Book of Mormon - Messiah in America

Follow the Brethren

I say again, FOLLOW THE BRETHREN. In a few days there opens another general conference of the Church. The servants of the Lord will counsel us. You may listen with anxious ears and hearts, or you may turn that counsel aside....What you shall gain will depend not so much upon their preparation of the messages as upon your preparation for them.

Boyd K. Packer, "Follow the Brethren", BYU Devotional, 23 Mar 1965

Holy Ghost

"When we invite the Holy Ghost to fill our minds with light and knowledge, He "quickens" us, that is to say, enlightens and enlivens the inner man or woman. As a result we notice a measurable difference in our soul. We feel strengthened, filled with peace and joy. We possess spiritual energy and enthusiasm, both of which enhance our natural abilities. We can accomplish more than we otherwise could do on our own. We yearn to become a holier person." 

--Elder Keith K. Hilbig, "Quench Not the Spirit Which Quickens the Inner Man", October General Conference 2007
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Are you willing to listen to the Prophets and Apostles in a few days and be willing to do what they ask of you? Are you ready to let the Holy Ghost fill your mind with light and knowledge? I know that if you are searching for something, anything to help you in your life right now, then listen to General Conference with an open heart and mind. The Lord will speak to you through the Holy Ghost.

Freedom of Time and Choice

"Life offers you two precious gifts-one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for base desires. You may invest it in greed. . . . Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are no bargains, for in them you find no lasting satisfaction." 

--Elder D. Todd Christofferson, "Reflections on a Consecrated Life", October 2010 General Conference

General Conference a Priority

"Decide now to make general conference a priority in your life. Decide to listen carefully and follow the teachings that are given. Listen to or read the talks more than once to better understand and follow the counsel. By doing these things, the gates of hell will not prevail against you, the powers of darkness will be dispersed from before you, and the heavens will shake for your good." 

--Elder Paul V. Johnson, "The Blessings of General Conference", Ensign, Nov. 2005, 50

General Conference

In just a few days, we have the opportunity to hear the words of living prophets and apostles. I challenge you to take the time away from your busy schedule this Saturday and Sunday, (or Sunday and Monday for those a lot of hours ahead of Utah.) and put the electronic's away and sit down with pen and paper and write down what your impressions are and apply what you learn into your life. I know that as you do this, your life will be enriched and you will gain greater hope and peace in an ever darkening world. The Lord will speak to you and if you aren't willing and ready to his word, then you may never again have the opportunity to hear that specific council to you. If you haven't started preparing now to receive the Lord's word this weekend, here are a few suggestions that have helped me, friends, and other persons throughout the world have a more willing mind and a ready heart to hear the Lords word. 

·         sincerely study the scriptures and the previous General Conference talks.

·         Make time to go and go to the temple before General Conference.

·         General Conference Book Club. A Talk is posted each week from the most recent LDS Conference and you are invited to re-read it and comment on it if you'd like (www.diapersanddivinity.com).

·         Do a service project during conference like making leper bandages, baby blankets, hygiene kits.

·         Use it as the time to go through Food storage/ Emergency kits to replace old items, rotate winter items for summer ones, replace batteries in smoke detectors etc.

·         Prepare games for kids. If you go to www.lds.org, there are activities and computer games for kids. At  www.sugardoodle.net you can find ones for all ages from nursery to youth.

·         Learn about the Apostles prior to Conference

·         Have another family or some friends over for Pot luck in between sessions or after a session. 

·         DVR/TIVO Conference so you can use for FHE's during next 6 months.

·         Another suggestion I read: "We do 'conference candy' put out a candy dish and each session you pick a word and when you hear the word you can help yourself to a piece of candy."

·         Make a list of specific questions or issues you're working on and would like help with.

·         Fast about a specific topic before Conference

·         Pray, to feel the Spirit, about one or all of the things on your list, for the speakers

·         Learn about the General Authorities' lives, families, etc.

·         Have a Family Home Evening about General Conference (how to act during, what happens, who speaks, etc.)

·         Read your Patriarchal Blessing if you have it

·         Get plenty of sleep the night before

·         Do all your cleaning and chores before Conference if you can

·         Plan to discuss the talks after you watch Conference. This helps you pay attention because you know you'll have to have something interesting to say about it later.

·         Plan to listen for which talk to focus on for your Visiting/Home Teaching lesson

·         Plan and shop for meals the day before. Have a Conference food tradition. (if you have a 72 hour emergency kit, this a great tradition to start. You have to rotate food in and out of your 72 hr kit(s) and if you have a hard time remembering when you last rotated food in and out, then all you need to remember is, rotate it with General Conference. This way you know when you rotated the food AND it provides you will snacks for Conference and you dont have to worry about buying much Conference snack food.)

·         Find your journal or whatever you take notes in. Find a pen, too.

