Text of a talk given to youth and young single adults on 12 November
2000 at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and broadcast by satellite
throughout the Church.
I think there never before was a meeting anything like this in this Church.
There are so many of you here tonight. How good you look.
Some of you have come with doubts. Some have come with high expectations.
I want you to know that I have been on my knees asking the Lord to bless
me with the power and the capacity and the language to reach into your
hearts.
Beyond this hall are hundreds of thousands of others who are participating
with us. To each of you I say welcome. I am glad for this tremendous opportunity
to speak to you, and I recognize how important it is.
I am now old in years—90 plus. I have lived a long time, and I have
lived with great love for the young men and young women of this Church.
What a truly wonderful group you are. You speak various languages. You
are all part of a great family. But you are also individuals, each with
his or her problems, each wishing for answers to the things that perplex
you and worry you. How we love you and pray constantly for the genius
to help you. Your lives are filled with difficult decisions and with dreams
and hopes and longings to find that which will bring you peace and happiness.
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I was your age. I didn't worry
about drugs or pornography because they were not available then. I worried
about school and where it would lead. It was the season of the terrible
economic depression. I worried about how to earn a living. I served a
mission after I finished the university. I went to England. We traveled
by train to Chicago, made a bus transfer across that city, and went on
to New York, where we caught a steamship for the British Isles. While
riding the transfer bus in Chicago, a woman said to the driver, "What
is that building ahead?" He said, "Ma'am, that is the Chicago Board of
Trade Building. Every week some man who has lost his fortune jumps out
of one of those windows. He has nothing else to live for."
Such were the times. They were mean and ugly. No one who did not live
through that period will ever understand it fully. I hope with all my
heart we never have anything like it again.
Now, here you are on the threshold
of your mature lives. You too worry about school. You worry about marriage.
You worry about many things. I make you a promise that God will not forsake
you if you will walk in His paths with the guidance of His commandments.
This is the age of great opportunity. You are so fortunate to be alive.
Never in the history of mankind has life been filled with so many opportunities
and challenges. When I was born, the average life expectancy of a man
or woman in the United States and other Western countries was 50 years.
Now it is more than 75 years. Can you imagine that? On average you may
expect to live at least 25 years longer than someone who lived in 1910.
This is the season of an explosion of knowledge. For instance, when I
was your age there were no antibiotics. All of these wonderful medicines
have been discovered and refined in more recent times. Some of the great
scourges of the earth are gone. Smallpox once took whole populations.
That is gone entirely. It is a miracle. Polio was once the dreaded fear
of every mother. I remember going to visit a man with polio in the county
hospital. He was in a great iron lung that moved his own lungs as it pumped
up and down. There was no hope for him; he couldn't breathe on his own.
He died, leaving his wife and children. This terrible disease is now gone.
That too is a miracle. And so it is with other matters.
Of course you face challenges. Every generation that has ever walked
the earth has faced challenges. We could spend the entire evening talking
about them. But of all the challenges that have been faced in the past,
the ones we have today, I believe, are most easily handled. I say that
because they are manageable. They largely involve individual behavioral
decisions, but those decisions can be made and followed. And when that
happens, the challenge is behind us.
I suppose that most of you are in school. I am pleased that you have
that opportunity and that desire. I hope that you are studying diligently
and that your great ambition is to get A grades in your various courses.
I hope your teachers will be generous toward you and that your studies
will yield top grades and an excellent education. I could wish nothing
better for you in your schoolwork.
Tonight I am going to let your teachers give you the A's that I hope
you earn. I want to talk about some B's. You get the A's; I will give
you the B's.
1. Be grateful.
2. Be smart.
3. Be clean.
4. Be true.
5. Be humble.
6. Be prayerful.
Why don't you repeat these B's with me, and then we will talk about each
of them, all right?
1. Be grateful.
2. Be smart.
3. Be clean.
4. Be true.
5. Be humble.
6. Be prayerful.
Be grateful. There are two little words in the English language
that perhaps mean more than all others. They are "thank you." Comparable
words are found in every other language, such as gracias, merci, danke,
obrigado, domo.
The habit of saying thank you is the mark of an educated man or woman.
