Brothers and Sisters, aloha.
It is an honor for me to be here with you today. I would like to thank President Wheelwright for the opportunity that he has provided me to speak with you, and it is my hope that this devotional address will be useful in your daily lives as other devotional addresses have been in mine.
In the fall of 2007, I received a call on my phone. The voice was familiar yet I was mistaken as to who it was. "Hello Dad I'm in the emergency room; I've been in an accident." I asked what had happened. He said "I crashed by bike." I found myself getting angry at Andrew for riding his bike when he was supposed to be attending an event at the high school that evening. He said Dad this is Alex, my son on a mission. I spoke with the doctor who explained to us his face was scraped up and he had a severe concussion. The mission President was there in the hospital with him and said he would be taking my son to the mission home for a few days to recover. A few days later I got a call again, this time I recognized the voice, it was Alex again calling at the request of the mission president's wife to let us know he was doing better. He told me he was depressed. Using my social work skills I said, "Why are you depressed?" and he replied dad because there's a lot of work to do here and the president won't let me go tracting because of the way I look. We received photos of Alex. He was skinned up across his forehead, down the side of his face across one ear and had his left eye swollen shut and black and blue. It was wisdom in the mission president not to allow my son to go out and represent the church in his condition. He became a very successful missionary. Two of the students he was privileged to baptize while serving on Iowa State University's campus will join us here next month. I don't tell you this story to boast of my son's cycling abilities, but rather to talk about a young missionary dedicated serving the Lord, similar to the 2,000 young warriors who had all been taught by their mothers to work hard and trust in the Lord. I appreciate the comments made by Laraine and am grateful for her.
Last summer, I attended a rock concert with my 16 year old son Andrew. I stood in the back with a few other parents who were discretely watching their kids. At the conclusion of the concert the lead singer came out to the microphone and exclaimed, "Stick to your dreams!" I pondered that statement— Stick to your dreams. What are your dreams? Some of us have really big dreams like dream of a new car, dream of a house on the beach, dream of a big screen TV or dream of a cell phone, even dream of a cell phone with unlimited text messaging. These are temporal things. I then wondered about spiritual or righteous dreams. What are some of the righteous dreams of the children of our Heavenly Father? They might include dreaming of serving a mission, being married in the temple, the righteous dream of living for Eternity with our Father in Heaven as a family. I guarantee you that the lead singer of that band did not just become a rock star. He had to work, and work hard, to make his dream come true. That's the catch—work.
Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once told a group of students "You must act and not acted upon." You must do something and work at it for it to come true. The great missionary Alma declared, "Oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people" (Alma 29:10). Alma continued in verse four by saying, "I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decrees of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desires, whether it be unto death or unto life."
The question then is ‘What's your desire?'
In preparing for this devotional I sought guidance from two active members of the Laie 8th Ward Primary, specifically my two daughters Alyssa (8) and Alli (10). I asked them, "What do you have to do to achieve your righteous dream of eternal life and living for eternity with your Father in Heaven?" Without any hesitation they quickly responded, "Pray, Keep the commandments, and treat people nice," and Alyssa said "get baptized." It was so important to her that she told it to me twice. I want to focus on the three basic principles which they mentioned. Each one of these basic principles will help each of us do something, to act, to enable us to achieve our righteous desire of eternal life with our Father in Heaven.
First is prayer: We are taught at an early age to pray. Prophets have long told us to pray humbly and frequently. Jesus revealed that we pray to a wise father who knows what things we have need of, before we ask him. Mormon taught his son Moroni that we should pray "with all the energy of [our] heart" (See Moroni 7:48). Nephi exclaimed, "I pray continuously for my people by day and mine eyes water my pillow by night… and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry" (2 Nephi 33:3).
Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, "Prayers can be offered even in silence. One can think a prayer, especially when words would interfere. We often kneel to pray; we may stand, or be seated. Physical position is less important than is spiritual submission to God." ("Sweet Power of Prayer," Liahona, May 2003)
Think about how often we pray. We are usually taught, morning and night. Twice a day with an average of 60 times a month. Think of your cell phone plan. What if you could only text your friends, or those who are important to you sixty times a month? You would say that is not a very good plan.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught: "Our relationship with the Father is supreme, paramount, and preeminent over all others" ("Our Relationship with the Lord," BYU Devotional Address, March 1982).
