Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, this post focuses on highlights of ab BYU (Brigham Young University) Devotional Speech and it's called "A Time to Choose" by Elder Thomas S. Monson in January 1973. He was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the time when he has shared this devotional speech. This post is part one. This post should take about five to seven minutes to read from start to finish.
Elder Monson has mentioned the following;
"My brothers and sisters, I am pleased to have this opportunity to be with you on this occasion here in the Marriott Center. As I look at you my thoughts turn to your parents.
Each week it is my opportunity to be in the home of a stake president, or a counselor to a stake president; and it’s interesting, as we visit with them, when they have a son or a daughter at Brigham Young, that invariably the conversation will turn to the most important thing in their lives, namely you.
... Sometimes rather interesting things occur when we stay in the homes of your parents far from here. We’ve had situations where a tiny brother or sister, not knowing that mother and dad have given their bedroom and their bed to the General Authority, will creep into the bedroom early in the morning and think that he or she is crawling into the bed with mother and father, only to find that such is not the case, but that next to the little one is a General Authority of the Church. But we don’t mind; it’s just as if we were home.
On one occasion while visiting the Indianapolis Stake, I remember President Low, who is with Purdue University there, saying to me, “Brother Monson, would you like to come out to my home and stay with us, or would you prefer to forgo that forty-mile drive and stay here with my counselor in Indianapolis?”
I responded, “Well, President Low, it’s late at night, and if it’s all the same to you I’ll stay with your counselor here in Indianapolis.”
The next morning President Low greeted me at eight o’clock and said, “Elder Monson, you made an inspired decision.”
I said, “How’s that?”
He replied, “Well, we have a son away at Brigham Young University, and our anticipation was that we, of course, would have you occupy our bedroom on Saturday evening. But unknown to us, and totally unexpectedly, our son returned from Brigham Young University at two in the morning, came in the front door, walked up the stairs to our bedroom, turned on the light, and yelled, ‘Surprise!’” I don’t know who would have been more surprised on that occasion, the Brigham Young University student or Elder Monson. We love you, and that’s why I am here today.
New Year’s Resolutions
... I looked at the tree and thought to myself, “We are in a new year: 1973. We are in a new semester here at Brigham Young University. Isn’t this a most appropriate time to refer to Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, and read what he had to say about the times in our lives and the events that take place?”
In the third chapter of Ecclesiastes we read: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; … A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. [Eccles. 3:1–2, 4]
And I would add: a time to choose. There is no better time in all the world to make important choices than at the beginning of a new semester, and particularly at the beginning of a new year, for we literally become the product of our choices. Our choices determine our destiny.
... We have the opportunity to choose. ... We can choose our future. I made a few resolutions at the commencement of this new year. I’d like to share them with you, hoping that you, too, will join in making the same choices, the same resolutions.
First in 1973, I will listen. Second, I will learn. Third, I will labor. And fourth, I will love. Four words beginning with the letter l, but four words which can well determine our destiny.
Listen
When it comes to listening, and my promise to be a listener, and your promise to be a listener, I would hope that you would listen to your mother and listen to your father, each of whom is upon his or her knees each morning and each evening, praying for you, asking our Heavenly Father to watch over you and to guide you in your selections, to be cautious, as it were, in your conduct, and to generally be, as it were, a parent in their absence. I believe that when we recognize our parents and the fact that they are concerned for you and for me, then we honor them ...
I trust that we will listen to the words of the prophets, and particularly the counsel and the advice of our prophet, seer, and revelator, President Harold B. Lee. I hope also that we will listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. I promise you that if we have an ear attuned to the Holy Spirit, if there is a desire for righteousness within our heart, and our conduct reflects that desire, we shall be guided by that Holy Spirit.
... Therefore, I promise to listen.
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| A Time to Choose |
Learn
Number two, I will learn. It isn’t enough simply to listen if we don’t learn. I make a pledge that I will learn more from the scriptures and, hopefully, that you too will have that privilege. Wouldn’t it be marvelous if we could take into our hearts that counsel from the Lord, “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118).
Let us learn from the standard works, but let us also learn from the lives of our Presidency of the Church and the lives of those who are closest to us. For example, I believe that I can learn patience by better studying the life of our Lord and Savior. Can you imagine the disappointment which he must have felt, knowing that he had the keys to eternal life, knowing that he had the way for you and for me to gain entrance into the celestial kingdom of God, as he took his gospel to those people in the meridian of time and saw them reject him and reject his message? Yet he demonstrated patience. He accepted his responsibility in life, even to the cross, the Garden of Gethsemane preceding it. I would hope to learn patience from the Lord.
Next I would hope to learn the principle of acceptance. ... I believe that I could learn other lessons. From President N. Eldon Tanner I could learn loyalty. Here is a leader, a man who is integrity through and through, a man who has the capacity to be a true counselor as he was to President McKay, a true counselor to President Smith, and today a true counselor to President Harold B. Lee - unyielding, undeviating, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I would learn that lesson from President Tanner.
I would learn from President Marion G. Romney a lesson of tenacity. Here is one who clings to truth, who clings to duty, who clings to the word of the Lord. Nothing can shake him. We could well profit from his example.
From President Spencer W. Kimball I would learn cheerfulness. I would learn devotion to duty. A man who has undergone major surgery, who has undergone serious treatments relative to another illness, and yet a man with whom I have been in session already this morning, in the fulfillment of his responsibility as chairman of the Missionary Executive Committee. He does not let anything stand between him and the performance of his task.
These are lessons which I hope to learn by emulating my brethren. I offer the same to you and would urge that you join me, in 1973, with a pledge, I will learn."
I would like to encourage you to look forward to the next post because that post will continue to share some highlights from the same devotional speech.
Stay Tuned until next time.
