Some years ago, I served as a bishop on this campus with some of the finest ‘singles’ in the Church. Over a six-year period, Sister Graham and I were so impressed with the talent, dedication and promise of an exciting ‘rising-generation.’ They were to “become leaders” in both the Gospel’s sense and the world’s sense.
During the years that followed, we have been privileged to visit with many former ward members in various parts of the world.
I often would ask, possibly some of your parents, “Since leaving BYU–Hawaii, what were your greatest challenges?” Besides struggling to find their callings in life, it was raising you in a very different and difficult world. They hoped that you would be wiser than they were.
Now you are here at BYU–Hawaii to be wiser – to Prepare, Engage, Improve – and leave with greater capacity for light and leadership in a world ever more different, difficult and darkening.
You are living during the final scenes of a mighty, intensified struggle. The strength of your mind and spirit will ultimately determine what you will become through this struggle.
By divine design, you have inherited noble qualities from Heavenly Father to increase in light and wisdom, advance the cause of truth, and realize exceptional blessings of the faithful in these latter-days. You also have come with a divine nature that is sacred, lovely, sensitive to truth, and so loved by your Heavenly Father. I understand that many of you are working part-time to help finance your education. You’re busy! Your work can further your self-discovery, gaining insight and wisdom through experience that can benefit you for the rest of your life. I believe while here, you must conscientiously seek-out and discover your particular gifts and talents the Lord has endowed you with. As you discover and nurture talents, the Lord will lead you to your life’s callings and opportunities to use them to bless His children.
As an undergraduate student in California, I worked summers and vacations in the ‘Magic Kingdom’ – Disneyland. Yes, it was fun to go to work everyday – a setting that sustained family-values, high-standards, and principle-centered leadership.
Walt Disney, then alive, frequently took time to instruct and inspire us. I resonated to Walt’s personal credo for being at the places of most potential in your life. He called it “The Dreamovations Process.”
1. Make your dream come true
2. Believe in your self
3. Dare to make a difference
4. Then, just do it!
In spite of career set backs and discouraging moments, Walt never let up on devotion to his family and the courage to move forward in life through imagination, hard-work, attention to detail, and creativity. Walt’s leadership was about keeping on and keeping on, purposefully living his creative dream to bring happiness to children everywhere.
Today, Walt’s brilliant legacy lives on through wholesome forms of entertainment that inspires and lifts the human spirit. His contribution and influence is positively experienced all around us.
All around us the world is infiltrated by the adversary, Satan, the Master of Deceit, who will tempt us and try to pollute and pervert our mind, weaken our spirit, and keep us from reaching our fullest, divine potential.
Make no mistake, we are now in enemy territory and the ‘Master of Deceit’ wants to destroy us. His most insidious, strategic moves for control are made upon the realms of our mind.
The adversary who has no future, desperately desires to persuade us to think that we have no future either, and to just go with the flow of a coarsening world. By influencing the way we think, he is capable of keeping our life diminished and miserably below the level of our potential.
It’s most comforting to know that the Lord knows who we really are, what we really think, what we really do, and who we really need to become.
And, through our obedience and diligence to truth, we can have the spiritual guidance to know how to become our divine potential.
I would like to share with you today, my dear brothers and sisters, what I have learned about: how to be more wise in enemy territory and how to fortify ourselves against the attacks of the adversary and thereby expand our wisdom to become more the person whom the Lord wants us to become.
I broach my remarks this morning from the Prophet Moroni’s passionate plea to us in these latter-days, found in Mormon 9:31. “Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that He hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been.”
Moroni’s plea to us? That we humbly draw all the knowledge we can from the Book of Mormon, plus draw from our latter-day prophets, our own study/experiences and through the Holy Ghost to be more wise.
Wisdom is the principle thing. We must learn how to be more wise in that we are now living in a war-zone where our wisdom and leadership will require greater capacity, daring and doing.
My late father-in-law worked as a foreman in Pearl Harbor much of his career. The most horrific scenes of his life happened while supervising part of the clean-up operation in Peal Harbor following the bombing.
He never would talk about the carnage and suffering he witnessed. I took a historical interest to learn wisdom about his war-years.
It was on December 7, 1941, at 7:02 AM, at a small north-Oahu radar station. Privates Joseph McDonald and George Elliott noticed a large group of planes approaching from the north.
They called in and told Lieutenant Kermit Tyler about the planes. When questioned by another soldier at headquarters, Lieutenant Tyler responded, “Well, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.” At 7:55 AM, on this idle, laid-back Sunday morning, a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor left 2,330 casualties and 1,145 wounded.
