You can sample this wonderful book by clicking on the chapter titles below.
|
No Latter-day Saint will want
to miss this book of prophetic counsel to the world! I am so anxious for
it to be released that I have included some excerpts from the book's chapters
just to whet your appetite (as it did mine)! Just think, this may be the
first time in history when a prophet of the Lord has given counsel to the
world at large, not just to the faithful Saints. President Hinckley is
asking the people of all nations to "stand for something"! He details the
10 virtues that will heal our hearts, our nation and our world. This book
is not LDS, but is being nationally released for non-members and members
alike. President Hinckley tells what we can do to re-establish the values
and virtues that can change our world. In his ever optimistic and full-of-hope
manner, President Hinckley draws on lessons from history and from his own
life to map out a course: a blueprint for a happy and productive life for
all people. I can't wait!
You can sample this wonderful book by clicking on the chapter titles below. |
All
excerpts below taken from "Standing for Something" by Gordon B. Hinckley
© 1999 Times Books. All rights reserved.
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(back to table of contents)Foreword by Mike Wallace
Four years ago I was taken aback by an unexpected invitation to a luncheon at the Harvard Club in New York City. From prior experience I figured the food would be mediocre at best, but since I'd been asked to break bread with the hitherto mysterious octogenarian president of the Mormon Church, and because the invitation was tendered on the president's behalf by a Jewish-owned public relations firm, it was too tantalizing to pass up.I'd been trying for decades to get some top Mormon leader, any top Mormon leader to talk to 60 MINUTES about himself and his church, and I'd regularly been turned down. Mormon friends of mine had volunteered to put in a good word; they'd let the Salt Lake hierarchy understand that an investigation was not what I had in mind, but rather an exploration of what kind of individual led the Mormons, how did he get his job, what about Mormons and polygamy, what about Mormons and black folks, and did the leaders of the Mormon church really believe that tale about Joseph Smith finding himself anointed at the age of fourteen on a farm in upstate New York? Merely the kind of nosy questions we regularly put to all manner of highly placed figures on 60 MINUTES. We hardly expected "yes" for an answer, any more than we expected "yes" for an answer to our similar invitations to the Pope of the Roman Catholic church.
So I was totally unprepared for a cordial, even a sunny greeting at the luncheon from Gordon B. Hinckley. And I was still hesitant when, following his post-prandial remarks, he threw the floor open for questions from any and all of us. Timorously, I wondered aloud to him if he might entertain the notion of an interview-cum-profile for 60 MINUTES. President Hinckley's bespectacled eyes literally twinkled as he good-naturedly allowed that it sounded like an appealing notion, that after all he really had nothing to hide, and that he imagined he'd have little difficulty handling whatever queries I loosed at him. He'd heard and answered worse, he was sure, during his young missionary years in London where he'd taken on whatever the skeptics and nonbelievers had thrown at him in his Hyde Park appearances and/or confrontations.
So all the necessary details and arrangements were quickly made, he put at our disposal just about anyone we wanted to talk with from the Salt Lake infrastructure, he put up no objections to our talking to his critics inside and outside the church, he gave us all the camera time we needed, and when we asked for a second sit-down some weeks after the first, so that we could put some questions we'd missed in the first go-around, he was perfectly agreeable. It turned out he was as good as his promised word back at the Harvard Club.
As a result we came away with a fascinating profile of a genuinely remarkable man. Which confounded more than a few Mormon friends of mine who let me know, later, how chary they'd been when they first learned what I'd been up to. Their original take: Hinckley's going to talk to Wallace? Is he dotty? Doesn't he understand what can happen when 60 MINUTES sets out to do one of its hatchet jobs?
