Maria sometimes confides her shortcomings to her husband.

Not that she has much to confide; those who know her know her heart is pure. But occasionally she'll tell her husband that she didn't pay attention in the gospel doctrine class or that she really doesn't want to sing in the ward choir. She's always trying to tie up her life's lose ends, as it were, so that she's a better person today than she was yesterday.

It's a never-ending — but oh-so-worthwhile — process.

Maria is on to something. Mortality is a glorious gift. The Lord has graciously given us the time — as well as the means and the knowledge — to become the people we ought to become.

But it takes more than just time. It takes honest evaluation and specific effort to discard life's worthless baggage and latch onto those things of value.

Do you remember running into that old friend you hadn't seen in many years?

Chances are he'd changed, in some ways. And chances are he was just the same, in some ways.

Often, the character traits of our youth become more pronounced as we age. Often, something happens in our lives that makes us completely different.

But why leave that change to chance?

Life will run its course. With or without our specific attention, we will become something. With diligent, specific attention to improvement, we can become Christlike. Without that attention, well, there's really no way of knowing what we'll become.

If, as Amulek taught, we have the same spirit in the eternal world as we have in this life, then it follows that we must begin to perfect that spirit right now. (See Alma 34:34.)

Amulek also asserted, "Now is the time and the day of your salvation; . . . this life is the time for men to prepare meet God; . . . this life is the day for men to perform their labors. . . . do not procrastinate the day of your repentance" Alma 34:31-35).

It only makes sense, then, to actively take charge of the process — to decide what to jettison and what to embrace. And then (in the words of President Spencer W. Kimball) just do it.

Amulek further affirmed that if we don't do it now, we might lose our chance.

"If we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

". . . If ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his" (Alma 34: 33, 35).

Given Amulek's admonition, maybe Maria has the right idea. Maybe we really should give this serious attention.

Our attention and efforts can bear fruit, of course, because of the mercy afforded us through the Savior's Atonement. And, while it is never too late to start, we're far better off starting sooner than later.

Take the flight of an airplane.

If that plane leaves its starting point just one degree off course, and travels just one mile, it won't be far from the appointed destination when it arrives.

But if that plane started off one degree wrong and traveled, say, 1,000 miles, it would land very far from where it should be.

The early course correction pays big dividends, and big successes come in small degrees.

Or, as Alma taught Helaman, "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (See Alma 37:6).

Maybe not singing in the ward choir isn't a terrible shortcoming. For Maria, maybe it is. For the rest of us, what Maria does or doesn't do isn't our concern. What matters is that we personally focus on our own self-improvement — and make whatever changes we need to make.