"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing" (D&C 88:119)

I have a system of organization some people call...well, they wouldn't call it organization at all. They would call it "piles". Yes, I have piles of paper all over the place, each with a specific purpose, but I know what each pile contains. When a friend pointed this out to me, that I had a lot of piles, I got a little nervous, perhaps I wasn't as organized as I thought I was. But that soon passed. It sure got me thinking about organizing and how some people are so great at organizing and maybe I should hire someone to help me get organized. But that soon passed as well. I then started thinking about creating, and how my piles are a "creative way" of being organized. This led me to thinking about organizing and creating.

God is the perfect Creator. He created the earth (see Genesis 1:1), which of course, made me look up 'create' in the scriptures. And guess what? Create and organize are one in the same! "Create: To organize. God, working through His Son, Jesus Christ, organized the elements in nature to form the earth. Heavenly Father and Jesus created man in their image" (The Guide to the Scriptures). I can create. I love to be creative. I am good at that, but organize? In studying this, I realized that I just needed some perspective.

We are taught: "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing" (D&C 88:119; D&C 109:8). In replacing the word "create" for organize, I got a whole new view: "Create yourselves, prepare every needful thing". What would it look like to create ourselves? We have been created by God after all, and we are His children. So, what are we to learn by creating ourselves, and preparing every needful thing? We are all needful, or necessary. What about organizing or creating ourselves spiritually, meaning, to form those qualities that are within us that need to be refined, need to be organized and created more fully? We are to "establish (which also means to create and to organize) a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God" (D&C 88:119). In this scripture, the Lord, when referring to a "house", means a temple. We are also "temple[s] of God" (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

We can "create" ourselves into "temples" of prayer, fasting, faith, learning, glory, order, and of God. "The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before" (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf). This applies to us creating ourselves into what God already knows we are capable of becoming. The Lord said, "that [He] made [us], and formed [us] from the womb," and He will help us (Isaiah 44:2). Sometimes, what keeps me from creating is fear, but we do not need to fear because "if ye are prepared ye shall not fear" (D&C 38:30). Preparing helps us create, and creating helps us be prepared. We must "prepare every needful [or necessary] thing" (D&C 88:119). And we are necessary. We must prepare ourselves.

As we "prepare every needful thing" (D&C 88:119) within ourselves and "the more [we] trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater [our] capacity to create" (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf) or to organize. As we 'create', we are creating beauty around us and within us, thus improving both worlds and drawing closer to and becoming more like our Creator, even Jesus Christ. This I testify