How the Lord’s mortal servants should labor in the work

“The Lord wants us to be diligent but prudent. We are not to give our cross a hurried heft merely to see if we can lift it and then put it down—we are to carry it for the balance of our lives. And pace matters very much. …

“Running faster than we have strength ‘is not requisite.’ Doing things diligently but ‘in wisdom and order’ is, in fact, necessary if one is to ‘win the prize.” [Mosiah 4:27.] This balance between pace and diligence is a high and demanding exercise in the use of our time, talent, and agency. …

“… When our pace exceeds our strength and means, the result is prostration instead of sustained dedication. Directions on such matters can be and are given to us through the process of private inspiration. …

“Pace, which requires diligent, sustained effort, is not the way of those who fling themselves into a single task and quickly become depleted and, therefore, cannot help again for a season” (Notwithstanding My Weakness [1981], 4, Elder Neal A. Maxwell).