Courage Is Essential, Students Told

  • 21 March 2012

Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Seventy told young adults at a BYU devotional that exercising courage can help individuals listen to the Spirit and follow the counsel of the Lord.

“The attitude of being a ‘floater’ will rob you and your family of much joy and satisfaction, and that will cause the ward or community to lose many contributions you could make.”—Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Seventy

Individuals must exercise courage to choose wisely, Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Seventy told Brigham Young University students during the campus devotional on March 13.

“Brothers and sisters, there are, and will be, surprises in life,” he said. “There have been in mine, and there will be in yours.”

It is through exercising courage—in times of certainty and uncertainty—that individuals will be able to listen to the Spirit and follow the counsel of the Lord.

Speaking of his own experiences in life with his wife, Elder Ellis said: “Each time we came to a decision point, we would think it through, counsel together, and make a decision,” he said. “Then we would pray about it to seek the Lord’s confirmation. We always followed the promptings of the Spirit. Now, if the Lord was silent, we would do what seemed best to us in light of what we already knew. On a daily basis we asked in our prayers for the Lord to guide and direct us. We emphasized, as did Jesus, not our will but Thine be done. Sometimes direction would come when we didn’t even realize we were at a decision point.”

Elder Ellis said that it is important for individuals to invest in their lives—living as if they were going to be somewhere for years even during temporary stages of life.

“To me the Lord is telling us to be where we are,” he said. “Have an attitude of ‘as for years.’ Accept a calling, make friends, get to know the area—be there until you are not. ... The attitude of being a ‘floater’ will rob you and your family of much joy and satisfaction, and that will cause the ward or community to lose many contributions you could make.”

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