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For complete text of President Bednar’s
devotional address, see: http://www.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2002_09_10_Bednar.htm
BYU-Idaho
President David A. Bednar stressed the need for honesty and integrity
Tuesday, Sept. 10, at the opening devotional of fall semester.
He
opened with a story told by former LDS Church leader N. Eldon Tanner in which a young man came to him seeking
advice. The man explained that he had made an agreement with another person
requiring him to make certain payments each year. The man could not make
the payments without losing his home.
President
Tanner said, “Keep your agreement.”
To
which the man replied, “Even if it costs me my home?”
President
Tanner replied, “I am not talking about your home. I am talking about
your agreement; and I think your wife would rather have a husband who would
keep his word, meet his obligations, keep his pledges or his covenants, and
have to rent a home than to have a home with a husband who will not keep
his covenants and his pledges.”
President
Bednar then issued questions of self-evaluation:
“Did President Tanner’s counsel seemed
old-fashioned, outdated and unreasonable to you, or did it seem
appropriate? Was losing the home more important to your than keeping the
agreement, or was keeping the agreement more important to you than keeping
the home? Is the counsel President Tanner gave in 1966 equally applicable
in 2002, or are our modern conditions and
circumstances so different that his counsel is no longer relevant?
“Let
me suggest that our answers to these questions indicate our susceptibility
to two pervasive latter-day sicknesses: (1) the rapidly spreading of
disease of dishonesty and (2) the contemporary epidemic of ethical
failures. . . . If you or I
found President Tanner’s instruction about keeping an agreement to be
impractical, obsolete or out of step with our current thinking, then I
submit the corrosive and eroding and debilitating impact of these two
latter-day diseases on our characters and on our souls in well under
way.”
President
Bednar explained, “In the final analysis,
you and I bear the responsibility to become men and women of integrity and
honesty –
men and women who are true and trustworthy when no one is
watching and when no one else is around. Do we, for example, only drive the
speed limit when we know or expect that a police officer is watching? And
what videos do we watch and what Internet sites do we visit when we are
alone?
“Our
parents certainly can help in this process, but they cannot do it for us.
Our friends likewise can help, but they cannot do it for us. Our church
leaders teach and encourage and inspire, but they cannot do it for us.
Individually, each of us must become a person of integrity and honesty
‘. . . through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy
Messiah.’ Indeed, all things are possible with the help of the Savior
and through the enabling and strengthening power of his infinite
atonement.”
Susan Bednar,
wife of the president, introduced her remarks with a story from The
Associated Press about three Army paratroopers who were to deliver the game
ball for a high school football game but landed on the field of another
high school five miles away. The cause, according to the article, was that
“a new pilot . . . lost
track of his marker.”
“How
did this pilot lose track of his marker when the point was clearly marked
and well defined?” she asked. “All the pilot and his comrades
had to do were a few routine checks and then ‘look’ for the
X!”
“Do
we sometimes harden our hearts and underestimate the value of incorporating
simple gospel principles in our lives because we feel they won’t
assist or heal us?
“I invite you to ponder how you can
make these gospel principles a part of your daily life. Instead of thinking
of all the reasons why you can’t exercise regularly, go to bed at a
reasonable hour, eat a balanced diet, pray morning and night, or study your
scriptures daily, please consider the emotional, physical, and spiritual
blessings that will come if you do apply these teachings with full purpose
of heart and real intent. Don’t be blinded by the seeming simplicity
or easiness of the way. You, too, can be assisted in your challenges and
have the strength to accept the vicissitudes of life with assurance. All you
have to do is look.”
Next week’s devotional speaker will
be Elder Cree-L Kofford, a member of the First Quorum of
the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He
will speak at 2 p.m. in the Taylor
Chapel. The devotional will be broadcast live at 2 p.m. and again at 9
p.m. on KBYI, 100.5 FM.
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