"Doing the Very Best You Can"
Elder Stephen A. West
February 18, 2003
In Washington D.C., on a small island in the middle of the Potomac River is the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial. Part of that memorial is a 17 foot high bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt in front of a 30 foot high shaft of granite. Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States serving from 1901 to 1909. On a surrounding terrace there are four large granite tablets, each of which is engraved with statements of Roosevelt=s philosophy of citizenship. On one of those tablets is the sentence: AIt is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.@ For each of us, it is important to do the very best we can with what we have.
Theodore Roosevelt was not only a statesman and a politician; but he was also an outdoorsman, an author, a naturalist, a rancher, an athlete, and a naval historian. He loved to Ado@ things and to Atry@ things. For example, he enjoyed seeing how far he could walk in a straight line without being stopped by something. Even while president of the United States, he would try this taking along with him any one he could get to accompany him. He would go to Rock Creek Park, a public park in the center of Washington D.C. marked by a stream, ponds, ravines, cliffs, forests, underbrush, etc. Theodore Roosevelt and those who came with him would walk, wade, swim, descend, scale, and push through whatever confronted them until something absolutely stopped them. They thrived on going as far as they could and the next time trying to go even farther. It reminds me of the motto of the high school our daughter attended, AI shall find a way or I shall make one!@ After Theodore Roosevelt completed his terms as president of the United States, he gave a speech at the Sorbonne in France. In doing so, he talked about the benefits of getting involved and doing your best. He said this,
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly . . . who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat.1
This was a continual theme of Roosevelt=s life.
Inability To Do the Perfect Thing
Ofttimes I found as a young man I was fearful to do things because I wasn=t ready or felt that I could not do the perfect thing. I remember reading a comment from the Bengalense poet, Rabindranath Tagore, in which he said, AI have spent my days in stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.@ Sometimes we find ourselves doing that. We can prepare and prepare and prepare but never act. As a young lawyer when I was being sworn in to practice before the Federal District Court for Utah, Judge A. Sherman Christensen, the federal judge, gave a group of us some advice. In doing so he said this:
Preparation is a wonderful comfort and a wonderful strength. As William Feather said: >Too many of us wait to do the perfect thing, with the result we do nothing. While many of us are waiting until conditions are >just right= before we go ahead, others are moving along, fortunately ignorant of the dangers that beset them. By the time that we in our superior wisdom decide to make a start, we discover that the fools have traveled far.=
Unwillingness To Push Ourselves To Our Limits
Sometimes we are reluctant to challenge ourselves or to get involved. A woman named Myrtle Cook from Toronto, Canada, won the 100 yard gold medal at the Olympics in 1928. She was asked by an interviewer named Laurier Lapierre, A>What do you think about when you are poised at the starting line waiting for the signal?= She replied: >You just think: run as fast as you can.'"2 That is what we need to do. We need to figuratively run as fast as we can. We are familiar with the scripture that says, A. . . [I]t is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength@ (Mosiah 4:27). Sometimes we over look the next sentence, AAnd again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore all things must be done in order.@ We should not be afraid to be willing to regularly test ourselves and run as fast as we can with the hope that we can increase our ability to run even faster.
Concern That Others Can Do Something Better Than We Can
Sometimes we are afraid to get involved because we think others can do something better than we can. In the play, AWaiting For Godot,@ two men hearing cries for help weigh the risks of giving assistance. As they do so, this dialogue takes place between them:
Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not everyday that we are needed. Not indeed that we are personally needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!3
You will each be in situations where you are asked to do something you feel others could do better, but at that particular time and that particular place Aall mankind@ may well be you; and if you don=t do what needs to be done, it won=t get done. Wherever you find yourself Amake the most of it before it is too late.@ Don=t be afraid to get involved.
Possibility of Embarrassment
If you are doing your best, don=t be afraid to be embarrassed. President Faust, when he was a bishop, had an experience with being asked to sing in the ward choir. In a biography of President Faust, he was quoted as saying about this experience:
We had a good choir because our leader, Brother Alex Anderson, was a good leader. He, however, encouraged the bishop to sing in the choir. I felt that as a measure of support for Brother Anderson and the others. . . I would try to sing with the choir. Things went from bad to worse. Brother Anderson liked to invite the choir members to improve their talents by singing solos. One Sunday during choir practice he asked that the bishop sing a small solo. I found it very difficult to turn Brother Anderson down in front of the choir when the others who were not very good singers made a 100 percent effort. So during sacrament meeting they sang and I tried. I was literally so frightened and upset that the paper trembled in my hands. I could hardly hold it. I felt embarrassed and I felt humiliated. All of my mask of dignity was gone. After the meeting as I walked down the aisle I was met with warm smiles and expressions of understanding and support. Someone said, >Bishop, it surely makes us feel good to see you scared.= That day the bishop became more human.
