Time, some say, is life's most precious commodity. If it were placed on the open market, trading would be swift.

Benjamin Franklin said: "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of." (Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.)\An anonymous individual wrote this:

"In my dreams I came to a beautiful building, somehow like a bank, and yet not a bank because the brass marker said, `Time for Sale.'

"I saw a man, breathless and pale, painfully pull himself up the stairs like a sick man. I heard him say: `The doctor told me I was five years too late in going to see him. I will buy those five years now - and then he can save my life.'

"Then came another man; also who said to the clerk: `When it was too late, I discovered that God had given me great capacities and endowments, and I failed to develop them. Sell me 10 years so that I can be the man I would have been.'

"Then came a younger man to say: `The company has told me that starting next month I can have a big job if I am prepared to take it. But I am not prepared. Give me two years of time so that I will be prepared to take the job next month.'

"So they came, ill, hopeless, despondent, worried, unhappy - and they left smiling, each man with a look of unutterable pleasure on his face, for he had what he so desperately needed and wanted - time.

"Then I awakened, glad that I had what these men had not, and what they could never buy - time. Time to do so many things I wanted to do, that I must do. If that morning I whistled at my work, it was because a great happiness filled my heart. For I still had time, if I used it well." (Cited by President Spencer W. Kimball, April 1974 general conference.)

We can earn money through the prudent use of time, but no amount of money can purchase us more hours, days, weeks, months or years.

Money can be placed in an account to accumulate and be drawn upon at a later date. We can save it, hoard it, guard it, lend it to others and, in some cases, waste or lose it and then regain it. A number of people never even use it. They die leaving untouched fortunes to heirs, charities or governments.

Time cannot be so stockpiled, loaned or transferred to others. And wasted time can never be regained. The prophet Alma declared: " . . . if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed." (Al. 34:33.)

We use each increment in the moment it comes, and then it is gone forever. However, time can be managed. We might rearrange schedules to fit in people and events that have priority in our lives. We can rise a few minutes or an hour earlier from our sleep to reclaim from pre-dawn darkness new moments to be spent in production, reflection or planning. We can budget the minutes and hours we spend on frivolous or wasteful activities that could, if left uncontrolled, consume huge blocks of our days.

In our wishful thinking, we grasp at lost moments. We might regret sun-filled afternoons spent over account ledgers or business reports instead of outdoors with young children. Some of us wish we could revisit those days and figure out how we could spend our time more wisely, determine how we could take care of the business at hand and still walk in the sunshine with those who matter most in our lives.

Some of us discover old and cherished friendships have died from neglect because we have not nurtured them with the necessary time. We put off writing letters, making phone calls or visiting, saying we will do these things when we have more time. Why are we so surprised when we, in our loneliness, discover there is never "more time"? Tomorrow will have the same number of hours as today.

Perhaps too many of us struggle against time when we ought to work with it. Time is not our enemy. It can be a great help. For example, through time comes experience, and with experience ought to come wisdom. Also, time - called "the healer of wounds" - dulls aches and hurts.

We must judge what constitutes the best use of our time. President Spencer W. Kimball counseled: "Waste is unjustified, and especially the waste of time - limited as that commodity is in our days of probation. One must live, not only exist; he must do, not merely be; he must grow, not just vegetate." (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball.)