Introduction

¹ God loves eve­ry­one and wants each of us to find joy and sat­is­fac­tion. ² To help us to­wards that goal, God gave us rea­son, con­science, and the abil­i­ty to choose. ³ Our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is to sin­cere­ly fol­low the dictates of our con­science, guid­ed by rea­son, while re­spect­ing the e­qual priv­i­lege of others to do the same.

⁴ Weʼre ac­count­a­ble to God for our choices. ⁵ Each of us can have a per­son­al re­la­tion­ship with God. ⁶ God com­mu­ni­cates with each of us as needed, ⁷ and sends messengers to dif­fer­ent times, places, and cul­tures to guide us. Study­ing the messages that are in­tend­ed for us can en­light­en our un­der­stand­ing.

⁸ God knows the vast­ness of hu­man di­ver­si­ty. Just as a skilled op­tom­e­trist prescribes eye­glass­es to com­pen­sate for a patientʼs short­com­ings, God guides us to a pre­scrip­tion thatʼs op­ti­mized for our spir­it­u­al growth. Our pre­scrip­tion may dif­fer from, or co­in­cide with, that of our peers. ⁹ Be­cause of this di­ver­si­ty, a com­mu­ni­ty of be­liev­ers can strength­en and in­spire one an­oth­er.

¹⁰ Details about Godʼs na­ture and methods are large­ly a dis­trac­tion from the prop­er fo­cus of our lives: a life­long mi­gra­tion to­wards joy through our per­son­al choices.

¹¹ While striving to live the principles de­scribed above, I felt guid­ed to prayer­ful­ly un­der­take the actions be­low. The results are for my own ben­e­fit and may not ben­e­fit others in the same way.

¹² Cre­ate a pri­or­i­tized list of es­sen­tial com­mand­ments to help me fo­cus on what matters most and to re­solve conflicts that may a­rise be­tween those com­mand­ments. This be­came the Di­gest of Priorities.

¹³ Write pairs of es­sen­tial vir­tues whose opposing demands I must bal­ance in my own life. This be­came the Di­gest of Vir­tues.

¹⁴ Try dif­fer­ent methods of pray­er, listening care­ful­ly to un­der­stand which are most ef­fec­tive at strength­en­ing my re­la­tion­ship with God. Cod­i­fy those practices and ob­serve them regularly. This be­came the Di­gest of Pray­er.

¹⁵ Rec­ord short stories that God has used to clar­i­fy my un­der­stand­ing of cer­tain principles. This be­came the Di­gest of Parables.

¹⁶ Study the teachings of those who are wide­ly con­sid­ered to be messengers of God. Abridge those messages by selecting the most prac­ti­cal and im­por­tant teachings for guid­ing my life. This be­came the Messages. I re­fer to them as The Mes­sage of Solomon, The Mes­sage of Jesus, etc.