Harken to the Spirit to Know Life’s Defining Moments

"Harken to the Spirit to Know Life's Defining Moments"

Elder Duane B. Gerrard

May 4, 2004

President and Sister Bednar, faculty, staff, and students, how wonderful you are and how honored and grateful I am to have the opportunity to address you. It’s a unique opportunity. I have been told by my colleagues that have been here preceding me to expect a special spirit here, and I agree. There is a very special spirit, a spirit of eagerness, a spirit of wanting to learn, a spirit of keeping the commandments and obeying the Lord and following the directions of our prophet, and I commend you for it.

In everyone’s life, there are defining moments that mold and shape and direct their lives. These defining moments are divinely inspired and come from God by the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. In Job 32:8 it says: “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” John 10:27 says “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” That’s the spirit I feel here today, and that’s the subject I’d like to discuss.

May I share with you some of the defining moments of my life to introduce my subject today? A question that students often ask us is: Where did you meet your wife? Well, I met my dear wife Kay in Mrs. Munk’s first grade class, Plymouth Elementary, in Taylorsville, Utah, over 60 years ago. I was making a sand castle in the back of the room during recess when she and her friend Sheri came up and knock it over. I got mad and I threw sand in their eyes and their face and their hair. And I got to meet her - and I got to meet her mother, and I got to meet the principal, and I got to stand in the corner while she went home and cleaned up. But when she came back and saw me still standing there (awfully embarrassed I might add), she went up and asked Mrs. Munk if I could please sit down, that she was all right now. And so I got to return to my seat. Whew, I knew she was the girl for me. She’s been keeping me out of trouble ever since.

We didn’t date much until high school, and we didn’t date much then because I had a coach, a football coach, that we nicknamed “Nosey Edwards.” He achieved a little famed in a school down south in Provo and they even named a stadium after him. Coach Edwards was my high school coach and he didn’t like us talking to girls. If he saw us talking to girls on the Granite High School campus, we had to do ten more laps around the stadium track that night, and you can tell I don’t like to do laps. But my friends all dated her and told me what a wonderful date she was, and so when I did finally take her out I was very pleased. Graduation came and I went off to college at Utah State to major in aeronautics and she stayed home and worked and dated all the returned missionaries that came back to our little town. That worried me greatly. One night, on a Sunday night, as I had come home on the weekend to spend time with my family and of course my girlfriend, it was a winter night in my freshman year. The snow had started to fall about ten o’clock, and I was worried about driving back the two hours to Logan and going through Sardine Canyon with a snow storm, and so I was in a rush to get ready. I had spent a little too much time saying goodnight I think, and I was in a rush to get back to school. As I rushed around the home collecting my freshly pressed clothing and a cake that my mother had baked, my father said, “Let’s have family prayer before you go back, son.” Oh, no. He prayed forever, and I thought “I don’t have the time,” but dutifully, as a good son would, I went in and knelt at the foot of the bed, and he asked me to pray. Well, I was relieved, because I thought, “Well, this is going to be over faster than I thought! I’ll be on my way shortly!” And I’m afraid my prayer was just that - a short prayer, and meaningless. Afterwards, my mother kissed me as she always did, helped me with my clothing as I loaded it into the car, and I turned around and there was my father, walking me to the car, which he never did. I knew I’d said a rather poor prayer, but I knew ever more when he grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me around and said, “Son, do you prayer every night, and every morning?” And I said, “Well, just about, Dad. Whenever there is a test or an athletic event or something, or if I’m sick.” And he looked me straight in the eye and said, “Son, promise me that you’ll pray night and morning, on your knees, out loud, thanking the Lord for the many blessings you have, and pleading with him to direct your life, and to direct you in the paths of righteousness.” I promised him I would, and he gave me a brief hug. As I drove back to school that night, I thought a lot about prayer, and the defining moments of my life. You see that was a defining moment, too, because that week my father died, and those were the last words that I heard from his mortal lips. I think if I were to leave any last words to my son, they would be the same: to pray continually. My advice to you is the same.