President Faust=s biographer commented:
In reflecting on that day years later, he would add, >Instead of thinking you have to do everything perfectly as a leader, you do the best you can. And sometimes when you're doing the best you can, you find that you can't do everything as well as you'd like. But people are forgiving of our weaknesses and shortcomings, and they don't expect us to be perfect, especially when we're willing to laugh at ourselves and admit we're human.'4
We may fall short. We may not do things perfectly; but if we do the best we can with what we have, the Lord will take it into account. Brigham Young said,
We all occupy diversified stations in the world, and in the kingdom of God. Those who do right, and seek the glory of the Father in heaven, whether their knowledge be little or much, or whether they can do little or much, if they do the very best they know how, they are perfect. . . .5
On the occasion of the dedication of the Gordon B. Hinckley Building here at BYU Idaho on October 22, 2002, President Hinckley said, AYou don=t have to be a genius. You don=t have to be a straight-A student. You just have to do your very best with all the capability you have. You have to do your very best.@ This phrase, A. . . do your very best with all the capability you have. . . .@ influenced me in choosing the subject for today=s remarks.
What each of us Aknows@ is one of the important things we have to offer the world. When George Washington was a surveyor in his early years, he is said to have delivered a bill for $5 dollars for surveying a client=s real estate. The client objected thinking the bill was excessive. AAll you did is drive in four stakes,@ the client protested. Washington asked for the bill back, wadded it up and threw it away, took out a piece of paper and wrote on it and then handed it to the client. On the new piece of paper it said, ADriving four stakes $1.00. Knowing where to drive the stakes $4.00.@ I don=t remember the exact amounts charged in this situation, but the point is made and the principle established. What you know increases your ability to make a meaningful contribution.
Richard Rogers, the composer of the music for such Broadway hits as Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music was quoted in his obituary in Time Magazine as saying, A>When the lyrics are right, it=s easier for me to write a tune than to bend over and tie my shoelaces.= . . . When Oscar Hammerstein II handed him the lyric for Bali Ha=i, Rogers studied it for a moment, then turned the typed page over, retired to the next room and five minutes later came back with the completed melody, one of his most haunting.@6
The writer of Rogers= obituary went on to say: AHis seemingly spontaneous outpourings belied a sustained discipline, as he readily acknowledged: >It=s the result of years of living, of study and reading, of personality and temperament. At one particular moment all these come together and, the artist Aexpresses@ himself.=@7
The better we prepare ourselves, the more we have to have offer the world.
At this point, you may be wondering what it is that you know and what it is that you can do? When I was perhaps a little younger than you, a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood before my mission, my senior companion and I were assigned to home teach, among other persons, Elder Delbert Stapley of the Quorum of the Twelve and his family. This was in Salt Lake City; and when you home taught in those days, you could just walk through the neighborhood and knock on doors. Our arrangement was that we would alternate teaching the lessons at every other home. In those days, you had a fixed lesson you were to teach and a written summary of the lesson that you left with the family when you had completed your visit. As we would go out, I would try to estimate whether it would be my turn to knock on Elder Stapley=s door or whether it would be my companion=s turn, always hoping that he would have to teach the discussion when we arrived at the Stapley home.
The first time I ended up having to teach the Stapley family, the assigned lesson was temple marriage. I agonized walking to their house, thinking that I really had no ability or knowledge to teach such a discussion. After we were in the home and my senior companion had talked briefly with Elder Stapley and his family, he turned to me and said, ABrother West will now teach us about temple marriage.@ I, in a halting way, said to Elder Stapley, AYou are married and I am not, and I understand that as an Apostle you are in the temple at least weekly for a meeting, and I am sure you are also there several other times each month in various capacities. I have never been to the temple so I don=t know how I can teach you anything about temple marriage.@ Now, fifty years later, I don=t remember exactly the words he said, or the examples he used, or the specific members of his family; but the conversation went something like this. Elder Stapley looked straight at me and said pointing to his wife, AThis is my wife. She is a wonderful woman, but she wants to further develop some of her homemaking skills. Notwithstanding that I am a member of the Twelve, I can=t teach her those things. For that type of information I am relying on the women of the Relief Society. This is my son. He is a Scout. I am a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and have to travel throughout the world. I can=t be here all the time to train him on the many things he needs to know to obtain merit badges, nor can I be involved in some of the other things he needs to progress in Scouting. If the Scout master and the merit badge counselors don=t fulfill their callings, I am afraid that he will not be an Eagle Scout.@
He then turned to other members of his family with similar examples always pointing out how those who had callings within the ward, sometimes naming them by name, would need to be responsible for fulfilling their callings so that members of his family could progress. He then turned to me and said, ANow you are our home teacher; and if you and your companion don=t give us the home teaching discussions, no one will. Therefore, teach us about temple marriage.@ I stumbled through a discussion on temple marriage. At the end, as I remember it, Elder Stapley looked at me and said, ANow I can=t say that I learned much from that discussion but you did, didn=t you?@ I replied, AYes, sir.@ He then said, ANow you and your companion will be our home teachers, and we expect you to give us lessons each time you come so plan to be prepared and give us the lessons. I=m sure they will be of some benefit to us and certainly of some benefit to you,@ and he was right! In future months as I presented lessons, I don=t know how much the Stapley family learned, but I learned a great deal trying to be as prepared as I could.
