- Some of today's otherwise good young men mistakenly think that putting their shoulders to the wheel is the same thing as putting their hands on a steering wheel!
- Alas, a few of our underwhelmed youth work all right, but mostly at trying to please themselves.
- Unfortunately, a few of our otherwise good youth are unstretched, having almost a free pass. Perks are provided, including cars complete with fuel and insurance--all paid for by parents who sometimes listen in vain for a few courteous and appreciative words.
- Young men, your individual mix of work will vary, understandably, by season and circumstance as between the hours spent on homework and family work and Church work, part-time work, and work on service projects. Each form of work can stretch your talents. Nevertheless, watch for the warning lights. For instance, if you are engaged in part-time work, are all your wages spent on yourself? Is tithing paid?
- "[If the young man] is permitted to spend his all on himself, that spirit of selfishness may continue with him to his grave."
- Your grade-point average is very important, but what is your GPA for Christian service?
- Whatever the mix of work, the hardest work you and I will ever do is to put off our selfishness. It is heavy lifting!
- A balance of work needs to be orchestrated, because some forms of work tend to dominate other forms.
- Be careful, fathers, when you inordinately desire things to be better for your children than they were for you. Do not, however unintentionally, make things worse by removing the requirement for reasonable work as part of their experience, thereby insulating your children from the very things that helped make you what you are!
- Yes, some of today's work may seem artificial and contrived. Nevertheless, young men, be patient with your parents as they try to help provide reasonable and meaningful work. In that connection, how blessed we would be if more sons could work alongside their fathers, if only occasionally. Fathers and sons, if such teaming up is not already happening at all, please, in the next three months, select just one, stretching chore to do together.
- Young men, I do not know what your individual gifts are, but you have them! Please employ these gifts and stretch your talents--along with taking out garbage cans, mowing lawns, raking leaves, or shoveling snow for widows, widowers, or a sick neighbor.
- Knowing how to work will give you an edge in life, and experience with excellence--a special edge!
- Let us all be quick and generous to praise our youth for the work they accomplish, especially when they do it well!
- The capacity to work and work wisely will never become obsolete. And neither will the ability to learn.
- Six ways you can prepare for your mission:
- First, secure your individual testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- Second, study and ponder the Book of Mormon to the point where you can declare that it was received by Joseph Smith from the angel Moroni and that the Prophet Joseph smith translated the book from the golden plates.
- Third, be clean and pure.
- Fourth, pay your tithes and offerings so that you can bear witness of this great principle of the gospel.
- Fifth, learn how to work.
- Sixth, serve as a home teacher in your ward to know the joy of service.
- For all full-time missionaries, I have several suggestions:
- First, open your mouth.
- Second, work hard.
- Third, be obedient, faithful, and true.
- Missionaries serve in companionships for protection. A missionary best protects his companion when he is loyal to the Lord and helps his companion.
- Fourth, teach and testify.
- Fifth, when you complete your mission, maintain the spirit, appearance, and trust of a missionary.
- You are the means by which truth and goodness and eternal life will be made known to the whole world.
- "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." The philosophies of men will ever be there, but they do not carry the promise of eternal life or even peace on this earth.
- We hope you are men who are "true at all times in whatsoever thing [you are] entrusted.
- If we live our religion and are worthy [of] the name of Latter-day Saints, we are just the men that all such business can be entrusted to with perfect safety; if it can not it will prove that we do not live our religion.
- "Make one-time decisions to do right."
- "We can push some things away from us once and have done with them ... without having to brood and redecide a hundred times what it is we will do and what we will not do."
- "The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked.
- Our honor should make us honest in all we do.
- "A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent."
- "Please, you returned missionaries ... , please do not abandon in appearance or principle or habit the great experiences of the mission field when you were like Alma and the sons of Mosiah, as the very angels of God to the people you met and taught and baptized. We do not expect you to wear a tie, white shirt, and a dark blue suit every day now that you are back in school. But surely it is not too much to ask that your good grooming be maintained, that your personal habits reflect cleanliness and dignity and pride in the principles of the gospel you taught. We ask you for the good of the kingdom and all those who have done and yet do take pride in you."
- Tell the truth. It could ultimately save your life if you were in harm's way.
- May I offer to you tonight six road signs which, when observed and followed, will guide you to safety.
- Choose good friends.
- Seek parental guidance.
- Study the gospel
- Obey the commandments.
- Serve with love.
- Pray with purpose.
- There is a battle of significant consequence taking place in the lives of young men today. In simple terms, it is the struggle between doing right or doing wrong.
- Friends help to determine your future. You will tend to be like them and to be found where they choose to go.
- The friends you choose will either help or hinder your success.
- You can't be right by doing wrong, and you can't be wrong by doing right.
- Prayer is the provider of spiritual strength.
