Editor’s Note The following story is by Bishop Gérald Caussé, the presiding bishop of Church, from the October 2019 New Era magazine. In this story, he shares a time when he was driving President Hinckley when he visited Paris, France. On the trip, President Hinckley wanted to visit a US military cemetery where his brother was buried. Unfortunately, on the day he wanted to visit the cemetery, it was closed. Bishop Caussé retells the rest of the story:
The next day, we were so busy that we didn’t have time to go back to the cemetery. That evening, President Hinckley handed me a $10 (US) bill and said, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to go to the cemetery. I would be very grateful if you could buy flowers and put them on my brother’s grave.”
I bought flowers, but I didn’t use that bill. The following Sunday afternoon, I went with my family and put the flowers on the grave. We took a picture of our family in front of the grave with all the flowers and sent it to President Hinckley.
I still have that $10 bill. It’s in my scriptures. If I were to ask, “What is the value of this bill?” most people would say, “Ten dollars.” But for me, it’s worth far more. This bill was worth ten dollars, but for me, it’s priceless now. It’s a memory of a moment I had with a prophet of God.
Give Your Life Eternal Purpose and Meaning
In our lives, there are a lot of things that have a very finite, temporal value. There are a lot of people who live what I would call a “ten-dollar” life. These are the kind of people who might say, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” (2 Nephi 28:7).
But the value of every minute of life here on earth has a tremendous impact that goes beyond this life into the eternities. The opposite of the attitude of “eat, drink, and be merry” is to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20).
To read what laying up treasures in heaven looks like, read the the rest of Bishop Caussé article in the New Era.
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