Through This Conference I Have Been Feeling...

Through this conference I have been feeling a great warm surge of gratitude— gratitude that I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gratitude that there has come to me, in spite of my limitations, the blessing of service and the blessing of learning to know and to love so many of you, to feel your strength, understand your purpose, and observe your dedication. ¶

I have been grateful for the marvelous sermons, the great themes of truth which have been here uttered. I was very grateful this morning as these strong and forthright and inspired messages went out to the world. ¶

Last night I read on the editorial page of the Deseret News an account of a survey, actually a clinical research inquiry, of a number of men incarcerated in the Utah State prison as compared with an equal number outside the prison who were of the same general background as to age, intellect, social, and economic circumstances, etc. The report re-emphasized strongly the vital importance to the well-being of young people of a home where love and interest are shown, where there are fair rules consistently enforced, where there is a religious atmosphere in the home and religious activity outside it, and where parents set the proper affirmative example. ¶

Since I read the article I have been even more grateful for the home I grew up in, humble as it was in terms of material things; for a loving father, who was called home in our infancy; for a wonderful mother and brothers and sisters through whose love, unselfishness, and co-operative effort I came to enjoy some blessings that they did not have themselves. ¶

I am grateful that I know something about some of the problems that exist in the world and that I have the privilege of counseling, weeping, and sympathizing with some of the people who have them. ¶

I am grateful for the kind of mountains that the choir has just sung about (as well as for other mountains) and that God blesses us with strength enough to climb if we are humble enough. ¶

Recently I have been thinking about three great areas of problems which actually encompass the whole of human experience, the whole of an individual's life, thinking about them in terms of the Church program and the principles of the gospel. We have a lot of youth problems and we know it, difficulties in many fields of youth behavior and experience. Then there is in our communities, and the nation, a great problem with unhappy adults — broken homes, marriages, and lives; increasing incidence of moral decadence, of alcoholism; increasing prison incarcerations and so forth. There is a third problem that I am not sure we have thought much about (perhaps in the Church we do not know as much about it as a problem as some do), and that is the field of geriatrics, the subdivision of medicine dealing with the elderly and the aging, many of whom lose status in the family, community, and business with advancing age. ¶

Some recent experiences have permitted me the privilege of observing and participating in activities having to do with some of these problems. Out of those experiences I have come with increased gratitude to my Heavenly Father that in the graciousness and goodness of his love we have been blessed with the principles, programs, and inspiration which can preserve us from the most serious of these problems, help us overcome them to the measure we find ourselves in them, and lead us, through God's good gifts, to the happiness here and the eternal opportunity hereafter which we are meant to enjoy. ¶

There is no occasion today to do more than recognize the existence of the problems and to testify of my deep assurance that through proper parenthood and leadership and instruction, and through a willingness to learn, hearken, and participate, the principles of the gospel and the great programs of the Church will help us avoid or overcome most of the difficulties which beset us. ¶

There is a story in point which I thought of as I read last night. A young man who had lost his father in his earliest years went to an elderly medical man who had been a close friend of his father and asked the doctor what kind of man his father had been. The old doctor answered the question with a question: "Suppose you could have chosen your father — that is, what kind of man he would be — what would your choice have been?" ¶

The young man replied that he would have chosen one who was courageous and forthright and true; a kind, wise, and loving man; a worshiper, worker, and servant of God. He described clearly and forcefully an ideal father, then asked: "Doctor, is that the sort of man my father was?" ¶

Said the doctor. "As your father's friend, let me ask you another question. ¶

Is that the sort of man you have chosen to be the father of your own children?" ¶

The young man said, "With all my thinking about life and its responsibilities, I confess I have not thought about this important matter in just that way before. Though I had nothing to do with choosing my own father, I have everything to do with choosing what sort of father my own children shall have. I give you my word that I shall think about and act upon it from now on." ¶

