HT’ing Message October 2011 General Conference - “Doing the Right Thing at the Right Time, without Delay “
José L. Alonso Of the Seventy
The Savior … gave us a great example about not waiting to administer relief to those who have lost a sense of happiness and joy.
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In our day many people are living in the midst of sadness and great confusion. They are not finding answers to their questions and are unable to meet their needs. Some have lost a sense of happiness and joy. The prophets have declared that true happiness is found in following the example and teachings of
Christ. He is our Savior, He is our teacher, and He is the perfect example.
His was a life of service. When we serve our neighbor, we help those who are in need. In the process we may find solutions to our own difficulties. As we emulate the Savior, we show our love to our Heavenly Father and His Son,
Jesus Christ, and we become more like Them.
King Benjamin spoke of the value of service, saying that when we are “in the service of [our] fellow beings [we] are only in the service of [our] God.”
1 Everyone has opportunities to give service and show love.
President Thomas S. Monson has asked us to go “to the rescue” and serve others. He said: “We will discover that those whom we serve, who have felt through our labors the touch of the Master’s hand, somehow cannot explain the change which comes into their lives. There is a desire to serve faithfully, to walk humbly, and to live more like the Savior. Having received their spiritual eyesight and glimpsed the promises of eternity, they echo the words of the blind man to whom Jesus restored sight, who said, ‘One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.’”
2Each day we have the opportunity to give help and service—doing the right thing at the right time, without delay. Think of the many people who have a difficult time obtaining a job or who are ill, who feel lonely, who even think that they have lost everything. What can you do to help? Imagine that a neighbor, caught out in the rain with his car broken down, calls you for assistance. What is the right thing to do for him? When is the right time to do it?
I recall an occasion when we went as a
family to downtown Mexico City to buy clothing for our two children. They were very young. Our older son was just barely two years old, and the younger son was a year old. The street was crowded with people. While we were shopping, leading our children by the hand, we stopped for a moment to look at something, and without realizing it, we lost our older son! We did not know how, but he was not with us. Without a moment’s delay, we took off running to look for him. We searched and called out for him, feeling great anguish, thinking that we might lose him forever. In our minds we were pleading for Heavenly Father to help us find him.
After a little while we found him. There he was, innocently looking at toys through a store window. We hugged and kissed him, and we made the commitment to watch over our children diligently so that we would never lose one again. We learned that in order to go to our son’s rescue, we did not need planning meetings. We simply acted, going out in search of the one who had been lost. We also learned that our son never even realized that he was lost.
Brothers and sisters, there may be many who, for some reason, are lost from our sight and who do not know that they are lost. If we delay, we could lose them forever.
For many who have need of our help, it is not necessary to create new programs or take actions which are complicated or costly. They only need our determination to serve—to do the right thing at the right time, without delay.
When the Savior appeared to the people of the Book of Mormon, He gave us a great example about not waiting to administer relief to those who have lost a sense of happiness and joy. Having taught the people, He saw that they were unable to understand all His words. He invited them to go to their homes and ponder the things that He had said to them. He told them to pray to the Father and prepare themselves to come again on the morrow, when He would return to teach them.
3As He concluded, He looked upon the multitude and saw them weeping, for they longed for Him to stay with them.
“And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you.
“Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.”
4And they brought their sick to Him, and He healed them. The multitude bowed down at His feet and worshipped Him and kissed His feet, “insomuch that they did bathe his feet with their tears.” Then He commanded them that their little children should be brought, and He blessed them one by one.
5 That is the model the Savior has given us. His love is for all, but He never loses sight of the one.
I know that our Heavenly Father is loving, understanding, and patient. His Son, Jesus Christ, likewise loves us. They render help to us through Their prophets. I have learned that there is great safety in following the prophets. “The rescue” is still going on. President Monson said: “The Lord expects our thinking. He expects our action. He expects our labors. He expects our testimonies. He expects our devotion.”
6We have a responsibility and a great opportunity. There are many who need to once again experience the sweet savor of happiness and joy through activity in the Church. That happiness comes from receiving the ordinances, making sacred covenants, and keeping them. The Lord needs us to help them. Let us do the right thing at the right time, without delay.
I testify that God lives and is our Father. Jesus Christ lives and has given His life so that we may return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. I know that He is our Savior. I know that Their infinite kindness is continually made manifest. I bear witness that President Thomas S. Monson is Their prophet and that this is the only true Church upon the face of the earth. I know that the Prophet
Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration. I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It gives us guidance and models to follow in order to become more like God and His Beloved Son. I so declare in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
1.