Well, what happened was that my 60 MINUTES colleagues and I learned, from the time we spent with Gordon Hinckley and his wife, from his staff, and from those fellow Mormons who talked to us, that this warm and thoughtful and decent and optimistic leader of the Church fully deserves the almost universal admiration that he gets. I know that may sound more than a trifle corny coming from the mouth of a dyed-in-the-wool, jaded, New York-based reportorial cynic. But it was difficult not to arrive at that conclusion after talking not only with him, but about him with hard-headed folks like Orrin Hatch and Bill Marriott and Steve Young and Dave Checketts. That last-named individual runs Madison Square Garden in New York and was one of the Mormons who had worried about what could result if President Hinckley laid himself open to our abrasions. Checketts was so surprised when he saw our piece on the air that he told me (I mention this only in the interest of full disclosure) to call him any time I had trouble getting tickets to a fight or a basketball game at the Garden.
Further in the interest of full disclosure, as an 81-year-old myself, perhaps I can be excused for recalling the exchange I had with President Hinckley near the end of that 60 MINUTES profile.
WALLACE: There are those who say: "This is a gerontocracy... this is a church run by old men."
HINCKLEY: Isn't it wonderful to have a man of maturity at the head? A man who isn't blown about by every wind of doctrine?
WALLACE: Absolutely, as long as he's not dotty.
HINCKLEY: Thank you for the compliment.
He is far from dotty. As you read on you'll find an agile, thoughtful, and engaging mind bent on persuading us to ruminate, along with him, on old-fashioned values: by name, Virtue and Integrity.
(back to table of contents)Introduction:
More than a century ago a young Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, came here to observe this nation. After doing so he wrote: "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich 'nines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
The Secularization of AmericaThis, I believe, is the core issue that we as a people, individually and collectively, must address.
We have on our coinage and our currency a national motto. It simply says, "In God We Trust." I believe that this is the foundation upon-which this nation was established, an unequivocal trust in the power of the Almighty to guide and defend us.
Oaths of office and in other legal procedures have traditionally concluded with the phrase, "So help me God." Several years ago the state of New Jersey passed a law banishing the mention of God from state courtroom oaths. Following this action by the New Jersey Legislature, a county judge decided to ban Bibles for such oaths "because you-know-Who is mentioned inside" (Wall Street Journal, 31 July 1996). And in recent years the Boy Scouts of America have been attacked because of the language in the Scout Oath: "On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country."
Contrast such attitudes with that of George Washington, expressed more than two hundred years ago in his first inaugural address: "It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes."
People who carry in their hearts a strong conviction concerning the living reality of the Almighty and their accountability to Him for what they do with their lives are far less likely to become enmeshed in problems that inevitably weaken society. The loss of this conviction, the almost total secularizing of our public attitudes, has been largely responsible for the terrible social illnesses now running rampant among us.
Our sickness is not difficult to diagnose, nor is the remedy complicated to prescribe. Some may resist the medicine. But the remedy is straightforward. Healing in our hearts and in our homes, and subsequently throughout society, will begin to occur when we individually and collectively return to the code of ethics, to the pattern of values, to the canons of divine truth that our honored forefathers lived by.
We can treat and even cure the sickness that afflicts us by reenthroning the moral and spiritual elements that have gone missing in recent decades. The time has come to look back on the virtues and values that made America great, not only in terms of its unmatched prosperity and affluence, or its military might, but in the breadth and depth of moral leadership. To do so we must instill fundamental virtues and values in the lives of the men and women, boys and girls of this land.
Men and women of all denominations have helped settle this land-Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Greeks, Muslims and Hindus. With few exceptions, those who helped establish this great country believed in and worshipped God, although their interpretations of Him may have varied.
They have built for us a tremendous inheritance because they were men and women of faith, of conviction. They had no government largesse to fall upon, but looked to God in every extremity and thanked Him for every blessing.
Our great concern, our great interest, must be that we preserve for the generations to come those wondrous elements of our society and manner of living that will bequeath to them the strengths and the goodness of which we have been the beneficiaries. To do so we must retard and then halt the decay we observe about us that comes of forsaking the God whom our forefathers knew, loved, worshipped, and looked to for strength.
Since the founding of this Republic, the roots of our nation have drawn nurture from the waters of faith in God. As we enter the twenty-first century, it is imperative that we renew our spiritual anchors. "God Bless America," we sing with reverence, pleading, and conviction. Those blessings will come only as we deserve them.