- Prayer is the passport to peace.
- Are we prepared for the voyage of life? The sea of life can at times become turbulent. Crashing waves of emotional conflict may break all around us. Chart your course, be cautious, and follow the safety measures outlined.
- As I looked at that gathering of beautiful young women the question moved through my mind, "Are we rearing a generation of young men worthy of them?"
- The girl you marry will take a terrible chance on you. She will give her all to the young man she marries. He will largely determine the remainder of her life. She will even surrender her name to his name.
- She will be yours and yours alone, regardless of the circumstances of your lives. You will be hers and hers alone. There can be eyes for none other. There must be absolute loyalty, undeviating loyalty one to another.
- Through all the days of your lives, you must be as true one to another as the polar star.
- The girl you marry is worthy of a husband whose life has not been tainted by...ugly and corrosive material.
- Look upon the Word of Wisdom as more than a commonplace thing. I regard it as the most remarkable document on health of which I know.
- Would any girl in her right mind ever wish to marry a young man who has a drug habit, who is the slave of alcohol, who is addicted to pornography?
- Avoid profanity.
- Who would wish to be married to a man whose speech is laden with filth and profanity?
- There is another serious thing to which many young men become addicted. This is anger. With the least provocation they explode into tantrums of uncontrolled rage. It is pitiful to see someone so weak. But even worse, they are prone to lose all sense of reason and do things which bring later regret.
- "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."
- Work for an education. Get all the training that you can. The world will largely pay you what it thinks you are worth.
- "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."
- Be modest in your wants.
- You can and should avoid overwhelming debt. There is nothing that will cause greater tensions in marriage than grinding debt.
- You may have to borrow money to begin ownership of a home. But do not let it be so costly that it will preoccupy your thoughts day and night.
- "Get a modest home and pay off the mortgage so that if economic storms should come, your wife and children will have a roof over their heads."
- The girl who marries you will not wish to be married to a tightwad. Neither will she wish to be married to a spendthrift. She is entitled to know all about family finances. She will be your partner. Unless there is full and complete understanding between you and your wife on these matters, there likely will come misunderstandings and suspicions that will cause trouble that can lead to greater problems.
- She will wish to be married to someone who loves her, who trusts her, who walks beside her, who is her very best friend and companion. She will wish to be married to someone who encourages her in her Church activity and in community activities which will help her to develop her talents and make a greater contribution to society. She will want to be married to someone who has a sense of service to others, who is disposed to contribute to the Church and to other good causes. She will wish to be married to someone who loves the Lord and seeks to do His will. It is well, therefore, that each of you young men plan to go on a mission, to give unselfishly to your Father in Heaven a tithe of your life, to go forth with a spirit of total unselfishness to preach the gospel of peace to the world wherever you may be sent.
- You cannot give to your companion a greater gift than that of marriage in God's holy house, under the protective wing of the sealing covenant of eternal marriage. There is no adequate substitute for it. There should be no other way for you.
- Choose carefully and wisely. The girl you marry will be yours forever. You will love her and she will love you through thick and thin, through sunshine and storm. She will become the mother of your children. What greater thing in all this world can there be than to become the father of a precious child, a son or daughter of God, our Father in Heaven, for whom we are given the rights and responsibilities of mortal stewardship.
- Live worthy of becoming a father of whom your wife and children will be proud.
- Make yourself worthy of the loveliest girl in all the world. Keep yourself worthy through all the days of your life. Be good and true and kind one to another.
- The truest mark of your success in life will be the quality of your marriage.
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
The Dream
I was still in the midst of planning Mary and John's wedding reception and decided to play a trick on them. So I found a guy -short spikey blonde hair- that used to be a hard core rocker punk before he changed his ways and got him to get a bunch of his old friends to 'set up the reception' the result? A crazy mosh pit sort of shindig in the garage with empty cups and bottles everywhere. Only. That wasn't the real reception. And the old friends? Actually missionaries serving in California, but they came up to do this for their friend. In truthfulness the wedding reception was inside the home with all the close friends and family of the Watsons there. I didn't end up staying but ended up outside and in the view point of a young Elder Tom Perry in his training to be a navy recruit. He was confident enough in his swimming skills and his ability on the boat that he didn't go with the 'new recruits' to test to see if he could tolerate being on the water. Instead he worked on tying a bunch of cylinders together to make rafts. Only, he struggled with it because I couldn't remember the type of knots that needed to be done to make sure the raft was secure at four points. It was a struggle for me/him and the commanding officer was getting impatient with me. I was getting impatient with him too and finally just tied four corners up and pushed the raft -with a bunch of whinny boys- on it, Out into the middle of the lake. It actually held together quite well though the raft went vertical instead of horizontal once it was on the water....
Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)
-S.N.D
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