·         Listen to spiritual music to help you begin to tune out the worldly distractions and get you in tune with the Holy Ghost so he may speak to you. I am not saying it has to be just Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but any music that helps you feel closer to your Heavenly Father and prepares you spiritually to hear what our Father in Heaven has to say to. I listen to classical music when I am in the car rather than the normal radio stations the week before Conference. It’s been a great help for me to tune out the world. When I am home I put my IPod on and listen to LDS music such as Daniel Beck, Katherine Nelson, Hilary Weeks, Jenny Oaks Baker (Elder Oaks daughter), EFY(especially for the youth) music, etc.

Here is some very helpful websites that I found with many more idea’s to prepare for Conference and Conference activities for ALL ages.

·         http://lds.org/general-conference/children?lang=eng

·         http://www.mormonmommyblogs.com/2010/09/general-conference-preparation-mormon.html 

·         http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3101

·         http://www.bookofmormondiscovery.com/conference.html

·         http://spirituallythinking.blogspot.com/2011/03/general-conference-preparation-ideas.html

·         http://www.theredheadedhostess.com/teaching/general-conference/12-general-conference-ideas-for-your-family/

Certainly last but not least, is a talk by President Monson from the April 2010 Conference on how being prepared brings blessings. http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/preparation-brings-blessings?lang=eng

Relief Society

Tonight I had the opportunity to attend the General Relief Society Broadcast and it was amazing to say the least. President Julie B. Beck talked about how the Relief Society is patterned after the Priesthood.
1st councilor Silvia H. Allred talked about charity. 2nd councilor Barbara Thompson talked about cleaving to your covenants. 2nd councilor in the first presidency, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf used an analogy of the 5 petals on a forget-me-not.

1. Forget not to be patient with yourself.
2. Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a not so good sacrifice.
3. Forget not to be happy NOW.
4. Forget not the WHY of the gospel.
5. Forget not the Lord loves you.

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"Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world (in whom there is often such an inner sense of spirituality) will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different -- in happy ways -- from the women of the world."  Spencer W. Kimball
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I know that what Sisters Beck, Allred, & Thompson, and President Uchtdorf have said and testified of is true. There is no doubt in my mind that what they say is not of God. If you dont know, then I challenge you to find out for your self. Get down on your knees and ask Heavenly Father if it is true and I promise you that he will answer your prayers. It may not be in the time or way you want or would like it to be in, but I promise he will answer you.

Trials

Nevertheless, as I have said, it is necessary that we pass through certain ordeals, and that we be tried. But why
is it that we should be tried? There is just the same necessity for it now that there was in former times. I heard
the Prophet Joseph say, in speaking to the Twelve on one occasion: "You will have all kinds of trials to pass
through. And it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and (said he) "God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God."

John Taylor Journal of Discourses Vol 24 p. 198

Peace

Elder M. Russell Ballard, The Peaceable Things of the Kingdom, Ensign May 2002/April 2002 General Conference

Just hours before He was to begin that glorious yet awful process of the Atonement, the Lord Jesus Christ made this significant promise to His Apostles: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (John 14:27).

Was He promising His beloved associates the kind of peace the world recognizes—safety, security, with the absence of contention or tribulation? Certainly the historical record would suggest otherwise. Those original Apostles knew much of trial and persecution throughout the remainder of their lives, which is probably why the Lord added this insight to His promise: “Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace,” He continued. “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33; emphasis added).

Peace—real peace, whole-souled to the very core of your being—comes only in and through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When that precious truth is discovered and gospel principles are understood and applied, great peace can distill in the hearts and souls of our Heavenly Father’s children. Said the Savior through Joseph Smith, “He who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23).

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I can testify that there is peace in an ever darkening world. I have personally felt the Saviors peace in my life many many times. I know the Savior is real and aware of each of our needs, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I know that if you sincerely ask God for his peace to be with you and you try not to bring the spirit of contention with you where ever you go, you will feel the peace of the Lord.

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this is a story that Elder Ballard tells in the same talk. feel free to read it if you want. I love how you can see the peace the gospel brought to this family.

It is sometimes amazing to see the difference this peace can have in the lives of those who accept it. While I was presiding over the Canada Toronto Mission many years ago, our missionaries began teaching afamily that was in spiritual darkness. They were poor, uneducated, and their personal appearance reflected a lack of appreciation or concern for normal hygiene and grooming. But they were good, honorable people—among the honest in heart that we always pray for our missionaries to find—and they responded spiritually as they felt for the first time in their lives the peace the gospel offers.

When we learned that they were going to be baptized, Sister Ballard and I attended the baptismal service. I happened to be standing next to the bishop of the ward when the family arrived. In all honesty, I must tell you that they were quite a sight. They looked unkempt, unclean, and somewhat scruffy. Because he had been out of town for a period of time, the bishop had not yet met the newest members of his ward; so this first impression was, to say the least, unimpressive. As they walked away, I thought I could feel his knees begin to buckle.

I put my arm around this good bishop to give him my support—physically as well as spiritually. I felt prompted to say to him: “Bishop, isn’t this wonderful? We will make good Latter-day Saints out of them!”

He looked at me, and he smiled. I just couldn’t tell if he was smiling because he agreed with me, or if he thought that I might be just another overenthusiastic missionary.