(back to table of contents)Chapter One:
Integrity is at the heart of commerce in the world in which we live. Honesty and integrity comprise the very underpinnings of society. Every bank president, every bank director knows that even with all of the regulations and with all possible safeguards, in the last analysis the strength and safety of any financial institution lies in the integrity of its people. As with banks, so also with merchants, politicians, professional men and women, leaders from all walks of life. Indeed, the strength and safety of any organization-including the family-lies in the integrity of its members. Without personal integrity, there can be no confidence. Without confidence, there can be no prospect of permanent success.
Where There Is Honesty, Other Virtues Will FollowAn educator from Germany by the name of Karl G. Maeser served as the first president of Brigham Young University, now the largest private university in the United States. More than a century ago, he said this to his students: "I have been asked what I mean by 'word of honor.' I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls-walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground-there is a possibility that in some way or another I might be able to escape; but stand me on the floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of that circle? No, never! I'd die first."
Can we not, as we enter the twenty-first century, vow to keep faith with the best that is in us? Can we not reenthrone the twin virtues of integrity and honesty? It is possible to be honest every day. It is possible to live so that others can trust us-can trust our words, our motives, and our actions. Our examples are vital to those who sit at our feet as well as those who watch from a distance. Our own constant self-improvement will become as a polar star to those within our individual spheres of influence. They will remember longer what they saw in us than what they heard from us. Our attitude, our point of view, can make such a tremendous difference.
(back to table of contents)Chapter Two:
I think of two friends from my high school and university years. He was a boy from a country town, plain in appearance, without money or apparent promise. He had grown up on a farm, and if he had any quality that was attractive, it was the capacity to work. He carried bologna sandwiches in a brown paper bag for his lunch and swept the school floors to pay his tuition. But with all of his rustic appearance, he had a smile and a personality that seemed to sing of goodness. She was a city girl who had come out of a comfortable home. She would not have won a beauty contest, but she was wholesome in her decency and integrity and attractive in her decorum and dress.
Let Love Be the Lodestar of Your LifeSomething wonderful took place between them. They fell in love. Some whispered that there were far more promising boys for her, and a gossip or two noted that perhaps other girls might have interested him. But these two laughed and danced and studied together through their school years. They married when people wondered how they could ever earn enough to stay alive. He struggled through his professional school and came out well in his class. She scrimped and saved and worked and prayed. She encouraged and sustained, and when things were really tough, she said quietly, "Somehow we can make it." Buoyed by her faith in him, he kept going through the difficult years. Children came, and together they loved them and nourished them and gave them the security that came of their own love for and loyalty to each other. Now many years have passed. Their children are grown, a lasting credit to them and to the communities in which they live.
I happened to find myself on the same flight as this couple a few years ago. I walked down the aisle in the semidarkness of the cabin and saw a woman, white-haired, her head on her husband's shoulder as she dozed. His hand was clasped warmly about hers. He was awake and recognized me. She awakened, and we talked. They were returning from a convention where he had delivered a paper before a learned society. He said little about it, but she proudly spoke of the honors accorded him.
I wish that I might have caught with a camera the look on her face as she talked of him. Forty-five years earlier people without understanding had asked what they saw in each other. I thought of that as I returned to my seat. Their friends of those days saw only a farm boy from the country and a smiling girl with freckles on her nose. But these two found in each other love and loyalty, peace and faith in the future. There was a flowering in them of something divine, planted there by that Father who is our God. In their school days, they had lived worthy of that flowering of love. They had lived with virtue and faith, with appreciation and respect for self and one another. In the years of their difficult professional and economic struggles, they had found their greatest earthly strength in their companionship. Now, in mature age, they were finding peace and quiet satisfaction together.
(back to table of contents)Chapter Three:
Differences of race and culture are obvious, as are distinctions among various religious and other persuasions. I fear, however, that far too often we make too much of our differences, therefore obscuring and at times completely overlooking the significant and enduring ways in which we are alike. While recognizing our cultural and theological differences, I believe we are of one mind in our awareness of the evils and problems of the world. I believe we all recognize our great responsibility and opportunity to stand united for those qualities in public and private life that speak of virtue and morality. I believe we agree on the need for respect for all men and women as children of God, the need for civility and courtesy in our relationships, and the need to preserve the family as the most fundamental and important unit of society.
