Monday, May 23, 2011
Brother Smith
· On behalf of the Salt Lake Jordan North Stake, I accept these seniors who have met the spiritual and academic qualifications necessary to receive 4 year diplomas of graduation or certificates of achievement for the 2010-2011 school year.
· I want to recognize those parents, grandparents and friends, Bishops, Youth Leaders who helped encourage these young people to dedicate themselves to a study of the gospel in seminary and to live its precepts.
· Brother Smith: I want to honor you and the seminary program that you represent today. My testimony of the importance of seminary continues to grow. These young people here today, and throughout the world who take that extra effort to take seminary, are not only learning about the world, just as their peers are, but they are also learning to put that education into it's proper perspective, and with the proper context and light. Thank you for your contribution, and thanks to seminary as a whole.
· And now to you graduates, I want to honor you, and pause for a moment to reflect on how great you really are. And the path that you have before you.
A Journey
To help you understand the message I want to share with you this evening, it's important that you think of a journey you have been on during your life.
Maybe it was a long bike trip.
Maybe it was a challenging hike with the scouts.
Maybe it was a road trip w/ family to Disneyland.
What ever journey you can think of, try to ponder on it for the next few minutes.
Okay, got it?
There are a lot of things that all successful journey's have in common.
· First - There's the beginning of the trip, where you plan out what you want to do, and where you want to go. And how you want to get there. You have lots of dreams and hopes of things you'll see, places you experience, people you'll meet.
· Second, there's the getting started. Sometimes just getting moving is the hardest part of the trip. And sometimes you're so excited to begin, that not moving is the hardest part.
· Once you get started there are always little diversions which pop up along the way, to can take you off your chosen path. Maybe friends want to go somewhere different than you want to go. Or another path looks more fun and entertaining. It's easy to get off course or even get lost if you don't stay focused.
§ My brother, when he was a YSA, took a girl on a date to San Antonio. It was a 4 hour drive from our home in Houston, and his goal was to get there by noon, have a fun afternoon, and be back by 10pm. On the return trip, he made a wrong turn off one freeway onto another freeway. The wrong turn was the first problem. But then he didn't pay attention to the signs, and so each hour he was on the wrong road the farther and farther away from his goal he got. After about 4 hours of driving, it suddenly occurred to him that he wasn't seeing roadsigns saying that Houston was just a few miles ahead. Instead the road had narrowed from a large freeway to a small 2 lane highway. Instead of seeing a booming city of lights on the horizon, it was all dark ahead, and he started seeing signs that he would be arriving in Laredo Mexico in the next 20 minutes.
§ It was a simple mistake. But because he was distracted and didn’t pay attention to the signs, he just travelled mindlessly until he was so far off his goal, his destination, that he had to explain to his date's father why he had to buy his daughter a room in a tiny little mexican border town hotel for the night. A call anyone of us would have hated to make.
· Another thing that all journeys have in common is the fact that it can get tiring, hard or boring, and it gets tempting to just slow down, or stop all together. But if you really want to arrive at your destination, you just have to stick with it and keep moving. It's Like the scout in our ward who went on a 50 mile hike with the troop. He told us in sacrament meeting, that at one point, he was so tired, he wanted to just sit down and give up. But when he realized that if he did that, he would NEVER get home. And so he got to his feet and kept marching till he got back to his car where he collapsed. All successful journeys require that we keep moving.
· Finally, when you've stuck with it till you see the goal you've been working for, and it is soo exciting, that you forget all the pain it took to get here, and you just sit back in amazement that you really did it, and you're grateful for all those who helped get you there.
So what' this have to do with us here today? The prophet has said,
"Our Beloved Young People...You are at the beginning of your journey through this mortal life. Your Heavenly Father wants your life to be joyful and to lead you back into His presence. The decisions you make now will determine much of what will follow during your life and throughout eternity."
This journey that the prophet has stated you are on is just the same. You have the same elements we've just described. You are at the beginning, and you have lots of dreams and hopes. You need to plan ahead, lay out the path you need to follow to get to where you REALLY want to go.
Then you need to get started. Don't just spend your life in your parents basement waiting for your journey to begin. Plan what you want to achieve and then go for it.
