- It was said that at one time the sun never set on the British Empire. That empire has now been diminished. But it is true that the sun never sets on this work of the Lord as it is touching the lives of people across the earth.
- Our testimonies...must be built on a sure foundation, deeply rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that when the winds and rains come into our lives, as they surely will, we will be strong enough to weather the storms that rage about us.
- "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
- "We do have prophets on the earth today."
- Brothers and sisters, if God loves us enough to send us prophets, then we need to love Him enough to follow them. Following the prophets will help protect us against the storms of life and lead us to Christ.
- Reputation built on rumor, reality, or established by nickname can be virtually impossible to overcome.
- It is not necessary, appropriate, nor healthy to expose our private or family mistakes and sins for public scrutiny. The more widely a sin is known, the more difficult the repentance or change.
- This is not to say that sin should be covered, although that is the natural impulse of anyone who commits a sin.
- First, go to the Lord.
- Second, go to the one we have offended.
- Third, if necessary, go to our judge in Israel.
- And fourth, then put it away.
- What should we do when we have knowledge of others' problems?
- 1. Don't judge.
- 2. We must forgive.
- 3. Forget.
- "It would please the Lord for every adult member to be worthy of--and to carry--a current temple recommend, even if proximity to a temple does not allow immediate or frequent use of it."
- "All things are possible to [them] that [believe]."
- Church leaders have the responsibility to speak out on moral issues and to counsel individuals and families. The family is the basic unit of society; it is the basic unit of eternity. Thus, when forces threaten the family, Church leaders must respond.
- "We warn that individuals ... who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets."
- The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we're not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.
- Often media's most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral--issues of right and wrong don't even come up.
- The new morality preached from the media's pulpit is nothing more than the old immorality. It attacks religion. It undermines the family. It turns virtue into vice and vice into virtue. It assaults the senses and batters the soul with messages and images that are neither virtuous, nor lovely, nor of good report, nor praiseworthy.
- Let me say again that the family is the main target of evil's attack and must therefore be the main point of our protection and defense. As I said once before, when you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense to Satan. When he wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn't poison the world's peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church's missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn't send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn't legislate against green Jell-O and casseroles. When evil wants to strike out and disrupt the essence of God's work, it attacks the family. It does so by attempting to disregard the law of chastity, to confuse gender, to desensitize violence, to make crude and blasphemous language the norm, and to make immoral and deviant behavior seem like the rule rather than the exception.
- "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Brothers and sisters, refuse to be used. Refuse to be manipulated. Refuse to support those programs that violate traditional family values. We may be a small voice to begin with; nevertheless, let us speak out and encourage a more uplifting, inspiring, and acceptable media.
- Besides making our voices heard, let me conclude with seven things that every parent can do to minimize the negative effect media can have on our families:
- 1. We need to hold family councils and decide what our media standards are going to be.
- 2. We need to spend enough quality time with our children that we are consistently the main influence in their lives, not the media or any peer group.
- 3. We need to make good media choices ourselves and set good examples for our children.
- 4. We need to limit the amount of time our children watch TV or play video games or use the Internet each day. Virtual reality must not become their reality.
- 5. We need to use Internet filters and TV programming locks to prevent our children from "chancing upon" things they should not see.
- 6. We need to have TVs and computers in a much-used common room in the home, not in a bedroom or a private place.
- 7. We need to take time to watch appropriate media with our children and discuss with them how to make choices that will uplift and build rather than degrade and destroy.
- Sustaining faith can be the ultimate comfort in life. All of us must find our own testimonies.
- For those whose faith has faded, the reasons may be real to them, but these reasons do not change the reality of what Joseph Smith restored.
- Prophet Joseph Smith said, "I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught."
- Do not let your private doubts separate you from the divine source of knowledge.
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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