Our Fading CivilityAll of us carry in our hearts a desire to assist the poor, to lift the distressed, to give comfort, hope, and help to all who are in trouble and pain from whatever cause. We recognize the need to heal the wounds of society and replace with optimism and faith the pessimism of our times. There is no need for recrimination or criticism against one another.
An article of the faith to which I subscribe states: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." I hope to find myself always on the side of those defending this position. Our strength lies in our freedom to choose. There is strength even in our very diversity. But there is greater strength in the God-given mandate to each of us to work for the uplift and blessing of all His sons and daughters, regardless of their ethnic or national origin or other differences.
We are sons and daughters of God, each a part of the divine family. As surely as there is fatherhood, there must also be brotherhood. We simply must work unitedly to remove from our hearts and drive from our society all elements of hatred, bigotry, racism, and other divisive actions and words that limit a person's ability to progress, learn, and be fully accepted. The snide remark or racial slur, hateful epithets, malicious gossip, and mean and vicious rumor-mongering have no place among us.
Each of us is human, subject to the problems that afflict humans. We should not tolerate laziness, dishonesty, or betrayal. But neither should we condemn others for such apparent lapses. Instead, we can reach down to help them carry the burdens of sickness, financial difficulty, and even weaknesses and shortcomings with which they are grappling. Not one of us needs one more person pointing out our areas of weakness and the ways in which we have fallen short. What we do need is someone encouraging us to go forward, to try again, to reach a little higher this time. Excellence is difficult to achieve in a vacuum.
Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves. By and large, if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves. For many years there was a sign on the wall of a shoe shop I patronized that read, "I complained because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet." The most effective medicine for the sickness of self-pity is to lose ourselves in the service of others.
The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.
In the long run, it will not be enough for anyone who desires a sense of fulfillment and purpose to be an able lawyer, a practitioner of medicine, a skilled architect, a proficient engineer, or whatever. There is the need for another dimension in our lives, a compelling need and drive within each of us to feel that somehow, somewhere we have made a difference-that our lives have mattered.
It is not enough just to be good. We must be good for something. We must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for our presence. And the good that is in us must be spread to others. This is the measure of our civility.
(back to table of contents)Chapter Four:
Our challenge is to discipline our acts into an example of virtue, to control our words that we speak only that which is uplifting and leads to growth. These are the steps toward personal purity and virtue, the steps we must take in order to lift and invite others to a higher level of living. These steps are achievable for all of us. The course of our lives is seldom determined by great, life-altering decisions. Our direction is more often set by the small, day-to-day choices that chart the track on which we run. This is the substance of our lives-making choices.
Making a Case for MoralityMany years ago I worked in the Denver, Colorado, office of one of our railroads, where I was in charge of the baggage and express traffic carried in passenger trains. One day I received a telephone call from my counterpart on another railroad in Newark, New Jersey, who said that a passenger train had arrived without its baggage car. Three hundred patrons were angry, as well they had a right to be. We discovered that the train had been properly made up in Oakland, California, and subsequently delivered first to Salt Lake City, then to Denver, and on to St. Louis, from which station it was to be carried to its destination on the east coast. But in the St. Louis yard, a thoughtless switchman had by mistake moved a piece of steel just three inches. That piece of steel was a switch point, and the car that should have been in Newark was in New Orleans, fourteen hundred miles away.
There are prisons all over this country filled with people who made unwise and even destructive choices, individuals who moved a switch point in their lives just a little and were soon on the wrong track going to the wrong place.
The lesson of the switch point is similar to the workings of a large and heavy farm gate. Such a gate moves very little at the hinge but a long way out at the circumference. A very small movement at the hinge brings long movement at the end of the gate. So it is with our lives. A careless giving-in to an impulse, a poor decision, a momentary breach of self-discipline can wreak havoc by sending our lives down a path we never intended-or wanted-to travel.