Lehi sent Nephi on what was an intimidating assignment for him when he sent Nephi to get the brass plates from Laban with these words:
. . . [T]he Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness.
AAnd now, behold thy brothers murmur, saying it is a hard thing which I have required of them; but behold I have not required it of them, but it is a commandment of the Lord.
Therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured.
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.8
As we listen to those verses, we can almost hear the Primary song lyrics, AI will go B and do B for I know.@
We are often given responsibilities for which we feel inadequately prepared. We have heard the wonderful statement by President Thomas S. Monson who said, AWhom God calls, God qualifies,@9 and I know that is true. We have great scriptural evidences of that fact. For example, when the Lord was calling Moses as recorded in the fourth chapter of Exodus, Moses felt inadequate to his calling and said starting in the 10th verse:
And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.10
The Lord subsequently spoke to Moses about Aaron saying,
And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.11
The Lord qualified Moses by giving him Aaron to be a mouthpiece for him.
In another example of how the Lord qualifies His servants, the Lord qualified Saul. The description of the anointing of Saul to be the captain over the Lord=s inheritance starts in 1 Samuel 10:1:
Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his [Saul=s] head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?12
Then starting midway through the 5th verse it says:
. . . thou shalt meet a company of prophets . . .; and they shall prophesy:
And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.
And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.
. . . .
And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.
And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them (emphasis added).13
Consider how the Lord prepared and assisted Saul so he would be qualified:
- The Lord through Samuel anointed him
2. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him
3. He was turned into another man
4. He was told that God was with him
5. He was given another heart
We need to remember, however, that after being qualified, we should live thereafter in a way to continually remain entitled to that qualification.14
I sometimes think of the verse that says, A. . . it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do@ (2 Nephi 25:23) and wonder if there are similarities with what we have been talking about. For example, is it possible that the Lord qualifies us after we have done our best?
For much of my professional life I was a lawyer for the Marriott Corporation, later Marriott International, Inc. In that context, I became very impressed with the career of J. Willard Marriott. After serving a mission for the Church in the Eastern States Mission, on his way home, he passed through Washington D.C. His biographer said:
. . . [H]e walked from Capital Hill to the Washington Monument, toiled up the steps to the top, walked back down again, and strolled over to the Lincoln Memorial. Everywhere he went tourists and pedestrians sweltered and sweated in the sultry, humid air. On the way back to his hotel, he just stood there in the street watching the crowds, he couldn=t get over it: a push cart peddler would come along the street selling lemonade and soda pop and ice cream, and in minutes he would be cleaned out and on his way to stock up with another cartload.15
Remembering how hot and humid Washington D.C. was, when Mr. Marriott graduated from the University of Utah, he used some money he had made selling woolen goods to loggers during summers when he wasn=t attending Weber Junior College and the University of Utah and purchased an A & W Root Beer Franchise for Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, Virginia. He left for Washington D.C. in March 1927 with $3,000, $1,500 that he had saved from selling the woolen goods while he was going to school and $1,500 that he had borrowed to make the preliminary arrangements for a root beer stand. He returned to Utah in June for the graduation from the University of Utah of his fiancé=, Alice Sheets. The next day, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple and the same day the two of them left in their old Ford car to drive across the country to Washington D.C. The nine-seat root beer stand had opened in May, 1927.