For example, attending the new YSA ward is now an option for all of you graduating seniors. Talk to your parents and determine if going to the YSA ward is something you want to do starting next Sunday or when you feel you'll be ready to attend. We asked Bishop Dave Erickson who is the Bishop of the new YSA ward to come here tonight. Tonight I'd encourage all of you to take the opportunity to shake his hand and get acquainted with him. He's a great leader, and he could be one of the great first steps on your journey.
Once you get started, you need to stay on the path, keep moving, and not get lost along the way so you can arrive safe in our father's kingdom.
I graduated from seminary and from Robert E Lee High School in Houston Texas over 30 years ago…And for these 30 years I've been on the trail traveling. During that time I've made some dumb decisions on my journey, but I've also made some great decisions on my Journey.
From one traveller, to another, let me share with you five of the best decisions I ever made which have led to my happiness and joy.
My first best decision was to serve a mission. That was hard. I had started college already. And I had a girlfriend. But once I got out there, my mission helped me to learn the gospel and to have a testimony better than anything I could have done on my own. That was the foundation I needed to build the rest of my journey on. The commitment I developed as a missionary has kept me strong and active in the church ever since. I learned during that time that the Lord really lives. That he really is in charge of this church. And that we have a prophet on the earth. And since I knew those things, I have tried to stay close to the church and keep my testimony strong. That has made me be happy, even during tough times, cuz I learned early on that the Lord loves me.
The next best decision, was to marry Wendy Winder. In most ways, I would say that marrying Wendy was THE greatest decision in my life. Because every single good thing that has happened in my life has been directly related to her and her influence on me. We were a great pair back then. We are an even better team now. She's been with me in every happy time. And she has also been with me in every sad and hard time as well. She is like an extension of me, and the best part of me. Whenever we go somewhere I always like to point her out, and mention that she married me, and people are amazed and wonder. Yes marrying Wendy was a great decision.
The next best decision? Is that I married Wendy in the Temple. When you marry someone who loves the Lord as much as we both did, then of course we were going to get married in the temple. But it was still a decision. And it was a great decision. Especially in this day of divorces where so many people don't think of their spouse as an extension of themselves. They are just two individuals living in the same house. And when a challenge pops up, or a better offer comes along, they split. However, the temple is forever. And knowing you're a forever couple, that you are one, makes all the difference during hard times and sweet times.
Fourth best decision was to have kids. From the time they were little miracles being born at the hospital, until now, they have been the brightest spots in my life. They are like another extension of myself.
I grew up in the 60's and 70's. But I got to see what growing up in the 80's and 90's and 2000's was like as well, cuz I got to see my kids do it. I remember days when you had to ask a girl out on date by picking up the phone and calling or talking to her in the hall at school. And the phone was in the kitchen with a cord on it, which meant you couldn't walk more than a few feet away. So you had to talk while you parents or brothers and sisters scould over hear the conversation. I grew up in a day when you rarely made long distance calls because it cost so much money. You didn't have fax machines, or copy machines, or computers. let alone text messages, facebook messages.
Having kids and seeing how they deal with the same problems but with different technologies is great. Now as my kids become adults, I look to them for advise, and they are some of the best friends I have. My life would be so empty without them in it.
Finally, the fifth best decision, was to get an education and then get to work and work hard through the years. In an economy like this where you may lose a job, there is nothing more comforting than knowing that you have an education and experience to fall back on. Who knows how the future economies will be throughout your life. In the old days, you could get by without an education. But in today's competitive world, you need to work hard to get an education. So congrats on getting your high school education, now keep going.
Well, everything good that's happened in my life can be traced back to these 5 decisions. My mission, my wife, my eternal marriage, my children and my education. I haven't been perfect, but these 5 decisions have made my journey sweet, and so worth living.
President Hinckley loved to use this thought from Jenkins Lloyd Jones:
· “Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.
· “[The fact is] most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …
· “Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.
· “The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride"
As you leave tonight, may you likewise look forward to traveling a joyous path. And if you get these opportunities in your life, I pray that you will make the choice which will lead you higher, and closer to the Lord. He'll show you the way.
In the name of Jesus Christ.
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