With whom is the Lord displeased? He names "those who confess not his
hand in all things" (D&C 59:21). That is, those who walk without grateful
expression. Walk with gratitude in your hearts, my dear friends. Be thankful
for the wonderful blessings which are yours. Be grateful for the tremendous
opportunities that you have. Be thankful to your parents, who care so
very much about you and who have worked so very hard to provide for you.
Let them know that you are grateful. Say thank you to your mother and
your father. Say thank you to your friends. Say thank you to your teachers.
Express appreciation to everyone who does you a favor or assists you in
any way.
Thank the Lord for His goodness to you. Thank the Almighty for
His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who has done for you what none other in
all this world could do. Thank Him for His great example, for His tremendous
teachings, for His outreaching hand to lift and help. Think about the
meaning of His Atonement. Read about Him and read His words in the New
Testament and in 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. Read them quietly to yourself
and then ponder them. Pour out your heart to your Father in Heaven in
gratitude for the gift of His Beloved Son.
Thank the Lord for His marvelous Church restored in this great season
of history. Thank Him for all that it offers you. Thank Him for friends
and loved ones, for parents and brothers and sisters, for family. Let
a spirit of thanksgiving guide and bless your days and nights. Work at
it. You will find it will yield wonderful results.
B number two—be smart. You are moving into the most competitive
age the world has ever known. All around you is competition. You need
all the education you can get. Sacrifice a car; sacrifice anything that
is needed to be sacrificed to qualify yourselves to do the work of the
world. That world will in large measure pay you what it thinks you are
worth, and your worth will increase as you gain education and proficiency
in your chosen field.
You belong to a church that teaches the importance of education. You
have a mandate from the Lord to educate your minds and your hearts and
your hands. The Lord has said, "Teach ye diligently . . . of
things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which
have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things
which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities
of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge
also of countries and of kingdoms—that ye may be prepared in all
things" (D&C 88:78–80).
Mind you, these are not my words. These are the words of the Lord who
loves you. He wants you to train your minds and hands to become an influence
for good as you go forward with your lives. And as you do so and as you
perform honorably and with excellence, you will bring honor to the Church,
for you will be regarded as a man or woman of integrity and ability and
conscientious workmanship. Be smart. Don't be foolish. You cannot bluff
or cheat others without bluffing or cheating yourselves.
Many years ago I worked for a railroad in the central offices in Denver.
I was in charge of what is called head-end traffic. That was in the days
when nearly everyone rode passenger trains. One morning I received a call
from my counterpart in Newark, New Jersey. He said, "Train number such-and-such
has arrived, but it has no baggage car. Somewhere, 300 passengers have
lost their baggage, and they are mad."
I went immediately to work to find out where it may have gone. I found
it had been properly loaded and properly trained in Oakland, California.
It had been moved to our railroad in Salt Lake City, been carried to Denver,
down to Pueblo, put on another line, and moved to St. Louis. There it
was to be handled by another railroad which would take it to Newark, New
Jersey. But some thoughtless switchman in the St. Louis yards moved a
small piece of steel just three inches, a switch point, then pulled the
lever to uncouple the car. We discovered that a baggage car that belonged
in Newark, New Jersey, was in fact in New Orleans, Louisiana—1,500
miles from its destination. Just the three-inch movement of the switch
in the St. Louis yard by a careless employee had started it on the wrong
track, and the distance from its true destination increased dramatically.
That is the way it is with our lives. Instead of following a steady course,
we are pulled by some mistaken idea in another direction. The movement
away from our original destination may be ever so small, but, if continued,
that very small movement becomes a great gap and we find ourselves far
from where we intended to go.
Have you ever looked at one of those 16-foot farm gates? When it is opened,
it swings very wide. The end at the hinges moves ever so slightly, while
out at the perimeter the movement is great. It is the little things upon
which life turns that make the big difference in our lives, my dear young
friends.
Be smart. The Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands, whatever
your chosen field. Whether it be repairing refrigerators, or the work
of a skilled surgeon, you must train yourselves. Seek for the best schooling
available. Become a workman of integrity in the world that lies ahead
of you. I repeat, you will bring honor to the Church and you will be generously
blessed because of that training.
There can be no doubt, none whatever, that education pays. Do not short-circuit
your lives. If you do so, you will pay for it over and over and over again.
The third B—be clean.