Sometimes our prayers may seem to go unanswered. I testify that our Father in Heaven hears and answers every prayer. Sometimes maybe we need to be patient. On occasion our prayers are answered quickly. I'm reminded of a story told by another faculty member.
A good Brother related that one morning he was up early preparing to go to the office. He was up well before the day had dawned, and was standing at the sink in his bathroom preparing to shave when he saw the door to a bedroom at the end of the hall open. His young son stumbled toward him tiredly rubbing his eyes. As he got to his father this little boy looked up and said in a very sleepy voice, "Dad, what was the first color?" This good man thought, "Where in the world did that come from?" This from a little boy, who thinks fathers know everything. The father responded, "I am not sure I know what the first color was." With that the little boy, with an inquisitive look on his face said, "Just a minute." He turned and quickly made his way back to his bedroom, leaving the door ajar; his father saw him kneel at his bed with his head bowed in prayer; moments later the young boy jumped up and hurried back down the hall and said, "Pink…, the first color was pink" and turned and hurried back to bed. The father then said to us, "There you have it. Now you know what the first color was."
Elder Maxwell stated,
"One can pray and yet not really pray. Prayers can be routinized and made very superficial. When this happens, there is very little communication and very little growth. Yet, given the times in which we live, improving our prayers should be one of our deepest desires if we are genuinely serious about growing spiritually.
He continued, "Neither the pure City of Enoch nor pure prayers are arrived at in a day" (All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, 2007, p. 91)!
At the beginning of a class I would ask for a volunteer to offer the opening prayer. Sometimes there are long awkward moments as I wait for a hand to go up. I understand that there is some discomfort and a degree of anxiousness as we are put in different social groups or settings. But why do we hesitate to pray? I am sure there are many reasons. One may be that we do not want to be seen as the "hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men" (Matthew 6:5). This may be a legitimate reason. If it is because of fear, then we need to exercise greater faith.
The duty of the Latter-day Saint is to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks, to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all things, and to be subject to His requirements
Number two is Keep the commandments. We say this simple phrase frequently.
King Benjamin said to his people,
"But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in faith…even unto the ends of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not." (Mosiah 4:30)
The invitation for eternal life is open to all who are willing to pay the price. The Lord has said,
"Yea, blessed are they … who have obeyed my gospel; for they shall receive for their reward the good things of the earth, and… shall be crowned with the blessings from above… they that are faithful and diligent before me." (Doctrine & Covenants 59:3-4)
Along with keep the commandments, is Do what is right. Several years ago Sister McDonell and I were building a new house. It was located about a mile from where we were living at the time. We were in the 3rd ward. Our new house was about 50 feet over the boundary into the 4th ward. One day the bishop of the 3rd ward stopped by and looked at the boundary line. He said, "It's close enough; you're in the 3rd ward." Later, the bishop of the 4th ward stopped by and looked at the boundary line and he said, "You are definitely in the 4th ward." Several days later I was at my dentist office getting a cleaning. My dentist was Elder Hammond of the Quorum of the Seventy. I told him about this boundary line story. He said, "This is easy; there's no question. You go to the ward where your house lies." You will bless the lives of those who are in the ward you are to attend and they will bless your life.
The same applies to all of us brothers and sisters here at this university. It is easy for you to attend the ward where your house lies. It's part of doing what's right; it is part of keeping the commandments. We don't pick and choose.
I want to talk briefly about being honest, also. One summer I spent a few weeks at my bishop's house. They had a son my age and we were preparing for scout camp while my family had to go out of town. We bought some illegal fire crackers. We hid them in my coat pocket so no one could find them and made a pact with each other that we would always deny having any knowledge of the whereabouts of the fire crackers. Each night before bed we would take one of the firecrackers and attach a long fuse to it and place it under the window sill of my bishop's bedroom window. Each night at about 2:00 a.m. the firecracker would explode, waking the bishop and his wife. They would get up and look around and they always found us fast asleep. After doing this every night for about a week, Bishop Allred — with my buddy beside him — came to me and asked me if I knew anything about the fire crackers. Being true to my pact to deny any knowledge about the fire crackers, I said no. He then reached into my coat pocket and pulled them out. I looked at my buddy quickly. He was looking down at the ground. I learned a great lesson that day: Be honest even when it is just the simplest little things. He couldn't lie to his father, despite having a pact with me to deny having any knowledge. Be honest and keep the commandments, even the smallest little simple ones that seem trivial.