You know, in order to effectively find our eternal mate and raise a fine family and pursue a worthy career, to lead and serve and sacrifice in this church and in life, and to enjoy a full and satisfying life, it takes something more than handbooks and teaching and directions, attendance at class and uplifting messages; it takes the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, active in our lives, to be the type of people and leaders and parents and spouses that the Lord deserves and requires of us. We are frequently given administrative direction and timely counsel, and we often hear uplifting messages of Gospel principles and our challenge to carry on our work effectively. But somehow we forget these things in time, therefore we must learn and practice being spiritually self-reliant and understanding life’s defining moments. Only the Holy Spirit can be present in every minute, in every day of our lives, always there as our constant companion, to help us and to refine us and to bring “all things to [our] remembrance,” as it says in John 14:26, and somehow make us worthy of the Lord’s choicest blessings.

Now, I’ve had many defining moments in my life. I remember my sophomore year at Utah State. I’d been a rather good student in my freshman year, all As and Bs, except for one C, and that was in math. I struggled in math. Anybody struggle in math? You know what it’s like. My sophomore year I thought, well, I’m going to enjoy college a little bit, and I joined a fraternity. I thought I was going to be Joe College. I gave up studying in the wee hours if the night, and I did a lot of things on the cuff. I wasn’t too proud of that. I made the Dean’s list that fall, but it wasn’t the honor roll. It was the probation list. I’m not proud to admit that, but I’ve overcome that and repented of it, so I can tell you. It was rather traumatic, and I was struggling with life, not even knowing it, when I received in the mail one day at school a little penny postcard, as we called them in those days, a 3x5 card, with a poem on it from my mother. The poem was by Margaret Griffiths and it was called “My Mother’s Words.” May I recite it to you?

Did you know that your soul is of my soul

Such part, that you seem to be fiber and core of my heart.

None other can please me, as you, Son, can do.

None other can pain me or grieve me as you.

Remember the world will be quick with its blame

If shadow or doubt ever darkens our name.

Like Mother like Son, the saying so true

The world will judge largely of Mother by you.

So this be your task, if task it may be,

To force this proud world to pay homage to me

And so they will say when my life’s work is done,

“She reaps as she sows, this man is her Son.”

I read it over about ten times as I walked to school, and had it memorized, and I’ve never forgotten it. I’ve always tried to live to make my mother and my dear sweetheart proud of me. I would admonish you to do the same. It will make your life worthy of the blessings you’ll receive. Yes, that was a defining moment. I’m sure my mother was prompted by the Holy Spirit to send this lovely poem that she clipped out of a newspaper, and thought it applied to us.

I had some other experiences that year, too, that I am not too proud of, but will admit to you by way of teaching by example, maybe the example of overcoming. As part of being Joe Fraternity on campus, I was invited one evening to go up the canyon with a bunch of senior active members of my fraternity to a beer bust. I’d never been to a beer bust and was kind of curious, assuming they would have soft drinks for us Mormon boys. Wrong assumption. I was persuaded by these active members that I thought a lot of to have a beer or two. I’d had more than two. I had three to five and became sick. They drove me back home to the fraternity house and I went down to my little hovel of a room and immediately threw up on the floor. As I tried to clean it up, there appeared at the door the president of the fraternity, Ross Bradford. Ross said, “What’s going on in here, Skunk?” (I was a pledge to the fraternity and they were called skunks. I think I smelled worse than a skunk that night.) “What’s going on in here, Skunk?” he said, and I told him I was sick. He said, “Have you been drinking?” And I said, “Just two or three.” And he said, “I can’t believe it. You were raised in a better family than that.”