We live in a world that is filled with filth and sleaze, a world that
reeks of evil. It is all around us. It is on the television screen. It
is at the movies. It is in the popular literature. It is on the Internet.
You can't afford to watch it, my dear friends. You cannot afford to let
that filthy poison touch you. Stay away from it. Avoid it. You can't rent
videos and watch them as they portray degrading things. You young men
who hold the priesthood of God cannot mix this filth with the holy priesthood.
Avoid evil talk. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain. From the thunders
of Sinai the finger of the Lord wrote on tablets of stone, "Thou shalt
not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Ex.
20:7).
It is not a mark of manhood to carelessly use the name of the Almighty
or His Beloved Son in a vain and flippant way, as many are prone to do.
Choose your friends carefully. It is they who will lead you in one direction
or the other. Everybody wants friends. Everybody needs friends. No one
wishes to be without them. But never lose sight of the fact that it is
your friends who will lead you along the paths that you will follow.
While you should be friendly with all people, select with great care
those whom you wish to have close to you. They will be your safeguards
in situations where you may vacillate between choices, and you in turn
may save them.
Be clean. Don't waste your time in destructive entertainment. There was
recently held in the Salt Lake Valley a show put on by a traveling band.
I am told that it was filthy, that it was lascivious, that it was evil
in every respect. The young people of this community had paid $25 to $35
to get in. What did they get for their money? Only a seductive voice urging
them to move in the direction of the slimy things of life. I plead with
you, my friends, to stay away from such. It will not help you. It can
only injure you.
I recently spoke to your mothers and your fathers. Among other things,
I talked with them about tattoos.
What creation is more magnificent than the human body? What a wondrous
thing it is as the crowning work of the Almighty.
Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, said: "Know ye not that ye are the
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
"If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Cor. 3:16–17).
Did you ever think that your body is holy? You are a child of God. Your
body is His creation. Would you disfigure that creation with portrayals
of people, animals, and words painted into your skin?
I promise you that the time will come, if you have tattoos, that you
will regret your actions. They cannot be washed off. They are permanent.
Only by an expensive and painful process can they be removed. If you are
tattooed, then probably for the remainder of your life you will carry
it with you. I believe the time will come when it will be an embarrassment
to you. Avoid it. We, as your Brethren who love you, plead with you not
to become so disrespectful of the body which the Lord has given you.
May I mention earrings and rings placed in other parts of the body. These
are not manly. They are not attractive. You young men look better without
them, and I believe you will feel better without them. As for the young
women, you do not need to drape rings up and down your ears. One modest
pair of earrings is sufficient.
I mention these things because again they concern your bodies.
How truly beautiful is a well-groomed young woman who is clean in body
and mind. She is a daughter of God in whom her Eternal Father can take
pride. How handsome is a young man who is well groomed. He is a son of
God, deemed worthy of holding the holy priesthood of God. He does not
need tattoos or earrings on or in his body. The First Presidency and the
Quorum of the Twelve are all united in counseling against these things.
And while I speak of such matters I want to give emphasis again to the
matter of pornography. It has become a $10 billion industry in the United
States, where a few men grow rich at the expense of thousands upon thousands
who are their victims. Stay away from it. It is exciting, but it will
destroy you. It will warp your senses. It will build within you an appetite
that you will do anything to appease. And don't try to create associations
through the Internet and chat rooms. They can lead you down into the very
abyss of sorrow and bitterness.
I must also say a word concerning illicit drugs. You know how I feel
about them. I don't care what the variety may be. They will destroy you
if pursued. You will become their slave. Once in their power, you will
do anything to get money to buy more.
I was amazed while watching a television program to learn that parents
introduced drugs to their children in 20 percent of the cases. I cannot
understand what I regard as the stupidity of these parents. What future
other than slavery for their children could they see in them? Illegal
drugs will utterly destroy those who become addicted to them.
My advice, my pleading to you wonderful young men and women, is to stay
entirely away from them. You don't need to experiment with them. Look
about you and see the effects they have had on others. There is no need
for any Latter day Saint boy or girl, young man or young woman, to even
try them. Stay clean from these mind-altering and habit-forming addictions.
And now just a word on the most common and most difficult of all problems
for you young men and young women to handle. It is the relationship that
you have one with another. You are dealing with the most powerful of human
instincts. Only the will to live possibly exceeds it.
