A challenge that concerns me about the future of our world is the amount of time dedicated to working in an effort to satisfy the growing demands of society. I have witnessed this first hand and I am sure most everyone else has, too. My father and brothers have spent most of their lives working six days a week at ten hours a day. They have no choice but to work these hours in order to pay their mortgages on houses, loans on vehicles and other capital purchases. They are not the only ones wanting brand names and fancy lifestyles as they have children that also have expensive tastes. I found the I.S conference very interesting because they talked about how people have been working harder and longer for the last five years to achieve the ever increasing demand the economy throws at individuals. The thing I have found is that all parts of an individual's life are affected from working longer and harder hours. Every extra hour worked is an extra hour away from family. Work also has an effect on a person's religious life, a person who may have been very active taking part in the social activities within the church or the prayer groups may lose touch as their workload increases. These same individuals are mentally exhausted and often find themselves drifting asleep during mass or thinking about the work that has to be done Monday, while attending the prayer groups or social activities becomes less important. The I.S conference also talked about the declining rate of people attending church. Instead of attending on a weekly basis, more people are attending once a month or less. I fear for fellow classmates who are going to have a large debt from student loans and combined with their mortgage will force them to work much harder to pay it back. I feel if people take time in their fast moving lives to say thanks to God for all the good things in their life, they will find themselves respecting the time they have and wishing they could spend more quality time with their families or in their church.