in waves,... tell me,why invite it to stay?

I have faced it,... A life wasted,...
I'm never going back again.

I escaped it,... A life wasted,...
I'm never going back again.

Having tasted,... A life wasted,...
I'm never going back again.

Oh I erased it,... A life wasted,...
I'm never going back again.