I am always curious when individuals insist that what they watch on television or in movie theaters doesn't affect them. It was interesting to note that the going rate for a thirty-second advertising spot for the 1999 Super Bowl was $1.5 million. Apparently a host of advertisers felt confident that in thirty seconds' time they could influence their viewers in terms of the products they were peddling. Are we really to believe that hours, leading to years, of television viewing will not affect our attitudes about everything from family life to appropriate sexual relations?
Reformation of the world begins with reformation of self. We cannot hope to influence others in the direction of moral virtue unless we live lives of virtue. The example of our virtuous living will carry a greater influence than will all the preaching, postulating, and theorizing in which we might indulge. We cannot expect to lift others unless we are standing on higher ground.
(back to table of contents)Chapter Five:
Education is the great conversion process under which abstract knowledge becomes useful and productive activity. It is something that need never stop. No matter how old we become, we can acquire knowledge and use it. We can gather wisdom and profit from it. We can grow and progress and improve-and in the process, strengthen the lives of those within our circle of influence. We can enrich our lives dramatically through the miracle of reading and exposure to the arts. The older I grow, the more I enjoy the words of thoughtful writers, ancient and modem. I savor that which they have learned and processed and recorded for others to read.
Learning: "With All Thy Getting Get Understanding"I have in my home library an old set of the Harvard classics that originally belonged to my father. Though he was not a man of great financial means, he was an educated and thoughtful man who placed a high priority on language and learning. I still refer to this fifty-volume set of classic books, just as I did more than sixty years ago as a university student. It is a treasury of timeless literature, an encyclopedic presentation of the great thoughts of men and women who, in their eras, struggled with serious problems, thought deeply, prayed mightily, and expressed themselves in ways both challenging and beautiful.
In our home also was a room we called the library. It had a solid table and a good lamp, three or four comfortable chairs with good light, and hundreds of books in cases that lined the walls. We were never forced to read, but the books were placed where they were handy and where we could get at them whenever we wished. There were also magazines, books on technical subjects, dictionaries, scriptures, and atlases. There was quiet in that room. It was understood that it was a place to study and write, ponder and meditate.
There was no television, of course, at that time. Radio came along while I was growing up. But my parents created within our home an environment of learning, and they made it clear-more by their actions and priorities than by anything they said-that they valued learning. I grew up believing that it was desirable to be informed, to be educated, to increase one's understanding about the world and its peoples. I would not have you believe that we were scholars, for we were not. But we were exposed to great literature, to great ideas from great thinkers.
At that early age, perhaps without realizing it at the time, I came to believe that we must never stop learning. The more we learn, the more we are in a position to learn. I urge parents everywhere to make a determined effort to create and cultivate within their homes an atmosphere of learning and the growth that will come of it.
Children who are exposed at early ages to books have scholastic advantages throughout their lives. Parents who fail to read to their small children do a disservice to them as well as to themselves. It takes time, yes, much of it. It takes self-discipline and planning. It takes organizing and budgeting the minutes and hours of the day. But it is never boring to watch young minds come to know characters, expressions, and ideas. Good reading can become a love affair, far more fruitful in long-term effects than many other activities in which children use their time. It has been estimated that the average child in the United States watches something approaching 8,000 hours of television before he or she even begins school. What difference might it make, what influence could it have in the homes of this country if parents were to work at creating an atmosphere of learning and education at home, if children were exposed at an early age to thoughts and concepts and attitudes that would build and motivate them for good throughout their lives.
None of us can assume that we have learned enough. I have lived long enough now to say with certainty that as the door closes on one phase of life, it opens on another. It therefore behooves us, and is our charge, to grow constantly toward eternity in what must be a ceaseless quest for truth. And as we search for truth, let us look for the good, the beautiful, and the positive.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Savior proclaimed that a city on a hill cannot be hid. He then taught that men do not light a candle only to put it under a bushel, but instead to place it on a candlestick, where it may give light to all present. Then he issued this profound challenge, one that has the power to literally change the world: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
It is not enough just to live, just to survive. There is incumbent upon every one of us to equip ourselves to do something worthwhile in society. We must acquire more and more light, so that our personal lights can help illuminate a darkened world. And this is made possible through learning, through educating ourselves, through progressing and growing-both mind and spirit.