The Lord has made us attractive one to another for a great purpose. But
this very attraction becomes as a powder keg unless it is kept under control.
It is beautiful when handled in the right way. It is deadly if it gets
out of hand.
It is for this reason that the Church counsels against early dating.
This rule is not designed to hurt you in any way. It is designed to help
you, and it will do so if you will observe it.
Steady dating at an early age leads so often to tragedy. Studies have
shown that the longer a boy and girl date one another, the more likely
they are to get into trouble.
It is better, my friends, to date a variety of companions until you are
ready to marry. Have a wonderful time, but stay away from familiarity.
Keep your hands to yourself. It may not be easy, but it is possible.
You young men who plan to go on missions must recognize that sexual sin
may keep you from that opportunity. You may think that you can hide it.
Long experience has shown that you cannot. To serve an effective mission
you must have the Spirit of the Lord, and truth withheld does not mix
with that Spirit. Sooner or later you will feel compelled to confess your
earlier transgressions. Well did Sir Galahad say, "My strength is as the
strength of ten, because my heart is pure" (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Sir
Galahad [1842], st. 1).
My dear young friends, in matters of sex you know what is right. You
know when you are walking on dangerous ground, when it is so easy to stumble
and slide into the pit of transgression. I plead with you to be careful,
to stand safely back from the cliff of sin over which it is so easy to
fall. Keep yourselves clean from the dark and disappointing evil of sexual
transgression. Walk in the sunlight of that peace which comes from obedience
to the commandments of the Lord.
Now, if there be any who have stepped over the line, who may already
have transgressed, is there any hope for you? Of course there is. Where
there is true repentance, there will be forgiveness. That process begins
with prayer. The Lord has said, "He who has repented of his sins, the
same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more" (D&C
58:42). Share your burden with your parents if you can. And by all
means, confess to your bishop, who stands ready to help you.
My next B—be true.
Said Shakespeare, "To thine own self be true; and it must follow, as
the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man" (Hamlet,
I, iii, 78–81). You have a tremendous inheritance. You have a great
background of noble ancestry. Many of you are descendants of the pioneers,
who died by the hundreds and thousands in testimony of the truth of this
work. If they were to look down upon you, they would plead with you: "Be
true. Be loyal. Be 'true to the faith that our parents have cherished,
true to the truth for which martyrs have perished.' " They would say,
"Faith of our fathers, holy faith, we will be true to thee till death"
(Hymns, nos. 254 and 84).
And those of you who may not be descended from pioneer ancestry, you
belong to a church which has been made strong by the loyalty and unwavering
affection of its members through the generations. What a marvelous thing
it is to belong to a society whose purposes are noble, whose accomplishments
are tremendous, whose work is uplifting, even heroic. Be loyal to the
Church under all circumstances. I make you a promise that the authorities
of this Church will never lead you astray. They will lead you in paths
of happiness.
You who are members of this Church must have a loyalty to it. This is
your church. You have as great a responsibility in your sphere of action
as I have in my sphere of action. It belongs to you just as it belongs
to me. You have embraced its gospel. You have taken upon yourselves a
covenant in the waters of baptism. This you have renewed each time you
have partaken of the sacrament. These covenants will be added to when
you are married in the temple. You cannot hold them lightly. They are
too great a thing. This is the very work of God designed to bring about
the immortality and eternal life of His sons and daughters.
Walk in faith before Him with your heads high, proud of your membership
in this great cause and kingdom which He has restored to the earth in
this, the last dispensation of the fulness of times. Why? To bring you
happiness.
Be true to your own convictions. You know what is right, and you know
what is wrong. You know when you are doing the proper thing. You know
when you are giving strength to the right cause. Be loyal. Be faithful.
Be true, my beloved associates in this great kingdom.
The fifth B—be humble.
There is no place for arrogance in our lives. There is no place for conceit.
There is no place for egotism. We have a great work to do. We have things
to accomplish. We need direction in the pursuit of our education. We need
help in choosing an eternal companion.
The Lord has said, "Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee
by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers" (D&C 112:10).
What a tremendous promise is given in this statement. If we are without
conceit and pride and arrogance, if we are humble and obedient, then the
Lord will lead us by the hand and answer our prayers. What greater thing
could we ask for? There is nothing to compare with this.