That morning the United States military was caught unprepared to counter a surprise air strike. They paid an awful price. War was declared and over the course of the ensuing four-year conflict, thousands were lost, wounded, or maimed in a struggle for control of the Pacific.
I learned here that being flippant, casual, or dismissive with true ‘voices of warning’ could be disastrous in our life – especially when our Prophets warn us of the danger of allowing pornographic air-strikes (stealth air-attacks that come through invisibly transmitted electrons to invade and destroy minds and lives) to come into our life.
Some years ago, I was contracted as a psychologist to work in Pearl Harbor with United States Naval Intelligence at their Pacific ‘Command Central,’ we also called it ‘Mind-Central,’ within a high-security setting, my work was to help officers improve their mental-processing and executive decision-making.
Each day as I entered the Naval Intelligence’s Mind-Central, I faced a large mounted picture of a horrific scene of Pearl Harbor being bombed; the caption, “Never Forget – Always be Vigilant.” Part of sustaining a strong military presence and fortification, Naval Intelligence’s Mind-Central detects, tracks and helps defend against any possible threatening activity in the Pacific Arena.
Included were Soviet sea-based, missile-equipped submarines. Prowling and poised in the expansive, dark-shadowy depths of the Pacific, were incredible destructive powers.
With a global array of electronic, aerial reconnaissance receptors – the undetectable became detectable to Naval Intelligence’s Mind-Central. Information on adversarial movements was analyzed and acted upon.
The adversary’s incredible destructive powers have now invaded and polluted our personal mind-centrals: homes, entertainment, the media, computers and everything around and about us, that he might over-throw us through minds cluttered with filth, and decadence. Our prophets have counseled us to fortify ourselves against the corrupting and corrosive powers of the adversary. To be of sober spirit, mentally on the alert and to keep our spiritual receptors strong.
To win our mind-battles we need some spiritual wisdom in warfare. I believe we need to learn about and understand the military conflicts and strategies detailed in the Book of Mormon. We might ask: Why did the prophet, editor Mormon, who saw our day, give us so much military activity? Think about it.
In the Book of Alma we read of a Nephite Army under the command of the Captain Moroni, who was firm in the faith of Christ, who was a man of perfect understanding, who raised the Standard of Liberty wherever he went, who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people, who built strong defenses and fortifications around Bountiful and other cities – strong walls of timbers and earth, to an exceeding height – against possible enemy attacks.
In order for an enemy to get within Bountiful or any fortified city, three objectives had to be accomplished. First, thick, massive walls had to be scaled or penetrated. Second, towers above surrounding walls had to be invaded. Third, the leaders in the towers above had to be muffled/subdued by the enemy, thereby easily conquering the inhabitants of the city.
I truly believe that Mormon gave us military wisdom for our minds to ponder, to be wiser, to keep or regain safe ground with walls, towers and anointed leaders – because we would be into intense mind-games against our adversary who wants to keep us vulnerable to his tempting and testing.
We need powerful mental-fortifications and strategies against the adversary’s schemes, crafts, deceits, and traps. He is very sophisticated, subtle and skillful in targeting our ‘thinking-feeling’ responses to low self-esteem, boredom, anger, loneliness, tiredness, stress, discouragement, depression, and/or experimentation.
In the realms of our minds – we should understand that what we see affects what we think about, which defines our feelings and desires, which precede our actions, which ultimately determine our character. We should always be on-guard with our choice of thoughts because they will determine our feelings, actions, our well-being. We can choose to control our thoughts and redirect them. When evil thoughts enter our mind, we need not think that we are an evil person – unless we choose to nourish the thought, feed it, and make it our own. If we do not like a thought, we can refuse to own it. We can replace it with a worthy thought.
The Lord desires us to become Christ-Minded – to cast away our idle thoughts, to let virtue garnish our thoughts , to look unto Him in every thought, to have an enlightened, invigorated mind.
The Adversary wants minds darkened and diminished – ignorant, prideful, sensual, undisciplined, addicted, and miserable.
After being released from a second term as a bishop, and walking across campus, I noticed a posting of an LDS Family Services Fireside on ‘addiction recovery’ to be given that week at the BYU–Hawaii Chapel.
The Spirit whispered, “You and your wife need to attend this.” We did and following the fireside I was interviewed and subsequently called on a mission with LDS Family Services, directing the Addiction Recovery Program within our five local stakes.
It has been over eight years now and the learning has been profound. Our program goal is to help individuals overcome their addictions – realizing sobriety and healing through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
I learned much about ‘mind-pollution’ from this calling:
1. What our mind sensually takes in, it keeps – sometimes forever.
2. Preoccupation with unworthy thinking can lead to unworthy behavior.
3. It’s a long process to cleanse a mind that has been polluted by unclean thoughts.
4. Pornography impairs one’s ability to enjoy a happy, normal, emotional, romantic, and spiritual relationship with another person of the opposite sex.