(back to table of contents)Chapter Six:
There are those who would look upon [forgiveness] as a sign of weakness. But it takes neither strength nor intelligence to brood in anger over wrongs suffered, to go through life with a spirit of vindictiveness, to dissipate one's abilities in planning retribution, to press a grievance when someone else is "down." There is no genius or peace in the nursing of a grudge. You've no doubt heard the clever phrase, often spoken in jest, "I don't get mad, I just get even." Though this statement often invites a chuckle, there is nothing humorous about it, for it promotes a spirit of competition and one-upmanship rather than conciliation, cooperation, and friendship.
The Twin Virtues of Forgiveness and MercyPaul speaks of "the weak and beggarly elements" of our lives. (Galatians 4:9). Is there anything more weak or beggarly than the disposition to wear out one's life in an unending round of bitter thoughts and scheming gestures There is great wisdom and restraint in turning the other cheek and, in the process, trying to overcome evil with good. General Omar Bradley is quoted as having said: "We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount . . . Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living."
Charles Dickens, famous for many literary masterpieces, also penned a little-known work entitled The Life of Our Lord-which was not written originally for publication but for his own children. In fact, during his lifetime he would not permit its publication. It was a personal thing, a simple testimony of Jesus Christ from him to them. The manuscript remained a closely held family treasure for some eighty-five years. Then his youngest son died in 1933. With the passing of that generation, the family concluded that the work might finally be published.
I was living in London in 1934 and vividly recall the advertisements of one of the popular newspapers that Dickens's The Life of Our Lord would be published serially. Following serialization, it was published as a book. Years later my wife found a copy of that book and read it to our children. There are portions of his telling that I like very much, particularly the manner in which he concluded: "Remember!-It is christianity TO DO GOOD always-even to those who do evil to us. It is christianity to love our neighbour as ourself, and to do to all men as we would have them do to us. It is christianity to be gentle, merciful, and forgiving, and to keep those qualities quiet in our own hearts, and never make a boast of them, or of our prayers or of our love of God, but always to shew that we love Him by humbly trying to do right in everything. If we do this, and remember the life and lessons of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and try to act up to them, we may confidently hope that God will forgive us our sins and mistakes, and enable us to live and die in Peace."
All of us love Dickens's immortal A Christmas Carol. But The Life of Our Lord, written in a very personal way, without adornment or flights of fancy, for the children he loved, carries with it a compelling admonition that has within it the power to change the world: "Remember!-It is christianity TO DO GOOD always-even to those who do evil to us."
(back to table of contents)Chapter Seven:
Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality. There is simply no substitute under the heavens for productive labor. It is the process by which idle visions become dynamic achievements. I suppose that we are all inherently lazy. We would rather play than work. We would rather loaf than work. A little play and a little loafing are good. But it is work that spells the difference in the life of a man or a woman or a boy or a girl. Children who are taught to work and to enjoy the fruits of that labor have a great advantage as they grow toward maturity. The process of stretching our minds and utilizing the skills of our hands lifts us from the stagnation of mediocrity. Nothing of real substance comes without work. Nothing happens in this world until there is work. Our pioneer forebears couldn't plow a field by turning it over in their minds. They had to put their hands to the plow and walk forward. The work is, by and large, easier now than in earlier times, but the principle is the same. There must be work, and what a great and wonderful privilege it is.
Thrift and Industry: Getting Our Houses in Order
(back to table of contents)Chapter Eight:
It has been my pleasure to meet and mingle with some of the gifted and influential men and women of the twentieth century on the one hand, and on the other to walk narrow and dirty streets where filth, poverty, and degradation abound... .These experiences have made me all the more aware of the bounties we enjoy in this land. We are truly a blessed people who live at a marvelous time in the earth's history and in a magnificent land overflowing with privileges and opportunities. Although we acknowledge that there are far too many who live at the edge of survival, still we must admit that never before in the history of the world has a nation or a people enjoyed such riches and liberties.