The Savior, in the great Sermon on the Mount, declared, "Blessed are
the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5).
I believe the meek and the humble are those who are teachable. They are
willing to learn. They are willing to listen to the whisperings of the
still, small voice for guidance in their lives. They place the wisdom
of the Lord above their own wisdom.
And this leads to my final B—be prayerful.
You cannot do it alone. I look at this vast congregation, and I know
that you are young people who pray, who get on your knees and speak with
the Lord. You know that He is the source of all wisdom.
You need His help, and you know that you need His help. You cannot do
it alone. You will come to realize that and recognize that more and more
as the years pass. So live that in good conscience you can speak with
the Lord. Get on your knees and thank Him for His goodness to you and
express to Him the righteous desires of your hearts. The miracle of it
all is that He hears. He responds. He answers—not always as we might
wish He would answer, but there is no question in my mind that He answers.
You have such a tremendous responsibility, you young men and young women.
You are the products of all of the generations that have gone before you.
All that you have of body and mind has been passed to you through your
parents. Someday you will become parents and pass on to succeeding generations
the qualities of body and mind which you have received from the past.
Do not break the chain of the generations of your family. Keep it bright
and strong. So very much depends on you. You are so very precious. You
mean so much to this Church. It could not be the same without you. Stand
tall, proud of your inheritance as sons and daughters of God. Look to
Him for understanding and guidance. Walk according to His precepts and
commandments.
You can have a good time. Of course you can! We want you to have fun.
We want you to enjoy life. We do not want you to be prudes. We want you
to be robust and cheerful, to sing and dance, to laugh and be happy.
But in so doing, be humble and be prayerful, and the smiles of heaven
will fall upon you
I could wish for you nothing better than that your lives be fruitful,
that your service be dedicated and freely given, that you contribute to
the knowledge and the well-being of the world in which you live, and that
you do it humbly and faithfully before your God. He loves you. We love
you. We want you to be happy and successful, to make significant contributions
to the world in which you will live and to the on-rolling of this great
and majestic work of the Lord.
Well, my brothers and sisters, those are my B's—be grateful, be
smart, be clean, be true, be humble, be prayerful.
Now, in conclusion, I offer a word of prayer concerning you.
O God, our Eternal Father, as Thy servant I bow before Thee in prayer
in behalf of these young people scattered over the earth who are gathered
tonight in assemblies everywhere. Please smile with favor upon them. Please
listen to them as they lift their voices in prayer unto Thee. Please lead
them gently by the hand in the direction they should follow.
Please help them to walk in paths of truth and righteousness and keep
them from the evils of the world. Bless them that they shall be happy
at times and serious at times, that they may enjoy life and drink of its
fulness. Bless them that they may walk acceptably before Thee as Thy cherished
sons and daughters. Each is Thy child with capacity to do great and noble
things. Keep them on the high road that leads to achievement. Save them
from the mistakes that could destroy them. If they have erred, forgive
their trespasses and lead them back to ways of peace and progress. For
these blessings I humbly pray with gratitude for them and invoke Thy blessings
upon them with love and affection, in the name of Him who carries the
burdens of our sins, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Ideas for Home Teachers
Some Points of Emphasis
You may wish to make these points in your home teaching discussions:
1. Of all the challenges faced by every generation, the ones we have
today are most easily handled. They largely involve behavioral decisions
that, when made, leave the challenge behind us.
2. Be grateful. Express appreciation to everyone who does us a favor
or assists us in any way.
3. Be smart. The Lord wants us to train our minds and hands to become
an influence for good.
4. Be clean. We live in a world filled with filth and sleaze. We cannot
afford to let it touch us. We should not be disrespectful of the body
which the Lord has given us.
5. Be true. Let us be loyal to the Church under all circumstances.
The authorities of this Church will lead us in paths of happiness.
6. Be humble. The meek and the humble are those who are teachable.
7. Be prayerful. Look to the Lord for understanding and guidance,
and walk according to His precepts and commandments.
Discussion Helps
1. Relate your feelings about the counsel given by the prophet of
the Lord.
2. Are there some scriptures, quotations, or stories in this article
that the family might read aloud and discuss?
3. Would this discussion be better after a previsit chat with the
head of the house? Is there a message from the bishop or quorum leader?
