ToddTalks--Spirit By Design: Your Weekly Survival Guide
ToddTalks--Spirit By Design is for those of you who desire to increase your spiritual wellness, utilize spiritual gifts, and overcome spiritual obstacles. If you struggle to maintain your spirituality, your beliefs, your testimony, in this chaotic world, come listen in and learn some things that can change your life.
Maybe you can't make it to church due to your responsibilities whatever they may be. Maybe you struggle with your Testimony or beliefs and are looking for help. Maybe you just need someone to give you ideas on how to build and strengthen your faith. This podcast is to help you design your spiritual life. Spirit by Design means you are in charge of your life. You surrender it to God and allow him to help you design the life you desire. By developing and strengthening your spiritual side, you will find peace, joy and serenity in this chaotic world that is only getting worse.
Your life can be full of good things and still feel out of order. We’re talking about one change that acts like a master switch: putting God first. Not as a vague intention, but as the real first priority that becomes the filter for your time, money, attention, relationships, and goals. Using Matthew 6:33 as the anchor, we explore why God isn’t another item on the list. He’s the foundation that makes the list make sense.
We walk through what “God first” looks like in the places that matter most. In marriage, it turns winning into covenant love and replaces the pressure to be “made happy” with Christlike service and loyalty through hard seasons. In family life, it reframes parenting as stewardship and challenges the idea that the best gift to kids is more stuff, more activities, or more status. Instead, we model faith, love, and ordered priorities they can actually copy.
We also get practical about fitness and finances. Health becomes stewardship instead of vanity, so exercise and nutrition support spiritual strength and real-world service. Money becomes a tool instead of a master, and we ask the heart-level question that exposes our true priorities. Tithing shows up as a lived declaration that God comes before income, and abundance is tied to freedom to do good.
If you’ve been craving clarity, this is your reset. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s trying to get life back in order, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
Good morning, Vietnam. Oh, sorry. Wrong show, wrong episode. Welcome to Todd Talks, where I help Spirit by Design. That's what we're called. Todd Talks, Spirit by Design, where I help you prepare yourself spiritually for the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You know, I'm having a good day. It's been a very good day. I'm down like 16, 18 pounds almost. Um I've ran five miles in under an hour for the first time in probably 15 or 20 years. Uh, so I'm feeling really good. Uh I my morning routine is going solid. Scriptures, listen to a conference talk, visualize, meditate, all the things. I've been doing it for a month daily, uh extending gratitude to those around me. And I tell you what, I am having the best month. I absolutely love it. Tiffany and I went and spent a week in Punta Cana and the Dominican Republic celebrating 30 years of marriage, and I'd marry her again. She is the best person ever. I love that woman. She's also my best friend, so it really helps that we've been together for 30 years. But today we're gonna talk about why these things are so strong, and that's because we're putting God first in our life.
When God becomes first in our life, everything else gets reordered, it gets reprioritized. Marriage becomes less about winning and more about covenant love, the covenants that we made, the friendship that we're developing. Family becomes less about convenience and more about stewardship. Fitness becomes less about appearance and more about capacity to serve. Money becomes less about accumulation and more about stewardship and freedom. Time freedom. When you have time freedom, you have freedom to serve the Lord. So that idea is very strongly supported by scripture and teachings of Latter-day Saint prophets and leaders. So I'm going to talk about that today. This is the plan. The foundational scripture is Matthew 6.33, where he says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. This is the anchor scripture. This is what the church teaches. The church describes assigning priority to God and his work, and everything else falls into place. Joseph Smith's trans uh the Joseph Smith translation makes it even more explicit where it says, seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God and to establish his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So my thought is God isn't asking you to have fewer priorities. He is asking you to have asking you to have the right priority. When we place God first, he becomes the filter through which we see everything in life. The filter through which we decide what deserves our time, money, attention, energy, you know, marriage, parenting, and fitness. President Ezertaf Benson quoted, or I'm quoting Evazertaff Benson when he said, when we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. When you prioritize your life with God first, and everything falls into place, there will be people and things that you've done in the past or habits that you've had that will fall off your plate. And I'm here to tell you that that's okay. As you grow, as you change, as you improve, there will be people and things that drop out of your life because they can only see the old you. In fact, they may not even like that person because they haven't changed. It's a them problem, not a you problem. Hezartap Benson explained that our love of God governs the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities. Think about what that means. If God is first, your marriage gets reordered, your children get reprioritized, your calendar gets organized, your health gets prioritized, your money gets prioritized, your career gets prioritized, your ambition gets reordered, and your entertainment gets reordered. Not necessarily eliminated, reordered or reprioritized.