Gratitude: A Sign of MaturityFor all this and much more we should be grateful. And we ought to express our gratitude daily in countless ways-to each other, to our parents and other family members who have contributed so dramatically to our lives, to friends who have given us the benefit of the doubt again and again, to colleagues and associates who motivate and inspire us to reach higher and do better, to prudent leaders who serve selflessly, and particularly to a Higher Power from Whom all ultimate blessings and goodness flow.
For more than half a century, my wife and I have walked together through much of storm as well as sunshine. Today neither of us stands as tall as we once did. For both of us, the rivets are getting a little loose and the solder is getting a little soft. As I looked at her across the table one evening recently, I noted the wrinkles in her face and hands. But are they less beautiful than before? No, in fact, they are more so. Those wrinkles have a beauty of their own, and inherent in their presence is something that speaks reassuringly of strength and integrity, and a love that runs more deeply and quietly than ever before. I am thankful for the beauty that comes with age and perspective and increased understanding.
(back to table of contents)Chapter Nine:
We live in an intriguing age, a curious age in many respects, an age in which the ability and power to communicate and therefore influence and persuade reigns supreme. With the proliferation of technology, and the various forms of media clamoring to take advantage of it, has come an interesting side effect. It seems today that we are subjected to a constant barrage of character assassination that has nearly obscured national discussion of vital issues-issues that truly could and would improve the daily lives of men and women, boys and girls. A large factor in all of this is the media. Pick up any major daily newspaper or weekly news magazine. Turn to the news on any one of the many available channels. Reporters, commentators, and pundits are a dime a dozen, each peddling his or her unique brand of insight and "wisdom." It is impossible to read their columns or listen to their commentaries without sensing that there is a terrible ailment of gloom in this land. We are constantly fed a steady and sour diet of pessimism, faultfinding, second-guessing, and evil speaking one of another-because the pathetic fact is that such negativism sells.
Optimism in the Face of CynicismMany of our forebears and those who built the foundations of this land were imperfect. They were human. They doubtless made mistakes and fell short from time to time. But the mistakes were minor when compared with the marvelous work they accomplished. To highlight the mistakes of a person and gloss over the greater good is to draw a caricature. Caricatures are amusing, but they are often ugly and dishonest. A man may have a wart on his cheek and still have a face of beauty and strength, but if the wart is emphasized unduly in relation to his other features, the portrait is lacking in integrity.
There was only one perfect man who ever walked the earth. The Lord uses imperfect people-you and me-to build strong societies. If some of us occasionally stumble, or if our characters may have been slightly flawed in one way or another, the wonder is the greater that we accomplish so much.
Criticism and pessimism destroy families, undermine institutions of all kinds, defeat nearly everyone, and spread a shroud of gloom over entire nations. We must resist partaking of the spirit of our times. We need rather to look for the good all about us. There is so much that is sweet and decent and good upon which to build. We can and must learn to look above and beyond the negative, the critical, the cynical, and the doubtful to the positive and the affirmative.
We have so much to live for, so much to hope for! I believe this is the greatest generation to yet live upon the earth. Humanity is essentially good. We are all of one great family. We can give strength to the voice of hope. We can give thanks to those who work for peace. We can give added attention to those who feed the hungry and bind up the wounds of conflict. To the extent we cultivate this virtue of optimism, we will bless all mankind.
(back to table of contents)Chapter Ten:
If there is any one thing that you and I need to help us find success and fulfillment in this world, it is faith, that dynamic, powerful, marvelous element by which, as Paul declared, the very worlds were framed (see Hebrews 11:3). I refer not to some ethereal concept but to a practical, pragmatic, working faith-the kind of faith that moves us to get on our knees and plead with the Lord for guidance, and then, having a measure of divine confidence, get on our feet and go to work to help bring the desired results to pass. Such faith is an asset beyond compare. Such faith is, when all is said and done, our only genuine and lasting hope.
Faith: Our Only HopeFaith is so much more than a theological platitude, though many regard it as such. It is a fact of life. Faith can become the very wellspring of purposeful living. There is no more compelling motivation to worthwhile endeavor than the knowledge that we are children of God, that God expects us to do something with our lives, and that He will give us help when help is sought.