Internet pornography is a horrific game changer – from freedom, joy, and peace to captivity, bondage, and misery.
Internet pornography is one of the adversary’s best stealth-attacks to damn our progression, and prevent us from entering the temple.
Over time, I also learned:
1. There is no such thing as just looking. We can easily get hooked.
2. The problem does not go away after individuals get married.
3. It may temporarily halt, but then resurface and become an even more serious problem if left untreated.
4. By openly discussing an addiction, much can be done to safeguard ourselves, a dating relationship, a marriage, and a future family.
The first week after my calling to be a bishop on this campus, those many years ago, I interviewed everyone in the ward. I met with an impressive freshman I’ll call Joe. I felt Joe had potential to be one of my future ward leaders. However, over time, Joe gradually drifted to the back row and into the shadows. Five years later, after his graduation, there was a knock at my door. It was Joe. His problem? Pornography. Over time, he had cheated himself and the Lord from his best self. He had spun a life of secrecy, deception, and half-truths. He was afraid to seek help earlier.
Now with honesty, responsibility and humility, we started a process of recovery – to break the cycle of indulgence before his return home.
I later thought of the cost of Joe’s years of pernicious enslavement: diminished spirit, avoidance, alienation, demoralization, no mission, no leadership development, no temple marriage, no significant promises waiting after his graduation into a career. Yes, the loses were significant. Pornography causes a rewiring of the brain’s neural circuits and will contaminate the whole person. Our brain center that controls impulsiveness becomes supercharged, our brain center for willpower shrinks. Our conscience becomes desensitized, our personality will be dulled. Family relationships and decision-making capacities, impaired. Ability to pray, lessened. Capacity to love and the ability to serve others, diminished. Our testimony of the truth will start to slip away, probably so gradual at first that we won’t even realize it is happening until it is too late. Then, we will rationalize evil to be good.
After seeing our latter-day struggles and spiritual shortcomings, the prophet Moroni most directly counseled us, “Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God” (Mormon 9:28).
In our Addiction Recovery Program over the years, I have witnessed many miracles of hope, healing, and recovery. I have learned that:
1. The power of the Savior’s healing Atonement turns lives around from the most devastating defeats into glorious spiritual victories.
2. Those who once lived with daily depression, fear, and debilitating anxiety, with help can experience peace and joy.
3. There is no addiction, no obstacle to our divine destiny for which the Savior’s Atonement does not have a remedy of miraculous healing and lifting power.
May I briefly suggest three mental-actions to help us be more wise, to strengthen our mind and fortify ourselves against our adversary, and be more what the Lord wants us to be.
The first mental-action is President Monson’s #1 Formula for Success. Fill our mind with truth. Learn and retain true doctrines and principles for our thoughts to draw upon, especially from the Book of Mormon. Alma’s powerful discourse in Alma 32:34 about filling and expanding our mind compares the Word unto a seed that must be planted and nourished, then grows into a tree with the fruit of eternal life.
Alma is telling us the process to expand our mind:
1. The Word of God swells our soul with faith/understanding.
2. Our understanding begins to be enlightened.
3. Our mind begins to expand and be invigorated.
When we study true doctrines, our mind expands to a greater capacity for height, width, depth and thickness of understanding, needed to enlarge our wisdom and thereby qualify us to take on the shield of faith, “wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the adversary” (Ephesians 6:16).
The Lord has commanded us to get all such truth that we can too be transformed by the renewing (expanding) of our mind.
Powerful transformations or expansions of the mind come by daily searching and feasting upon the Word, pondering, praying, and capturing by recording in a journal, the promptings from the Spirit.
The second mental-action involves humbly asking the Lord two questions, then listening. Lord, what would you have me do? What lack I yet? Listen and record your impressions. Seek through the quiet whisperings of the Spirit to know what the Lord would have you do with your life and what needs to happen or change, and then asking the Lord to help you make those changes.
Seeking what the Lord would have you to do and how to get there comes by patience, humility, inspiration/revelation through the Holy Ghost, and it comes more easily in peaceful settings. Do you have a quiet place to daily be alone with the Lord with paper and pen (journal), without earphones, i-phones or digital distractions to let the solemnities of eternity rest both upon your mind and heart? You will be prompted in quiet moments when the Holy Ghost can most effectively touch your mind and heart simultaneously to lead and direct you and protect you against being deceived.
President Boyd K. Packer declared, “Discovering how the Holy Ghost operates in your life is the quest of a lifetime. Once you have made that discovery for yourself, you can live in enemy territory and will not be deceived or destroyed. No member of this Church – and that means each of you – will ever make a serious mistake without first being warned by the promptings of the Holy Ghost.”