Mosiah 2:17.
2. Thomas S. Monson, “To the Rescue,” Liahona, July 2001, 57, 58; Ensign, May 2001, 48, 49.
3. See
3 Nephi 17:1–3.
4.
3 Nephi 17:6–7; see also
verse 5.
5. See
3 Nephi 17:9–12, 21.
6. Thomas S. Monson, Liahona, July 2001, 58; Ensign, May 2001, 49.
“Doing the Right Thing”
cji
11/01/11
Switching paths quickly
avoiding the pitfalls there
doing the right thing always
within service to thus share;
So many unsure-confused
while choosing the right
is easy and simple to do
Father’s will now in sight!
Copyright © 2011 – cji
VT’ing Message from October 2011 General Conference
Love Her Mother
Elaine S. Dalton Young Women General President
How can a father raise a happy, well-adjusted daughter in today’s increasingly toxic world? The answer has been taught by the Lord’s prophets.
PD50029123_000_4040No words describe the sacred occasion when a new father holds a baby daughter in his arms for the first time. This year three of our sons have become new fathers of baby girls. As I watched our rugged, strong, rugby-playing son, Jon, hold his first baby daughter in his arms, he looked at her with a reverent tenderness, and then he looked at me with an expression that seemed to say, “How do I raise a girl?”
This morning I would like to speak to our sons and to all fathers. How can a father raise a happy, well-adjusted daughter in today’s increasingly toxic world? The answer has been taught by the Lord’s prophets. It is a simple answer, and it is true—“The most important thing a father can do for his [daughter] is to love [her] mother.”
1 By the way you love her mother, you will teach your daughter about tenderness, loyalty, respect, compassion, and devotion. She will learn from your example what to expect from young men and what qualities to seek in a future spouse. You can show your daughter by the way you love and honor your wife that she should never settle for less. Your example will teach your daughter to value womanhood. You are showing her that she is a daughter of our Heavenly Father, who loves her.
Love her mother so much that your marriage is celestial. A temple marriage for time and all eternity is worthy of your greatest efforts and highest priority. It was only after Nephi had completed the temple in the wilderness that he stated, “And … we lived after the manner of happiness.”
2 The “manner of happiness” is found in the temple. It is covenant keeping. Don’t let any influence come into your life or your home that would cause you to compromise your covenants or your commitment to your wife and family.
In Young Women we are helping your daughter understand her identity as a daughter of God and the importance of remaining virtuous and worthy to receive the blessings of the temple and of a temple marriage. We are teaching your daughter the importance of making and keeping sacred covenants. We are teaching her to commit now to live so that she can always be worthy to enter the temple and not to allow anything to delay, distract, or disqualify her from that goal. Your example, as her father, speaks louder than our important words. Young women worry about their fathers. Many express that their greatest desire is to be united eternally as a family. They want you to be there when they go to the temple or get married in the temple. Stay close to your daughter and help her prepare and remain worthy for the temple. When she turns 12, take her with you to the temple often to perform baptisms for your ancestors and others. She will cherish these memories forever.
Today’s popular culture tries to erode and demean your eternal role as a patriarch and father and minimize your most important responsibilities. These have been given to you “by divine design,” and as fathers you “are to preside over [your] families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for [your] families.”
3Fathers, you are the guardians of your homes, your wives, and your children. Today “it is not an easy thing to protect one’s family against intrusions of evil into [their] minds and spirits. … These influences can and do flow freely into the home. Satan [is very clever]. He need not break down the door.”
4You must be the guardians of virtue. “A priesthood holder is virtuous. Virtuous behavior implies that [you have] pure thoughts and clean actions. … Virtue is … an attribute of godliness.” It “is akin to holiness.”
5 The Young Women values are Christlike attributes which include the value of virtue. We now call upon you to join with us in leading the world in a return to virtue. In order to do so, you “must practise virtue and holiness”
6 by eliminating from your life anything that is evil and inconsistent with one who holds the holy priesthood of God. “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and … the Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion.”
7 So be cautious about what you view in entertainment media or print. Your personal virtue will model for your daughters, and also your sons, what true strength and moral courage are. By being a guardian of virtue in your own life, in your home, and in the lives of your children, you are showing your wife and daughters what true love really is. Your personal purity will give you power.