In 1976, when the company Mr. and Mrs. Marriott had formed dedicated two theme parks, each named AGreat America,@ one in Santa Clara, California and one near Chicago, Illinois, each park had a small monument in a prominent place that bore this legend, AGreat America is dedicated with pride to Mr. and Mrs. J. Willard Marriott, who began as so many have begun with only each other.@ That may be like many of you when you finish school. You start with an education, a testimony, and a spouse and not much more. When J. W. Marriott died in 1985, fifty-eight years after opening the nine-seat root beer stand, the Marriott Corporation had 154,600 employees and four billion two hundred and forty-one million seven hundred thousand dollars in annual sales. He and Mrs. Marriott did the best they could with what they had. He had been the President and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Marriott Corporation, the Chairman of two inaugurations of a president of the United States, and the president of the Washington D.C. Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She had been his partner throughout, a member of the Board of Directors of Marriott Corporation, and the National Treasurer of her political party. They had been the parents of outstanding sons.
Returning to the scriptures, Peter, seeing a man lame from birth, said to him,
. . . Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.16
The idea of a man who at one time couldn=t walk at all now walking and leaping leaves a joyful picture in our minds.
Neither Peter nor presumably the lame beggar had significant worldly goods, but they both did the best they could with what they had B something more important B and what they had was faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is explained in Acts 3:16 where, recounting this event, it says:
And his name [Christ=s] through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all (Acts 3:16, emphasis added).
In 1 Nephi 17:3 it says:
And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.17
Nephi was told he should construct a ship. He didn=t know how nor what to use. He said to the Lord, A. . . whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship . . .@18 The Lord told him where to go to find ore. He did so and made a bellows and tools Aof the ore with which I did molten out of the rock.@19 His brothers told him he was a fool because, A. . . he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters.@20 Nephi related, A. . . they did not believe that I could build a ship; neither would they believe that I was instructed of the Lord.@21
His brothers said to him, AWe knew that ye could not construct a ship, for we knew that ye were lacking in judgment; wherefore, thou canst not accomplish so great a work.@22 Nephi subsequently responded to them,
. . . If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If He should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done.
And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that He cannot instruct me that I should build a ship?23
Nephi did the best he could with what he had.
How fortunate we are:
That Moses didn=t let his slowness of speech keep him from doing the best he could.
That Saul accepted the calling and was turned into another man while God was with him.
That Peter didn=t let his lack of worldly goods keep him from acting with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That Nephi didn=t say I won=t undertake building a ship because I don=t have tools or materials or know how.
The question was previously posed, AWhat do you know? What are your skills, your attributes, your assets?@ If you find yourselves like Mr. and Mrs. Marriott with largely your education, your testimony, and your spouse, they did very well with what they had. Many if not most of us here who are older found ourselves in the same position when we were your age. Use your time wisely, take advice, store up the lessons learned along the way, enjoy the journey, don=t wait to do the perfect thing or hesitate to get in the Aarena.@ Know as Nephi knew and as I know that, A. . . if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God He doth nourish them and strengthen them, and provide the means whereby they can accomplish the thing which He has commanded them; . . .@24 That doesn=t mean that life will necessarily be easy or that we will be successful in everything we do but if we are not afraid to figuratively Arun as fast as we can@ and do the best we can do, we can take comfort in the fact that the Lord has said His work and His glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
Finally, as one called to be an especial witness of Jesus Christ, I leave you my witness that He lives, that He is our Savior and Redeemer, that He taught us by His example how to be our best, and that salvation can be available to each of us if we will do the things necessary to earn and accept it. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1 Theodore Roosevelt, A Life by Nathan Miller, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1992, p. 507, quoting Works of Theodore Roosevelt, Vol. XIII, pp. 506-529.
2 The Royal Bank of Canada Monthly Letter, "Young People at the Starting Line," Vol 56, Number 4, p. 4, Montreal, April 1975.
3 Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, Grove Press, New York, 41st printing, p. 51.
4 James E. Faust and James P. Bell, In the Strength of the Lord: The Life and Teachings of James E. Faust [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1999], 70.
5 Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-1886], 2: 129.)
6 "He Sent Them Away Humming, Richard Rogers 1902-1979," Time Magazine, January 14, 1980, p. 83.
7 Ibid.
8 1 Nephi 3:4-7
9 In Conference Report, April 1988, p. 52; or Ensign, May 1988, p. 43.
10 Exodus 4:10-12
11 Exodus 4:16
12 1 Samuel 10:1
13 1 Samuel 10:5-7, 9-10
14 See 1 Samuel 15:10-11, 13-26, 35; compare Psalms 51:1-3, 9-11, 16-17
15 Marriott, The J. W. Marriott Story by Robert O’Brien, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City Utah, 1977, p. 87.
16 Acts 3:6-8
17 1 Nephi 17:3
18 1 Nephi 17:9
19 1 Nephi 17:16
20 1 Nephi 17:17
21 1 Nephi 17:18
22 1 Nephi 17:19
23 1 Nephi 17:50-51
24 1 Nephi 17:3
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