Some years ago, I was contracted by the Hawaii Judiciary. I was sent to work with the detention home administration who were contentiously at odds with each other.
After constructive months doing team-building, the Spirit whispered, “Morris, look around and see what needs to happen here.”
“What?”
“Look around and see what needs to happen.”
I turned around and looked at the detainees – the kids there. “Oh My Goodness! The kids here are really scary/intimidating!”
The Spirit whispered, “You need to work with them.”
“NO WAY! I’m an Organizational Psychologist.”
“You are also Clinical. Do this.”
I expressed my fears in a silent prayer to the Lord, “I don’t think I can deal with the ‘bad/profane’ language here, or, being called a ‘dumb haole,’ or, getting punched-out by local kids with conduct disorders.”
The Spirit whispered, “The kids will highly respect you and you will be very successful and no harm will come to you.”
After wrestling with the Spirit, I did it for three incredible years with the Department of Health as a senior clinical-psychologist within the Judiciary.
May I say that this ‘Spirit-directed-course-of-action’ was the most profound, learning experience of my professional career.
I learned how to help those mentally and emotionally troubled with painful issues, faulty/irrational/damaging thinking and addictive habits move toward positive and constructive natures with hope and healing. Most importantly, I learned to love them!
I can affirm if we are to be at places of most potential in our life, guided and protected, we must listen to and obey the Holy Ghost.
To site one of many personal encounters, I noticed on the rolls one day a detainee with the first name Omni. I thought, “Oh, he is LDS” and my prompting was “see him now.” When meeting with him, I found out otherwise. He was raised by a loving mother, without a father, in a tough neighborhood with no religion.
I asked, “How did you get your name, Omni?” He said, “Before I was born, my late grandfather had a dream in the night and told my mother, I was to be called Omni and that through my name I would find the truth to save myself, my family and ancestry.”
Wow! I told him that there was a Book of Omni (Book of Mormon) and would he be interested in reading it? “YES.” He also committed to me to read what comes before and after the Book of Omni.
In short, a young life, with a starving spirit, was transformed by the Gospel through the converting powers of the Book of Mormon. May I say, if we are willing to do our spiritual promptings, the Lord has many ways of pouring wisdom into our mind to prompt us, to guide us through new learning experiences, to give us more wisdom, help us expand our potential, and prepare us for what He wants us to become.
The third mental-action, daily sustain spiritual “mindfulness.” Because the natural resting state of our mind is wandering, anything more than wandering requires a conscious will. ‘Mindfulness’ is the conscious will of going through an experience and focusing our attention to the present moments, happenings, and reflecting on our thoughts and emotions. Be attentively aware and control your wandering, negative thoughts and feelings, not attaching to or reacting to the triggers.
Having spiritual-mindfulness means:
1. Mentally focusing on the now, facing life’s difficulties, feeling the Savior’s love, and going through adversity with courage and total trust in the Lord.
2. Resisting and avoiding anything that drives the Holy Ghost from our life.
3. Allowing the Holy Ghost to give us an enlightened mind, that we may receive and act on spiritual promptings.
My personal passion for sporting events is ocean kayaking. My most challenging course is around Laie Point to Goat Island, respectful of rough seas and wearing my life-jacket. My personal motto is “Morris, you cannot stop the waves, but you can learn to ‘Mindfully Manage’ them because waves are things as they really are. In kayaking it’s the practice of attending to the present, mentally dealing with each moment and focusing on what’s most important.
My three non-negotiable rules of self-discipline when I am out there are:
1. Never trivialize or minimize the power of waves.
2. Attend to ‘the now’ and go directly through large waves coming at me (not sideways).
3. Stay clear of potentially damaging lava rock, coral, and sharks.
As we navigate through our ‘waves of life,’ we will face difficult, challenging and threatening moments with fearful thinking resulting in anxiety and faintness of our minds. Yes, I have on my kayak and in life! Life is not trouble-free or unproblematic! However, I have learned that the Holy Ghost will guide and protect us in enemy territory and we will be able to face life’s unexpected and unpleasant happenings with wisdom, faith, and courage.
I believe there are generations yet unborn that will have you rehearse, over and over again how you got through this final struggle.
In closing I testify that you are exceptional, the Lord loves you, He knows who you really are, what you really think, what you really do, who you really need to become, and how you are to get there.
While at BYU–Hawaii, I pray that you continue to remain true to your divine destiny, grow in wisdom, virtue and knowledge, and in your love for the Lord, that the evil designs of adversary be frustrated, as you dream, believe, dare and do, and ultimately become all that you were sent here to become.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.