You are your daughter’s guardian in more than the legal sense. Be present in your daughter’s life. Let her know your standards, your expectations, your hopes and dreams for her success and happiness. Interview her, get to know her friends and, when the time comes, her boyfriends. Help her understand the importance of education. Help her understand that the principle of modesty is a protection. Help her choose music and media that invite the Spirit and are consistent with her divine identity. Be an active part of her life. And if in her teenage years she should not come home from a date on time, go get her. She will resist and tell you that you have ruined her social life, but she will inwardly know that you love her and that you care enough to be her guardian.
You are not ordinary men. Because of your valiance in the premortal realms, you qualified to be leaders and to possess priesthood power. There you exhibited “exceeding faith and good works,” and you are here now to do the same.
8 Your priesthood sets you apart.
Within a few weeks our three sons will have given their baby daughters a name and a blessing. I hope this will be the first of many priesthood blessings they receive from their fathers, because in the world in which they will grow up, they will need those blessings. Your daughter will cherish the priesthood and determine in her heart that this is what she wants in her future home and family. Always remember “that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven” and can “be controlled … only upon the principles of righteousness.”
9Fathers, you are your daughter’s hero. My father was my hero. I used to wait on the steps of our home for him to arrive each night. He would pick me up and twirl me around and let me put my feet on top of his big shoes, and then he would dance me into the house. I loved the challenge of trying to follow his every footstep. I still do.
Did you know that your testimony has a powerful influence on your daughters? I knew my father had a testimony. I knew he loved the Lord. And because my father loved the Lord, I did too. I knew he cared about the widows because he took his vacation to paint the home of the widow who lived next door. I thought that was the greatest vacation our family ever had because he taught me how to paint! You will bless the life of your daughter for years to come if you will look for ways to spend time with her and to share your testimony with her.
In the Book of Mormon, Abish was converted by her father’s sharing with her his remarkable vision. For many years thereafter, she kept her testimony in her heart and lived righteously in a very wicked society. Then the time came when she could no longer be still, and she ran from house to house to share her testimony and the miracles she had witnessed in the king’s court. The power of Abish’s conversion and testimony was instrumental in changing an entire society. The people who heard her testify became a people who “were converted unto the Lord, [and] never did fall away,” and their sons became the stripling warriors!
10As the hymn says, “Rise up, O men of God!”
11 This is a call to you, the men who bear the holy priesthood of God. May it be said of you as was said of Captain Moroni:
“[He] was a strong and a mighty man; … a man of a perfect understanding; … a man who was firm in the faith of Christ. …
“… If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; … the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.”
12Brethren, fathers, young men, “Be loyal to the royal within you.”
13So how do you raise a girl? Love her mother. Lead your family to the temple, be guardians of virtue, and magnify your priesthood. Fathers, you have been entrusted with our Heavenly Father’s royal daughters. They are virtuous and elect. It is my prayer that you will watch over them, strengthen them, model virtuous behavior, and teach them to follow in the Savior’s every footstep—for He lives! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Show References1. President David O. McKay often quoted this statement of Theodore Hesburgh, in “Quotable Quotes,” Reader’s Digest, Jan. 1963, 25; see also Richard Evans’ Quote Book (1971), 11.
2.
2 Nephi 5:27.
3. “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2010, 129.
4. A. Theodore Tuttle, “The Role of Fathers,” Ensign, Jan. 1974, 67.
5. Ezra Taft Benson, “Godly Characteristics of the Master,” Ensign, Nov. 1986, 46.
6.
Doctrine and Covenants 46:33.
7.
Doctrine and Covenants 121:45, 46.
8.
Alma 13:3; see also
verse 2.
9.
Doctrine and Covenants 121:36.
10.
Alma 23:6; see also
Alma 19:16–17;
53:10–22.
11. “Rise Up, O Men of God,” Hymns, no. 323.
12.
Alma 48:11, 13, 17.
13. In Harold B. Lee, “Be Loyal to the Royal within You,” in Speeches of the Year: BYU Devotional and Ten-Stake Fireside Addresses 1973 (1974), 100
“A Simple Act of Love”
cji
11/01/11
Teaching by ones example
what’s relearnable today
applicable for the forever
the proper course to stay;
A simple act of love shown
husbands and wives as one
a family sheltered forever
Father’s will now to be done!
Copyright © 2011 – cji
