- I wonder in this age if it is enough to just have the courage to say no, or do we have a further responsibility to be of service to others in helping them overcome the great curse that is now plaguing our society?
- Today the curse of drink and drugs is becoming a national nightmare. It is the cause of most of our crime, accidents, loss of employment, and the breakup of our homes. You great young me of the Aaronic Priesthood will be required to pay the social costs for this dreaded disease as you move forward into your adult lives. Surely something must be done to stop this destructive force. I challenge you to stand up to your peers as an example of righteous living. I know the Lord will fulfill his promise to you by blessing you with health, with knowledge, with wisdom that will set you apart from the rest of the world. Your righteous example will also bless the lives of many, many others.
- First, the Savior is counting on you to be a champion of those who need you.
- There are those who wake up every morning dreading to go to school, or even to a church activity, because they worry about how they will be treated. You have the power to change their lives for the better.
- There are young women who claim that they would not have made it through those growing-up years without the encouragement and support of their older brothers.
- your mothers need you to be a champion of them. Never should a bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood be guilty of saying anything discourteous or disrespectful to his mother.
- You are a great work in progress.
- Next, the Savior is counting on you to avoid the immoral trash that surrounds you in the media.
- We can't roll around in the mud without getting dirty.
- "Be clean. I cannot emphasize that enough. Be clean. It is so very, very important, and you at your age are in such temptation all the time.
- When anyone chooses to ignore or defiantly go against the counsel of the living prophet, he is on very shaky ground.
- Temptations are all around us, and today with the advent of the Internet, they are increasing. There is much that is positive in the world of the media, but there is so much more that is negative. If we permit ourselves to become involved with the negative, there will be much more cause for the devil to laugh and his angels to rejoice.
- Finally, the Savior is counting on you to be worthy to enter the temple and to fill an honorable mission.
- Modern prophets have taught that every young man who is physically and mentally able should prepare himself to serve an honorable mission. The Lord did not say, "Go on a mission if it fits your schedule, or if you happen to feel like it or if it doesn't interfere with your scholarship, your romance, or your educational plans." Preaching the gospel is a commandment and not merely a suggestion. It is a blessing and a privilege and not a sacrifice. Remember, even though for some of you there may be very tempting reasons for you not to serve a full-time mission, the Lord and his prophets are counting on you.
- There are so many in the world who do not seem to know or care about right or wrong.
- We all need to know what it means to be honest. Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.
- You young men are under great pressure to learn the technology that is expanding and will continue to expand so rapidly. However, the tremendous push to excel in secular learning sometimes tempts people to compromise that which is more important--their honesty and integrity.
- In reality, we are only in competition with ourselves. Others can challenge and motivate us, but we must reach down deep into our souls and call forth our God-given intelligence and capabilities. We cannot do this when we depend on the efforts of someone else.
- There are different shades of truth telling. When we tell little white lies, we become progressively color-blind. It is better to remain silent than to mislead. the degree to which each of us tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth depends on our conscience.
- Whether in sports or in the game of life, we need to achieve honestly, under our own steam, and not on false merit.
- Brethren, ours is the opportunity to learn, the privilege to obey, and the duty to serve. In our time there are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save.
- "A man filled with the love of God is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race."
- We would like to ... let people come to know us for what we are and what we are trying to accomplish."
- A nation will rise no higher than the strength of its homes. If you want to reform a nation, you begin with families.
- We are [rather] ordinary people trying to do an extraordinary work.
- The individual, as we teach, ought to do for himself all that he can. When he has exhausted his resources, he ought to turn to his family to assist him. When the family can't do it, the Church takes over. And when the Church takes over, our great desire is to first take care of his immediate needs and then to help him for so long as he needs to be helped, but in that process to assist him in training, in securing employment, in finding some way of getting on his feet again.
- "Yes. To anybody who is not of this Church, I say we recognize all of the virtues and the good that you have. Bring it with you and see if we might add to it."
- None of us ever need hesitate to speak up for this Church, for its doctrine, for its people, for its divine organization and divinely given responsibility. It is true. It is the work of God. The only things that can ever embarrass this work are acts of disobedience to its doctrine and standards by those of its membership.
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
The Dream
....Involved kittens...that's all I can remember.
No comments:
Post a Comment