Why are the things of this world often labeled as “vain”? Because they are transitory; they are here today and gone tomorrow. Elder Dallin H. Oaks described them as follows: “The ‘vain things of [the] world’ include every combination of that worldly quartet of property, pride, prominence, and power. As to all of these, the scriptures remind us that ‘you cannot carry them with you’ (Alma 39:14).”23
Things of the world are also vain because they entice us away from our Father, our Savior, and our Comforter. Our hearts get attached to the unstable and temporary things of a very temporary world, and that is all in vain because they want our hearts on them and their eternal work.