Let's talk first about marriage. You put God first in your marriage, and that makes you a better spouse. One of the most powerful teachings from President Russell M. Nelson is the image of what happens when a husband or wife anchors themselves in Christ. He taught, instead, if he will lovingly cling to the Savior and the iron rod of the gospel, his family will want to cling to him and to the Savior. End quote. And if you make God the center of your marriage, your relationship with your spouse is going to improve and it will satisfy your needs and the needs that God fulfills in you. When Christ says first, I can love my spouse without making them responsible for my entire emotional and spiritual existence. The advice I always give newlyweds is things will come into your marriage that can lead you to separate or grow closer together. When you work through the things together, when you're both in it for the long haul and you decide to work through whatever crisis or problem shows up, and you work through it together with God at the center, you're stronger on the other side, more full of love for each other and better friends on the other side than you were before. When you put Christ first, you're not relying on what the world teaches of there, that person is not making me happy. Therefore, I need to leave them to find somebody else that will make me happy. When you put Christ first, you assume servant leadership and you strive to make the other person happy rather than worrying about me, me, me. You know, the scriptures give us the two greatest commandments, Matthew 22, 37 to 39. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and then thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That order matters. In Ephesians 5 25, it states, Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. The model for marriage, therefore, isn't what can my spouse do for me? It's how would Christ love my spouse through me? How can I serve my spouse as Christ would serve me if he were here? That's a completely different marriage. So let's talk about family now.
Okay. God first changes what parenting means. A powerful scripture would be Deuteronomy 6, 5 through 7. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. Then, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. It's a good sequence. Love God, live it, teach it. The family isn't something we manage. The family is something that we have stewardship over, something that we are raising for God. We can connect this to the family, a proclamation to the world, where it says family relations are relationships are central to God's plan, and parents have a sacred responsibility to rear children in love and righteousness. That's from the family, a proclamation to the world. So, what if the most important thing you give your children isn't money, opportunities, education, or experiences, but an example of what it looks like to put God first. If you put God first, you set an example by serving and loving your spouse first and foremost after God. And then you teach your children. The children don't never take, should never take a higher plane of responsibility, care, affection, priority than God and your spouse. There are times when children must be cared for, and that's a two-parent thing. Both parents, it's not just the wife's job to rear the children. Working together, you rear the children, you teach them, and as you work together, again, your love and your priorities stay true. God first, marriage second, family third.
Okay, so we're talking about faith, family, fitness, and finances in this episode, right? Something that I'm really focused on. Fitness. I already did an episode about this. Your body becomes stewardship instead of vanity. So President Russell Nelson taught we will regard our body as a temple of our very own, and we will control our diet and exercise for fair physical fitness. Then he asked the fantastic question: Should not equal attention be paid to spiritual fitness? So he compares physical exercise with spiritual exercise and specifically identifies prayer as one of the most important spiritual exercises. In my previous episode, I talked about how by keeping our body fit, we become more able to hear the Spirit and do the things that the Lord needs us to do. That's the connection. Fitness isn't worshiping your body, it's taking care of what God gave you so your body can better serve the purposes God gave you. Like I talked about in my previous episode. When you are physically fit, especially as you age, you will age better and be able to serve longer, helping the Lord accomplish his mission. Elder Jorg Klebengott similarly taught that if we are physically able, we should take responsibility for our physical well-being through appropriate exercise and nutrition. DNC 89 gives you the great promise that they shall run and not be weary and shall walk and not faint. Vanity asks, how do I look? When you take ownership of stewardship of your body, you ask, What am I capable of doing what God gave me? With the body God gave me. And in doing so, you become physically able to help the Lord out. And in my previous episode, I talked about hurricanes that hit, and we went down with our stake, and for three weekends in a row, we were chopping up trees, fixing roofs, and or putting tarps on roofs. It was hard, heavy work. If I was completely out of shape, which I was not in the best shape, but I was not completely out of shape, and it was hard, hot, heavy work. Being in shape, it would be so much easier to serve. Now let's talk finances.
