The Christ-Centered Life
As a youth, I first gained a desire to make the gospel of Jesus Christ an integral part of all I did while reading in the Book of Mormon. I have a vivid memory of reading the words of Nephi, who instructs us “that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul” (2 Ne. 32:9). This commandment astonished me! I could think of many activities in which I engaged on a daily basis that did not begin with a prayer offered in Christ’s name and whose intended purpose had nothing to do with the welfare of my soul. In a burst of youthful zeal, I decided to repent and alter my habits so that my life better conformed to Nephi’s description of Christ-centered consecrated living. At the time, I spent an hour or more on most days playing basketball, and it was my great ambition to make the junior varsity team as a freshma...