Ross was an experienced man. He had been in the Air Force for three years, was finishing school on the GI bill, and I admired him greatly. He helped me clean up the mess on the floor, which I thought was very charitable for the president of the fraternity, and then he led me down the hall to the furnace room. He opened up the door to this dingy hot furnace room, and there was an old dirty mattress in there. He said, “You go in there and sleep there tonight, and take this garbage can, and if you get sick again, throw up in that. I don’t want to clean up any more.” Well, I felt rightfully challenged and criticized as well, and I sat there for a few minutes with my head in my hands, rather sick and ill. He came back, and he had the pledge manual in his hand, and he said, “I have a poem I want you to memorize, and if you can memorize this by tomorrow morning by the time I go to class and have breakfast in the chapter room, then you can stay and become a member of this fraternity. If you can’t, pack your bags and leave.” Well, I stayed up all night, memorizing that poem. It was a defining moment of my life. The poem was called “The True Gentleman.” The next morning I was awake (I had stayed up all night) and I showered and shaved and cleaned up and even put on my best suit and tie, shined my shoes, and when Ross came down to his breakfast table, at the head of the table in the chapter room, I was ready to give him my poem, “The True Gentleman.” He slowly ate breakfast while I fidgeted, standing there at attention, and when he finished, he put his napkin and spoon down and said, “All right, let’s hear it.” And I quoted this poem called “The True Gentleman”:

The True Gentleman’s a man whose conduct proceeds

From good will and an acute sense of propriety

And whose self control is equal to all emergencies

Who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty,

The obscure man of his obscurity, nor any man of his inferiority or deformity

Who is himself humble if necessity compels him to humble another

Who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power nor boast of his own possessions or achievements

Who speaks with frankness, but always with sincerity and sympathy

And whose deed follows his word.

A man who appears well in any company

A man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.

When I finished, Ross stood up and embraced me, and said, “Nice job, Skunk, you can stay,” and off he went to school. Before he left, he turned at the door and said, “The real challenge is: Now try to live it. Try to live it. Try to be a true gentleman in all that you do.” Well, I’ve found you can live it if you hale to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, if you hale to the power and influence of the priesthood in your lives, if you follow the commandments of God, if you follow the directions of your parents and friends and family.

We talk a lot about the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. What’s a good definition anyway? If we search the scriptures and writings of church leaders, we find that the Holy Ghost is a revelator, a reminder, an enlightener, an inspirer, a teacher, a testifier, a companion, a comforter, a strengthener. He is pure intelligence, light and truth, gentle and calm and amiable and sweet, temperate and kind, orderly, inspires confidence and love He brings comfort, warmth and happiness, joy and peace. He is a persuader, he buildeth up, he is positive and uplifting and always affirmative. He is indeed the Spirit of the Lord. The Lord loves you and will give you direction and comfort through the spirit of the Holy Ghost (Doctrine and Covenants 3,11, and 13).

Now, how can we each become more spiritually self-reliant? How can we each enjoy the sweet peace and knowledge and understanding that the Spirit can bring? How can we be more aware of the promptings of the Holy Spirit? How can we learn to recognize life’s defining moments? They’ll happen to you, I’m sure, as they’ve happened to me. Let me tell you one other before I proceed.

After Kay and I were married, we graduated and went off to piolet training, then to Vietnam, then back home to Hill Air Force Base. We had a daughter and three sons, and then Kay couldn’t have any more children. Her patriarchal blessing had told her that she would have sons and daughters, and mine told me that I would have a large posterity that which would call my name blessed. We worried a little about not having another daughter, but the Lord knew what was in store for us. In 1970 I was called as a Bishop. I was a young man in my early 30s. It was an awesome responsibility. I had a clerk named Don who was an outdoors man. He loved to hunt and fish, and on his 40^th birthday he invited me, his bishop, to go fishing with him. I did and I loved it. It was a wonderful day, but at the end of the day, while we were hiking out, Don had a heart attack. We got him to the hospital, but he passed away. I was the last one with him when he told me “Please take care of my wife and children.” He had a wonderful wife and four little girls. Three months later, his wife found out she had colon cancer. It was operable, and so our little ward decided we would have a fast before she went in the hospital for the operation.