Great blessings are promised to those who abide this counsel. The Lord emphasizes this in Doctrine and Covenants 82:10: "I, the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say ye have not promise." This goes back to what Elder Bednar said, "Act, don't be acted upon." Keep the commandments and the Lord is bound by covenant to bless us.
Lastly, my daughters said that to achieve eternal life and live with our Father in Heaven and be together with our families, we must Be nice to everyone. I translated this into respect for others.
Truman Madsen once said that church need to be a safe place. Church is where one should not have to worry about being belittled. Church is a place where young people should not have to concern themselves with being made fun of because of the brands of the clothes that they wear, or what type of scripture covers they have. BYU–Hawaii is an extension of church. We need to do everything we can to make BYU–Hawaii a safe place for all of God's children who come here. Sometimes we make others feel that they don't' measure up and it may have nothing to do with the gospel or this great university.
As a social worker working as a child abuse investigator in Southern California, I was assigned to work in the drug unit of a local government agency. One of my duties was to provide services to new mothers who had delivered drug exposed babies. My job was to help the mothers identify their problems, overcome their substance abuse issues, and to reunify with their babies which had been removed from their care. On one occasion, I had a young mother on my caseload that suffered from a severe heroin addiction. She had given birth to a baby boy just days earlier while under the influence of this damaging substance. At her request, I met her next to a trash dumpster in a back alley of a rundown neighborhood. There sitting on the curb she told me that she knew what she was doing was wrong. She knew of the dangers she was inflicting upon herself and her unborn child. She explained to me that she had never wanted to have children due to her current lifestyle, but now it was too late. Now she was a mother. With tears in her eyes she asked me if I could help her become the best mother to her child. I knew she was talking about her divine nature, but she could not know of this—she only felt it. She knew of the important role of being a mother to this new baby and she had work to do to get there. I went on to help her get into a drug treatment program, a parenting class, and counseling. I assisted her along the way. Several years later a co-worker ran into her and she recognized her badge. It was the same type that I had worn when I worked with her. She asked this co-worker to let me know that she was working fulltime and that her son was doing well in her care. She wanted to let me know that she was thankful that I had treated her with respect and like a friend when nobody else would.
In King Benjamin's discourse he was clear regarding how we are treat all of our brothers and sisters. King Benjamin is speaking to parents and explained this principle starting in verse 15 of the 4th chapter of Mosiah:
"But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.
"And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
"Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
"But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
"For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
"And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
"And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another." (Mosiah 4:15-21)
Maybe right now in your time of life the substance you have to impart to one another is love, respect for each other, helping one another, being the best home teacher and visiting teacher, doing something kind for someone, or even just saying hello to a stranger.
A couple of year ago Sister McDonell and I and our older children did a hike in Zion National Park in Utah. It is a strenuous hike which ends at the top of a peak called Angels Landing. The Angels Landing trail runs along a narrow rock fin with dizzying drop-offs on both sides. The trail culminates at a lofty perch, boasting magnificent views in every direction. One would think that this narrow ridge with deep chasms on each of its flanks would allure only the most intrepid of hikers. Hikers pull themselves up 1,488 feet to an elevation of 5,788 feet above sea level using a chain secured down the center of the path which leads to Angels Landing. In many of the areas along this narrow path the slightest deviation would result in a plunge 1,500 feet down the face of the cliff. Hikers on this path to Angels Landing help each other along this chain, cautiously guiding one another safely along the path. Each hiker helps one another unconditionally to stay on the narrow path and reach the desired destination. Often times they don't even know each other. Nobody along the path asks if they bought their clothes at fancy stores, nobody asks if they if they own a fancy car, nobody asks if they have a boat and nobody asks if they live in a house on the hill. Nobody asks, ‘How many bedrooms does your house have?' The only thing that matters is making sure that each hiker, each brother and sister, each fellow human being is safely going in the right direction on the path to Angels Landing.
Brothers and sisters, if we stick to these simple primary actions, if we act, if we pray always, keep the commandments, even the simplest little ones, and respect each other even encourage one another with love and kindness, we too will make it to Angels Landing. We too can live for eternity with our Father in Heaven and our righteous dreams will be fulfilled. God does live, Jesus in the Christ. This is His Church; of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.