Many of the good people of the world pray. But the trouble with many of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries-we place our order and hang up. We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for, and then speak to the Lord as one man speaks to another. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 1:18). That is the invitation. Believe in the power of prayer. It is real, it is wonderful, it is tremendous.
I believe deeply in the fundamental principle that each of us is a child of God. It matters not the race. It matters not the slant of our eyes or the color of our skin, the size of our bank accounts or the prominence of our standing in society. Each of us is a son or daughter of the Almighty who loves us and who stands ready to listen to our pleadings and help us with our problems.
(back to table of contents)Marriage:
There is now and again a legitimate cause for divorce. I am not one to say that it is never justified. But I say without hesitation that this plague among us, which seems to be growing everywhere, is not of God, but rather is the work of the adversary of righteousness and peace and truth.
What God Hath Joined TogetherThere is a remedy for all of this. The Lord proclaimed, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:6). The remedy for most marital stress is not in divorce. It is in repentance and forgiveness, in sincere expressions of charity and service. It is not in separation. It is in simiple integrity that leads a man and woman to square up their shoulders and meet their obligations. It is found in the Golden Rule, a time-honored principle that should first and foremost find expression in marriage.
For marriage to be mutually satisfying, there must be recognition on the part of both husband and wife of the solemnity and sanctity of their union and of the God-given design behind it. Husbands and wives, look upon each other as precious companions, and live worthy of that association. Parents, see in your children sons and daughters of the Almighty, Who will hold you accountable for them. Stand together as their guardians, their protectors, their guides, their anchors.
A wise man once said that "no success in life can compensate for failure in the home." I believe it and commend that statement to all who are seeking a sense of fulfillment and peace, and who are looking for it outside their marriage and their home. It will prove a futile search, for no other relationship—as challenging and as frustrating as marriage can be from time to time—can provide the same security, peace of mind, and sense of well-being.
(back to table of contents)The Family:
It is so plainly evident that both the great good and the terrible evil found in the world today are the sweet and the bitter fruits of the rearing of yesterday's children. As we train a new generation, so will the world be in a few years. If we are worried about the future, then we must look today at the upbringing of children.
We Can Save Our Nation by Saving Our HomesThe evils of the world will continue to escalate unless there is an underlying acknowledgment, even a strong and fervent conviction, that the family is an instrument of the Almighty. It is His creation. It is also the most fundamental and basic unit of society. And it deserves—no, it demands—our combined focus and attention.
We go to great lengths to preserve historical buildings and sites in our cities. We need to apply the same fervor to preserving the most ancient and sacred of institutions—the family!
We cannot effect a turnaround in a day or a month or a year. But with enough effort, we can begin a turnaround within a generation, and accomplish wonders within two generations—a period of time that is not very long in the history of humanity.
(back to table of contents)Epilogue:
The price of leadership is loneliness. The price of adherence to conscience is loneliness. The price of adherence to principle is loneliness. I think it is inescapable. The Savior of the world was a man who walked in loneliness. I do not know of any statement more underlined with the pathos of His loneliness than this one: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head" (Matthew 8:20).
The Loneliness of Moral LeadershipThere is no lonelier picture in history than that of the Savior upon the cross, alone, the Redeemer of mankind, the Savior of the world, the Son of God suffering for the sins of us all.
I go back to these words of Paul: "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 4:9).
It is not easy to be virtuous when all about us there are those who criticize or scorn virtue.
It is not easy to be honest when all about us there are those who are interested only in making a fast buck, and who are willing to compromise almost any standard for personal reputation, power, prestige, notoriety, or profit.
It is not easy to be temperate when society scoffs at sobriety.
It is not easy to be industrious in a recreation-oriented society where all about us there are those who do not believe in the value of work.
In leadership, in standing for principle, there is loneliness. But men and women of integrity must live with their convictions. Unless they do so, they are miserable—dreadfully miserable. And though there may be thorns, though there may be disappointment, though there may be trouble and travail, heartache and heartbreak, and desperate loneliness, there will also be comfort and strength and that "peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Philippians 4:7).
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