My wonderful young friends, in the Church and out of it, you face real challenges and great pressures, but the objectives and opportunities before you are marvelous. When I look at you, I do not see in you the leaders of tomorrow, only; I see what you now are, the boy friends and girl friends, the young husbands and wives of today. In your hands, stretching ahead before you, there are important occasions for decision and choice, decisions that will affect your happiness in this world and your eternal future. ¶

Do you make negative judgments about the parents, leaders and teachers you now have? Have you thought enough about what kind of parents, leaders and teachers you are going to be? These are not far-off challenges, they are upon you; in less time than you can now conceive these blessings and burdens will be yours. ¶

A few weeks ago I sat in an auditorium in the East with some of the leading businessmen in America and heard Brother Benson discuss the Youth Fitness Program now underway across the land. As the viewpoints of the Church were so impressively presented I was again moved with gratitude that through revelation the Lord has blessed us with the principles and the programs which can lead us to effective, participating citizenship in the community and in the kingdom; which, whatever kind of home we came from, can lead us to be the sort of father or mother we would have been pleased to choose had we had the opportunity. ¶

Without the intention or occasion to be detailed, may I mention a principle or two given us by the Lord for our well-being, physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. ¶

Consider the understanding the Lord has given us as to the nature of this physical body which houses our spirit. ¶

". . . the spirit and the body are the soul of man." (D & C 88:15.) "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy. ¶

"The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple." ¶

(Ibid., 93:33, 35.) I am grateful to understand that my physical body is an eternal, non-evil component of my eternal soul, and that I have, therefore, a duty to honor and respect and care for it, and to refrain from knowingly imposing upon it any treatment or substances deleterious to it. ¶

While I could not choose nor govern the condition of the body into which I came, I have the responsibility to give it the best care I can, and if I do not I am acting in derogation of a great gift of God. ¶

For some time I have wanted to put into the record a statement by Thomas Edison in his autobiography, made in the twilight of his productive life: ¶

"The useful man never leads the easy, sheltered, knockless, unshocked life. At [age] thirty-six he ought to be prepared to deal with realities, and after that until he is sixty he should be able to handle them with a steadily increasing efficiency. ¶

"Subsequently, if he has not injured his body by excess indulgence in any of the narcotics (and by this term I mean liquor, tobacco, tea and coffee), and if he has not eaten to excess, he very likely may continue to be achievingly efficient up to his eightieth birthday, and in some cases until his ninetieth." ¶

The testimony of the times corroborates what Edison said, and what the Lord told us — information that has been in our hands for more than sixscore years. ¶

The Lord has blessed us with knowledge that we are under obligation to develop our minds, for "The glory of God is intelligence," (Ibid., 93:36) and "It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance." (Ibid., 131:6.) He has given particular emphasis to spiritual truth, but in addition to charging the early brethren to teach one another the doctrines of the kingdom, he also instructed them to prepare themselves in a wide field of knowledge, including languages, history, and law. In the Church there are the principles and program which can lead us to the possession of minds that are clean and honest, educated, trained, controlled, creative, productive, and useful. ¶

We have received the word of the Lord that ". . . men are, that they might have joy," (2 Nephi 2:25) and we know that there is joy in responsible relationships with our fellow men. As this is true of other men, it is especially true of our own families. The family, sealed together under the law of God, is the eternal unit, and our own high possibilities in the eternities are contingent upon our relationship with our family, as well as with our Heavenly Father and his other children. ¶

Underlying all that has been revealed to us the Lord has given us to know that we are his children, that life is purposeful and meaningful, and that we are blessed with the possibility of a high destiny. I thank God that I know these things, and I pray that he will bless us to understand that though we may have partaken of some of the problems of the world, though we may have undergone some of the tragedies of the world, there is hope and answer for us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. ¶

Though we could not choose or direct in our earliest days the home we grew up in or the parents who bore us, yet we can do something about the sort of parents we are or will be, and about the home our children will grow up in. ¶

I thank the Lord for the good things he has blessed us with, and pray that we may have the wisdom to be steadfast and faithful and to do that which will perpetuate for those who are to come the blessings which the Lord has made available through the principles and programs and inspired leadership of his great Church. ¶

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