It was fast day the Sunday before the Monday she was due to go into the hospital and I was awakened that morning at 5:00 a.m. by my wife crying silently into her pillow. As I put my arm around her, I could feel tears and moisture on her pillow and I knew it was serious. I asked what she was crying about and she said, “I’m worried about those little girls.” She had taught two of them in primary and knew how precious they were. Surely the Lord wouldn’t take the second parent as well. As I held her in my arms, I knew that she was communicating with me through the power of the Spirit, and I said, “Are you suggesting we raise those little girls if Diane doesn’t make it?” And she nodded, yes. We decided to fast and pray about it that day and we did, and that night after we broke our fast we knew what our obligation was.

Promoted by the Spirit, we went to her home. The home teachers had been there and given her a wonderful blessing, her brother was there from Bountiful, her sister from Salt Lake, and her mother (who was 85 years old) who lived in Kaysville was there and they had a wonderful evening. We only stayed a few moments, and as we went to leave, at the doorway, Kay said, “Diane, we know you are going to make it, but just in case, we want you to know we’ll be happy to raise your children if you’d like us to, just like our own.” She said, “Thank you. You’re wonderful friends, but I have a brother who lives in Bountiful, and a sister in Salt Lake, and my mother lives down town, and they’ve all asked for them.”

We went home, and I felt guilty because I felt like phew, we dodged that bullet. But my wife was very quiet and reserved and didn’t say much. We put our children in bed, and she went to bed and I went to the other room to study in my den (I had a check ride on the 727 the next morning and so I was practicing my emergency procedures) when at 11:00 p.m. the phone rang. It was Sister Diane on the other line, and she asked if Kay was still up. I said she was awake. She said, “Put her on the other phone and you stay on this one. I want you to hear what we say.” Then, for the next 35 or 40 minutes, I listened while these two good sisters (who were not particularly close friends) talked about how these girls should be raised if Diane didn’t make it. My wife had it all figured out. You know how women are. President Packer said the inspiration of a righteous woman is pure revelation. We had just built a brand-new home, her dream home. She insisted on seven bedrooms. We only had four children. We used one of the extra bedrooms as my den and the two in the basement we didn’t even finish, just roughed them in. She explained to Diane that we would put all the girls up stairs where we had two bathrooms, and a sink in one of the master bedrooms, and we would put the boys downstairs where we would finish off two bedrooms. We lived on the main floor where our bedroom was. They’d have the same teachers, the same school, the same ward, the same bus stop, the same home teachers. It seemed to be the right thing.

At the end of the discussion, Diane said, “Well, I only have one more question. Have you prayed about this?” We said we had fasted and prayed that day. She said, “So have I, and if it’s all right I’d like to come over tonight with my attorney to sign the papers.” So at 12 o’clock that night, her attorney (who later became my first counselor in the stake presidency) and she came over and on an old broken down typewriter on our kitchen table, he typed out her last will and testament. In it we were to receive the children should she die.

Well, she didn’t die. The operation was a success, and she lived five more years, wonderful years. The children raised to five years older. The oldest one was 17, the youngest about eight, when their mother came down with cancer again and died, and we inherited four little girls. What a great blessing they have been to our lives. Sons and daughters. One of them wrote a poem. I hadn’t planned on using it, but I will. She wrote it and gave it to her mother and me about four years ago.

From her heart to your home

In black darkness I came

Though one light had grown cold,

You offered a flame.

Your loved wrapped me warmly

In a peaceful embrace

And I found gentle healing in the strength of your face.

Now the years have placed distance,

Though I still hear her voice,

As she planned out our future in faith, making her choice.

Your safe home became mine

Our two families, now one.

First, a star in the night sky, and then you gave back the sun.

To express all my thanks, I could never begin

For I was a stranger and you took me in.

A defining moment of our lives? Yes. Brought to us by the Spirit, the Holy Ghost? Yes. Revelation through a righteous woman? Yes. Let me tell you, I have found that in life’s defining moments, the Spirit is always evident. I have found, by way of instruction to you, there are three things which we must do to become spiritually self-reliant and to partake of the Spirit and understand life’s defining moments.

