This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood session of the April 1999 conference.
Recently, while watching several YouTube videos I heard something profound, (and I can't remember which one so I can't give credit)
"Obedience is the first law of heaven and Gen Z hasn't been taught to be very obedient." (Or something close to that, please forgive my aging brain for not remembering exactly.) In our Stake Conference this weekend a member of the Stake Presidency, talking about the new For the Strength of Youth booklet advised us that young children need 'the Law of Moses' to teach them how things work and to guide their choices; while teens can better operate under a higher New Testament framework of laws. I see this played out each week in Primary where the young children, with no knowledge of the consequences of their choices, are given choices and decisions to make. I think all that freedom makes most young children anxious and uneasy inside. It's been my experience that young children do best with well defined boundaries and careful guidance to understand how both the world, and the Spirit work before being given enough freedom to decide for themselves, which could lead to harm.
President James E. Faust's address Obedience: The Path to Freedom impressed me as just what we need today as an antidote to what's happening around us.
I wish to raise a warning voice. In today's society, the difference between right and wrong is being obscured by loud, seductive voices calling for no restraints in human conduct. They advocate absolute freedom without regard to consequences. I state unequivocally that such behavior is the high road to personal destruction.
Can you think of anything more personally destructive than the supposed transition from one sex to another of young children and teens? We witness the tragic results as one after another comes to their senses and realizes what they have done to their precious bodies. Satan is leading the destruction of the rising generation in a particularly gruesome way.
President Faust relates the story of David O. McKay's horse Dandy, who, while well behaved when saddled, disliked restraint and would find ways to escape any. His final escape, driven by curiosity, led to his death when after wandering from the safety of his corral he found and ate from a sack of grain which was actually poisoned bait for rodents. Quoting Pres. McKay, "How like Dandy are many of our youth! . . . They are impulsive, full of life, full of curiosity. . . . They, too, are restive under restraint, but if they are kept busy, guided carefully and rightly, they prove to be responsive and capable; but if left to wander unguided, they all too frequently violate principles of right which often lead to snares of evil, disaster, and even death."
Sheri Dew recently spoke about prophets being able to see around corners (view talk here) which led me to think about how I've been viewing General Conference. In the weeks leading up to conference I'm usually hoping and praying that the prophets will say something about what is going on right now. In the past I have sometimes felt rather disappointed and thought that maybe they can't or won't speak of anything specific to the USA because this is a world-wide church. After pondering the principles Sister Dew spoke of I think I better understand that the prophets and apostles, and other leaders, are actually prophesying of conditions to come, giving us guidance on how to prepare. But we seem to only see it in hindsight. This will change the way I study current conference talks!
President Faust concluded his talk with this wonderful statement:
Freedom and liberty are precious gifts that come to us when we are obedient to the laws of God and the whisperings of the Spirit. If we are to avoid destruction, which was the fate of President McKay's horse Dandy and his companion, fences or guardrails must be built beyond which we cannot go. The fences which we must stay within are the principles of revealed truth. Obedience to them makes us truly free to reach the potential and the glory which our Heavenly Father has in store for us.
I'm grateful for the guardrails of the Gospel!
I read Sister Dew's talk too, and it's so good! But I didn't even think about that application--that we can think of current conference talks as guides for what's to come in the future! I love that idea, and it's going to change the way I study too! We really are seeing some of that same thing as we study these old talks too, and it's so interesting.
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