INVEST in the Gospel of Jesus Christ

NERD ALERT!!!  So I like school--I like to learn; I like buying new books at the beginning of each semester; I like the library; I like to take notes on everything just because it's so interesting!  What I really love?  math.  My favorite class I've ever taken (by far) is calculus.  So naturally I have dreams about school... cause who doesn't?  And last night I dreamed (I guess the term nightmare would be more appropriate) that I went back to business school at Brigham Young University (GO COUGARS!) after my missionary service and I had forgotten everything I know.  As I did my "30 Day Shred" morning workout with Jillian Michaels, I was completely distracted in trying to remember every single thing I have ever learned and studied.  I started with finance- just trying to think of the terms I had learned, AND THEN.....  EPIPHANY!!!   The Gospel of Jesus Christ applies PERFECTLY to the finance world!  Who woulda thought?

ROI

First thing I could remember: Return On Investment. Fancy words, but a fairly easy concept: "How much profit will we make if we invest in this project?” Basically-is it worth our time, effort, and money? For example, you can study 15 hours for a test and receive an "A"... or you can study 3 hours for a test and get an "A-." Ultimately it's up to you to decide if it is worth it, and there are a lot of outside factors (do you really need an "A" in this class? Do you have anything better to do? Do you enjoy studying? etc.).  And for the most part, we usually want a High ROI.
So I was thinking... The Book of Mormon (when read and accepted) and believing in God brings us the greatest return on your investment ever... more than a TRILLION FOLD in real wealth.... for all my NASDAQ and Dow Jones friends/people who invest-- when do you ever see dividends that high? That's right. You don't.  This looks like a good deal to me!

How does it bring us all this wealth?  Good question. Let's think about ALL of the wealth in the world... all of the gold and precious metals, the money, the land, in fact--all of the assets we write down on the balance sheet. ALL of this is NOTHING compared to what we can have if we follow God.  We have the potential to become like God.  Aka we can make our own worlds!  WORLDS!  We are the ones creating all of this wealth.  If you think there is a lot of wealth in just Earth alone, multiply that by infinity.  These are BIG numbers we're talking about!  So what do ya say-- is it a worthy investment?

Let's think short-term benefits... God promises us peace, blessings, and purpose in life.  (all things we get RIGHT NOW).  Yes we have to be committed and put forth the effort and work... but everything worthwhile in life takes hard work! President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency explains it perfectly in his last General Conference address (Go and enlighten yourself as you read Come, Join with Us).

Okay and Long-term benefits.  Everlasting happiness and joy.  We become Gods and Goddesses.  We get to live with our family forever.  (well that's a no-brainer!)

We all know that all investments are not equal.  Some things outweigh others. God, and the Book of Mormon is definitely something that I want to invest in.  And why not invest today?  Another finance principle: TIME VALUE of MONEY: which basically means that the dollar today is better than dollar tomorrow (because we can invest that dollar and eventually make more off of it....  It's like saving money--the younger we are when we begin saving, the more money we have in the future.)  So start investing in God today.  The more you invest now, the stronger you will be in the future.  Stronger testimony to be able to withstand trials in the future, and more experience to fall back on when times are hard.  Heavenly Father WANTS to bless us.  We must invest if we are to see those blessings.

SOOOOO.  My invitation:  INVEST in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  (no, we are not literally investing in the church).  We are investing by showing our love to the Lord.  Because we follow Jesus Christ and we love Him, we want to follow His commandments.  And we invest as we follow the commandments with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.  Heavenly Father is just WAITING to make us rich.