The first is personal purity. In Doctrine and Covenants 121:36 it tells us “the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.” And in Doctrines and Covenants 50:28-29 it reminds us “but no man is possessor of all things except he be purified and cleansed from all sin. And if ye are purified and cleansed from all sin, ye shall ask whatsoever ye will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done.” This is the basis for effective parenting, teaching, leading, and raising your families in the gospel. And of course it is the basis for all else in our lives to bring us happiness and joy. It is essential for spiritual self-reliance. And so we must “be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:42). This personal righteousness, then, is the first requirement for spiritual self-reliance in understanding life’s defining moments in your lives. Personal purity comes when you have a strong personal faith in God the Father and his son Jesus Christ, your personal Savior, and the Savior of all mankind. It comes when you have a testimony of Him. It comes when you keep all of his commandments, including daily prayer, pleading for strength. Daily scripture study, attendance at sacrament meetings. Payment of tithes and offerings, and living a chaste and moral life, truly loving the Lord and your neighbor. Trying to keep all of the Lord’s commandments, always remembering Him and repenting properly when mistakes are made in your life, as I had to after the beer party up the canyon. It comes when you learn and study and follow the teaching of our modern day prophets. We are led by a prophet of God. I have worked at his side, I have learned at his feet. I know he is a prophet of God. It includes proper understanding and application of the gospel principles and procedures, and pondering General Conference talks, church magazines, including handbooks and administrative policies. And it comes finally, as President Kimball so lovingly taught us,

When a man begins to hunger, when arms begin to reach, when knees begin to bend and voices begin to articulate; then and only then does the Lord make Himself known. He pushes back the horizons, he breaks the curtain above us, and He makes it possible for us to come out of the dim, uncertain stumbling of life into the sureness of eternal life (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball 454).

            Personal purity, then, is the first requirement for spiritual self-reliance and knowing the defining moments of your life.

The second I call purity of need. There must be a need, not just a want, and we must distinguish between our wants and needs. We are taught in Doctrine and Covenants 11:7 to “seek not for riches, but for wisdom, and behold the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you.” Do you, in your personal prayers, in your private and earnest prayers, do you pray for others or only for yourself? In Philippians 4:19 it says “but my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” This is not referring to just material needs, but more importantly, spiritual needs and understanding the promptings of the Holy Ghost and hearkening to the promptings of the Spirit. In Matthew 6:8 it states: “For your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him.” Certainly the Lord knows all of our needs, “every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:17). Then they become needs.

All of these things prepare us for the final and necessary step, perhaps the most important of all, the third step, purity of purpose. If we can learn not to worry about what makes us look good, or what supports our personal causes or desires, but if we can be just concern only with only what is best for our families, loved ones, our spouse, our friends, our roommates and others, and of course the Lord, if we can be more concerned for others rather than ourselves and be more Christ like in giving our time, talents and all that we have toward the needs and righteous desires of our loved ones and fellow men and women, and the church; then our purposes will be pure. Then and only then are we worthy of the companionship of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. And with the full time companionship of the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit, we become spiritually self-reliant. Then and only then will you understand those defining moments in your life.

In Alma 29:9 it says “I know that which the Lord hath commanded me and I glory in it. I do not glory in myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me. Yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God, to bring some soul to repentance: and this is my joy.” That’s the purity of purpose I am talking about. We’re counseled in Galatians 6:2 to “bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” And what is the law of Christ, anyway? The law of Christ is the light of Christ by which all things are governed. In Doctrine and Covenants 88:3 “wherefore, I now send upon you another Comforter, even upon you my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit of promise; which other Comforter is the same that I promised unto my disciples, as is recorded in the testimony of John.” Another scripture that gives even clearer definition of the purity of purpose is in Mosiah 18:8-9. You missionaries are especially familiar with this one.

And now as ye are desirous to come unto the fold of God, and be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; yea and are will to mourn with those that mourn; and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may in, even until death . . . that ye be numbered with those of the first resurrection that ye may have eternal life.

