All of us would be more concerned with our lives if we thought our Father in heaven was watching or that our spouses or our children were going to see us make a touchdown or act honorably in some other outstanding way. We are very interested by what others think of us. Think what we can do for so many other people if we work for them in the mission, the temples, and so on.

Motive number three: The consciousness of a great skill has high motivational qualities. Learning to do something better than anybody else gives high motivational power. Think for a moment about those things that you can do, that you are expected to do better than anybody else. Douglas Mallack wrote a poem about this entitled, "Be the Best of Whatever You Are."

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill
Be a scrub in the valley, but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill.
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush, be a bit of the grass,
And some highway the happier make.
If you can't be a muskie then just be a bass,
But the liveliest bass in the lake.

We can't all be captains; there's got to be crew.
There is something for all of us here.
There are great things to do, there are small things to do,
And the thing you must do is the near.

If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail.
If you can't be a sun, be a star.
For success is not measured by how large or how small;
Just be the best of whatever you are.

I would like to suggest to you students, particularly considering these wonderful opportunities we have, that we ought to go out and practice the things that we do and be able to do something well. It may be that we can be more punctual than anyone else. Abraham Lincoln excelled in honesty. There are many areas in which one can excel where there is really not very much competition, and the consciousness of a high skill has great motivational power.

Motivation factor number four is the awareness of the reward. I was down in California some time ago and found a missionary there preaching some false doctrine. I heard him say to a contact, "Missionaries don't get paid; we work for nothing."

When the contact had gone I said to the missionary, "Now, that's the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard anybody make in my life. How did you ever figure out that missionaries didn't get paid? I thought the Lord said that if you labor all your days and bring just one soul unto him your reward is going to be very great."

I asked him if he remembered what the Lord has said about the worth of the soul being greater than the wealth of all of the earth, and he did. I asked him if he knew what the earth was worth, and he did not. I had a newspaper clipping that said the assessed valuation of just one little section of the United States alone--California, Arizona, and Nevada--was over a trillion dollars. I got this elder a piece of paper and a pencil and had him write a trillion dollars down on the paper--it has twelve zeros, in case you have never seen it written. He had brought in a convert each month for the past twelve months, which was all the time he had been out; so I had him figure out that if he worked thirty days a month and ten hours a day, that would be three hundred hours' work to save a trillion-dollar soul. Then I had him divide a trillion by three hundred and he figured he was getting three billion three hundred thirty-three million dollars per hour.

I asked him, "What is the most that anybody ever paid you when you were at home?"

He said, "Seventy-five cents."

I said, "All right, now what were you trying to get those poor people to believe when you said that a missionary doesn't get paid?"

Some people think that parents do not get paid or that bishops do not get paid, or scoutmasters or teachers or great people who are trying to do the other important work of the world; but that is ridiculous. Some of them get the highest pay. People who do God's work get God's pay. Somebody has compared the scripture to a great collection of promissory notes. Every command has a promise attached: pay tithing and receive a reward so great that it cannot be contained; honor father and mother "that thy days may be long upon the land" (Exodus 20:12); keep the Word of Wisdom and other blessings will come. There is no commandment that does not have a promise attached.

Review the rewards for doing the work of the Lord and then think about the part you may have in it. The Lord has said,

He that receiveth my servants receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth my Father; and he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father's kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him. [D&C 84:36–38]

We all like to inherit from a wealthy parent, but try to imagine what it would be like to inherit from God, to get everything that God has. Somebody has said that thrift is a great virtue, especially in an ancestor. God has been very thrifty and very wise, and he has promised that if we do a few little easy, simple things he will give us everything that he has, including eternal life in his presence. He has already given us his physical form and his mental potentialities and all of his wonderful potential personality traits, and he is trying to give to us as fast as he can develop us to the point where we will take advantage of what he gives us.