God first idea, the God first priority changes your relationship with money. Jacob 2, 17 to 19 says, think of your brethren like unto yourself. Then he states, Before ye but before ye seek for riches, seek ye the kingdom of God, and after ye have obtained a hope in Christ, ye shall abs ye shall obtain riches if ye seek them. For the intent to do good, to clothe the naked and feed the hungry. So God wants spiritual people to get rich. He does. He wants you to become abundant and financially free. Why? For the intent to do good, to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, help those around you, help your family, help your neighbors. The gospel doesn't teach money is evil, it teaches money is dangerous when it becomes first in your life. The question isn't merely how much money do I have, it's who owns my heart. Matthew 6.24 states no man can serve two masters, God and mammon. Money makes a great servant and a terrible master. Therefore, when God comes first, money becomes a tool. It's just a tool. When money comes first, God becomes an obstacle. So put God first, ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it will be opened unto you. Put God first, ask for abundance, and he will bless you with abundance. And then he will teach you how to use that abundance to serve other people. One of the clearest financial examples in the scriptures is the principle of tithing. The principle of tithing is essentially a practical declaration declaring, God comes before my money. Elder Jorge T. Bacera's April 2026 General Conference teaching is very relevant. He summarized his message as this: Tithing, putting God first. He taught that putting God first can overcome being double-minded, that paying tithes and offerings can enhance spiritual capacity as we put God first. The scripture, in the scriptures, Proverbs 3, 9, and 10, it states, Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase. Then comes the promise. This isn't about merely about 10%, it's a priority test. Do I trust God enough to put him before my money? It's not your money. God gives you the abundance, therefore it's his money. And he only asks for 10% back. And in doing so, he blesses you with more abundance. This is one of the things I have a strong testimony of the principle of tithing. When we pay our tithes, it's the only time in scripture where the God where God says, test me now on this principle, to see if I will not bless you immeasurably if you abide by it. So in 3 Nephi 13, 33, Christ taught, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. And in Helaman 5.12, it says, It is upon the rock of our Redeemer that ye must build your foundation. God isn't one brick in your life. God is the foundation. Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which a marriage is built, our finances are built, our fitness is built, career is built. Build everything on Christ, and all things will be added unto you. Do you get that? Build everything on Christ, and all things will be added unto you. 2 Nephi 9, 39 says, to be spiritually minded is life eternal. When God is put first, you're not abandoning physical life. You're learning how to bring your physical life under spiritual direction. That's why spirituality can improve your marriage, because Christ teaches charity and sacrifice. Your family, because Christ teaches service and patience. Your fitness, because Christ teaches that your body is a temple. It's stewardship. Your finances because possessions become tools rather than masters. Your career because work becomes part of your stewardship rather than your identity. And your time because you stop spending your life on things that don't matter eternally. God is the foundation. Order your priorities. Direct everything else through Him and apply it to marriage. Ask yourself: Does this make me more Christ-like toward my spouse? Your family? Does this help me become the parent God needs me to be? Your fitness. Am I treating my body as a temple and preparing myself to serve? Finances. Is money serving God's purpose or has money become my purpose? Putting God first doesn't make the rest of your life smaller. That's a worldly teaching. It makes the rest of your life make sense. You don't love your family less because you love God first. You learn how to love them better. You don't care less about your body, you understand why you care for it. You don't stop pursuing financial success. You stop allowing money to determine your worth. And you acquire abundance in order to serve other people and follow the Lord's guidance for your life. You submit ambition to a higher purpose. That's where President Benson's quote becomes perfect. When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. God first, everything else second is the worldly idea. Actually, the worldly idea is everything else first, God nowhere. Instead, if we put God first, because he is first, everything else falls into its proper place. And that is the formula for a successful, happy, abundant, wonderful, beautiful life.
This is Todd Tox, Spirit by Design. I hope you learned something today, and I hope you're beginning to put God first. Listen to a new one of these episodes every day. Put God first, and He will help you to become abundant in all aspects of your life. Share with friends, leave a good review, support the show, and heck, have a blessed day.