Maybe that’s the reason that I feel so good about the spirit at this great university, BYU-Idaho. I know of no other church in all the world that gives us greater opportunity to feel the Light of Christ and to have the full-time companionship of the Holy Spirit than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Hinckley has counseled us recently that

no people on earth have a greater responsibility than do we. No people have ever worked under a more compelling mandate. This great work of the Lord will roll forth in grander and majesty. (You are) called from among the masses of the world for reasons I do not know, to lead and to guide and direct the Lord’s work.”

Revelation came in the early days of the church and it’s still with us today. Think of this: of the six plus billion people of the world, there are only 12 million of we Latter-day Saints that know the real truth. Less then one-tenth of one percent. How fortunate, what a fortunate few we are.

President Romney said this: “Teaching cannot come from the unlearned, support and understanding cannot come from the emotionally starved and [most importantly] spiritual guidance cannot come from the spiritually weak.” We simply must be spiritually self-reliant and thus spiritually strong. In the October conference of, President Romney issued another very profound statement: “Now I can tell you that you can make every decision in your life correctly if you can learn to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When you learn to walk by the Spirit, you need never make a mistake.”

May I remind you again of all the great blessings of being spiritually self-reliant, of literally receiving the diverse manifestations of the Spirit. You’ve all felt some of these things. Some are even too sacred to discuss, but let me close with just a few scriptures that you need to know. The Spirit sometimes evidences itself in physical feelings or emotions. It causes our bosoms to burn and swell. That’s the most common reference: “You must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it is right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore you shall feel that it is right” (Doctrine and Covenants 9:8). In Luke 24:32 it says “And they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked to us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”

You can also have righteous joy that prompts you, that the Spirit prompts you. In Doctrine and Covenants 11:13, “I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy.” The Spirit tells us in our hearts and our minds and feelings. Quoting from Joseph Smith’s first vision, “And while I was thus struggling in the spirit, behold the voice of the Lord came into my mind again.” In Doctrine and Covenants 6:23 it talks about peace to your mind: “Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning this manner? What greater witness can you have than from God?”

Of course we know of the spirit of revelation in our church, “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now behold, this is the spirit of revelation. This is the Spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red sea on dry ground” (Doctrine and Covenants 8:2-3).

Well, there are many others, too numerous to mention. I will leave them in my text for you to refer to. But knowing that the Spirit comes upon us when we need it the most, and when we are desirous of it, when we have purity of self, when we’re clean that bear the vessels of the Lord, when we have purity of need, not just our wants, but our real needs, and when we have purity of purpose. I hope and pray that all of you will understand the significance of your life by understanding the defining moments of your life. I have had numerous defining moments and many occasions when I have literally been prompted by the Spirit. If we could advance to a couple more, I’d like to quote one more to you in conclusion. My favorite is this one: “Yea, thus saith the still small voice, which whispereth through and pierceth all things, and often times it maketh my bones to quake while it maketh manifest” (Doctrine and Covenants 85:6).

Yes, you are entitled to the Spirit of God. You are entitled to a constant companion, you are entitled to the blessings the Lord has in store for you. You, above all the people of the world, are entitled to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. I know God lives, that He hears and answers prayers, that Jesus Christ is indeed the Savior of all mankind. That we’re here for a specific purpose, and that purpose is to spread the gospel plan, to find our spouse and to raise righteous families, to spread the good word that the restoration has taken place and that the gospel in its fullness is here on the earth today, and that we are led by a prophet of God. I’m grateful to be among you and to feel of your special spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Additional References:

Doctrine and Covenants 9:9 “If it not be right you shall . . . (have) a stupor of thought which shall cause you to forget the things which is wrong.”

Doctrine and Covenants 128:1 “I now resume the subject of baptism for the dead, as that subject seems to occupy my mind, and press itself upon my feelings the strongest” (emphasis added).

Doctrine and Covenants 121:45-46 “Let thy bowels be full of charity towards all men, and them household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means shall it flow unto the forever and ever.”

Making Correct Choices

(August 1978 Ensign, pp 32-33)

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