Lessons of 2025
Lesson No. Forty-Four

The Blessings of a Consecrated Life

Introduction. Recently, at age 95, Warren Buffett, the legendary investor who has written an annual letter to shareholders for many years, announced his retirement as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Mr. Buffett is a remarkable man who I have admired for many years. He has a good understanding of the world we live in as shown by what he wrote in his 1987 letter to shareholders:

“Occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed, will forever occur in the investment community. The timing of these epidemics will be unpredictable. And the market aberrations produced by them will be equally unpredictable, both as to duration and degree. Therefore, we never try to anticipate the arrival or departure of either disease. Our goal is more modest: we simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

In his 2025 letter he gave this excellent advice: “Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it. Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior”.

In his 2025 letter he also wrote about his decades long struggle to wisely distribute his assets when he dies. “Early on, I contemplated various grand philanthropic plans. Though I was stubborn, these did not prove feasible. During my many years, I’ve also watched ill-conceived wealth transfers by political hacks, dynastic choices and, yes, inept or quirky philanthropists.” When deciding how to distribute wealth he noted another problem that occasionally, a CEO or an heir “will succumb to dementia, Alzheimer’s or another debilitating and long-term disease”.

Mr. Buffett announced that he has determined to divide his hundreds of billions of dollar between three charitable foundations. Each of his three children, ages 72, 70, and 67, manages one of these foundations. These three foundations support a variety of different causes, and people will differ in their opinion as to whether these causes are good, or not so good, or even bad. He expects that by the end of his children’s lives his wealth will all be fully distributed and gone.

The Blessings of a Consecrated Life. Reading about Mr. Buffett’s concerns about disposing of his hundreds of billions of dollars reminded me how grateful I am for the just and holy principles of agency, accountability, consecration and stewardship. It is a marvelous blessing to know that we are agents and can act as we choose, but we are accountable for our actions. We also know that all things belong to the Lord, and that we are His stewards accountable to Him for our stewardship.

And we have the privilege of choosing to consecrate our lives and every things that we have, whether great or small, to the Lord by way of His Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the kingdom of God on the earth, and it is led by living prophets. We have no concern about how what we give to the Lord will be used because all things are is His and He will use it as He pleases. If we consecrate all that we have with a sincere heart, we can be certain that our offering, whatever it is will be far less than a “widows mite”, will be acceptable to Him.

The culminating ordinance of the temple seals a husband and a wife as an eternal family. Those who understand the blessings pronounced in this ordinance have great reason to rejoice because they know that if they live the law of consecration, the Lord promises to share with them all that He possesses, even exaltation and eternal life. How amazing! We consecrate all that we have to Him, and He shares all that He has to us. There could never be a greater disproportionate exchange.

To consecrate something means to dedicate it to a sacred purpose. There is no sacred purpose greater than to use our agency and choose to let God prevail in every dimension of our lives. It is a choice that we must constantly and continuously make. President Russell M. Nelson said it this way: “We can choose to let God prevail in our lives, or not. We can choose to let God be the most powerful influence in our lives” (Let God Prevail, October 2020 General Conference).

Consecration and sacrifice come from the same Latin root – “Our English verb sacrifice derives from the Latin sacer (sacred, holy) and fiacre (to make). The term, then, means “to make holy.” Interestingly, the verb consecrate comes from Latin sacrare, which also derives from sacer. Therefore, both sacrifice and consecrate mean “to make holy.” Our God is holy, and he wants us to be holy. Sacrifice and consecration are laws that true Saints are required to live, as taught and exemplified by the Holy One of Israel…and in his holy temple” (Commentary on Book of Mormon, Ogden & Skinner).

The importance of consecration in our individual salvation is contained in a single verse: “Yea, come unto [Christ], and offer (consecrate) your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved” (Omni 1:26, parenthesis are mine). Offering our whole souls is a willingness sacrifice whatever the Lord requires, and to consecrate our lives to the Lord and to his work.

Joseph Smith taught about the essential role of sacrifice/consecration. (The way Joseph used the word sacrifice includes the meaning of consecration): “A religion that does not require the sacrifice (consecration) of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice (consecration) of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice (consecration), and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life” (Lectures on Faith, p. 58).

Being a full tithe payer is a required, but it is only the beginning as we strive to live the law of consecration. The Lord requires His people to “pay one-tenth of all their interest (meaning income) annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood, saith the Lord” (D&C 119:4). We are in the season where members of His Church attend tithing declaration. The Lord and His bishops leave it to the individual to calculate their income. It is my experience that it is not profitable to quibble with the Lord on how tithing should be calculated. I desire everything the Lord has promised when He said, “prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3:10).

The family is the basic unit of the kingdom of God – To enjoy the blessings of celestial marriage we must be willing to sacrifice/consecrate everything to sustain and defend our families. The family is under attack. The Savoir laid down his life for the redemption of mankind, and we must be willing to sacrifice/consecrate all we have for the Lord, for His work, and for our families. It is in the family that the most important and lasting work of the Lord is accomplished.

Testimony – President Ezra Taft Benson taught a profound truth: “Do you know one reason why righteous mothers love their children so much? Because they sacrifice so much for them. We love what we sacrifice for, and we sacrifice for what we love” (First Presidency’s 1986 Christmas Devotional). As we sacrifice for our families and consecrate our lives to the Lord and His work we love them all more deeply. This process becomes a repeating upward spiral of love, sacrifice and consecration.

Released on November 16th. 2025.