The baptismal service proceeded, and the family was baptized. The next day, we decided to attend that ward to make sure the family was well received when they came to their meetings as new members of the Church.

As the family came into the chapel for sacrament meeting, I was sitting on the stand next to the bishop. The father was wearing a clean white shirt. It was not large enough for him to fasten the top button at the neck, and he was wearing a tie that I could remember seeing on one of my elders. But his face radiated with happiness and peace. The mother and daughters looked like they had been transformed from the previous day. Their dresses were not fancy, but they were clean and lovely. They, too, had that special gospel glow. The little boys wore white shirts that were several sizes too large for them, even with the sleeves rolled up. And they were wearing ties that almost extended down to their knees. It was obvious that the missionaries had put their own white shirts and ties on these little boys so they could come to sacrament meeting appropriately dressed.

They sat with their missionaries, and the light of the gospel literally shone from them. Alma describes this as “[receiving God’s] image in your countenances” (Alma 5:14). I leaned over to the bishop again and said: “See, Bishop? We will make Saints out of them!”

Of course, that overnight physical transformation was merely superficial when compared to the overwhelming, more significant spiritual transformation that took place in that family as the gospel entered their hearts and lives. Through the instruction of the missionaries and the subsequent fellowshipping of their good bishop and the ward members, this entire family emerged from spiritual darkness into gospel light and truth. In that light the family was warmed, refreshed, and revitalized by the peace that comes from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ lives. The light of the gospel truths restored to earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith began to show this family the way to the temple, where one year later they received their eternal blessings.

How to become Saviors on Mount Zion through Temple Attendance

I was able to go the temple today and it was awesome to go back again. there is an amazing work that is being done in the temple. Although i am only able to do baptisms for the dead and confirmations, I know that it all starts with just a simple ordinance and faith. I know that i will receive answers from my Heavenly Father by going to the temple and serving those who are unable to preform the ordinance for their self. I have received answers from the Lord and i know he is there, hearing and answering prayers. I challenge you who read this to go to the temple, and even if you cannot go in, you can walk around the grounds and feel the spirit of the lord and feel the lords love for you. i know this to do true. 

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LaRene Gaunt, Finding Joy in Temple Service,  Ensign November 1994 

The temple with its blessings helps us “come unto Christ” (Moro. 10:32). We can find knowledge, understanding, and joy when we attend the temple: first, through sacred priesthood ordinances for ourselves and then as proxy for our ancestors; and second, through personal revelation.

After we receive our own temple endowments, we can continue to attend the temple as proxy for deceased persons, including our ancestors. “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead,” taught the Prophet Joseph Smith. “Hence, God said, ‘I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.’ (Mal. 4:5–6.)” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,p. 356.)

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"Chapter 18: Temple Work: Becoming Saviors on Mount Zion," Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, (2004)

We become saviors on Mount Zion as we build temples and receive saving ordinances in behalf of the dead.

It is our duty to rise up and build these Temples. I look upon this portion of our ministry as a mission of as much importance as preaching to the living; the dead will hear the voice of the servants of God in the spirit-world, and they cannot come forth in the morning of the [first] resurrection, unless certain ordinances are performed, for and in their behalf, in Temples built to the name of God. … Somebody has got to redeem them, by performing such ordinances for them in the flesh as they cannot attend to themselves in the spirit, and in order that this work may be done, we must have temples in which to do it; and what I wish to say to you, my brethren and sisters, is that the God of heaven requires us to rise up and build them, that the work of redemption may be hastened. Our reward will meet us when we go behind the veil. …

… I do not wonder at President [Brigham] Young saying he felt moved upon to call upon the Latter-day Saints to hurry up the building of these Temples. He felt the importance of the work; but now he has gone, it rests with us to continue it, and God will bless our labors and we will have joy therein. This is a preparation necessary for the second advent of the Savior; and when we shall have built the Temples now contemplated, we will then begin to see the necessity of building others, for in proportion to the diligence of our labors in this direction, will we comprehend the extent of the work to be done, and the present is only a beginning. When the Savior comes, a thousand years will be devoted to this work of redemption; and Temples will appear all over this land of Joseph,—North and South America—and also in Europe and elsewhere; and all the descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth who received not the gospel in the flesh, must be officiated for in the Temples of God before the Savior can present the kingdom to the Father, saying, “It is finished.” ¹¹

Media

I know that what Elder Ballard says is true. We need to ever be mindful of what our children watch or what you want your children to watch once you start a family. I know that if we start NOW, today to watch what we watch that family and home life will be better. There will be less contention and more love and peace at home. 

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M. Russell Ballard, Let our Voices be Heard, Ensign November 2003

The fall of the year is when television airs its season premieres and introduces its new shows. A friend told me that there are 37 new TV series being inaugurated this fall. As he has read the reviews, he has found few if any of them that he would want his children to watch. Most of the sitcoms, dramas, and reality shows contain immorality, violence, and subtle ridicule of traditional values and traditional families. Each year the new shows seem to get worse, pushing the envelope of what the public will accept. What comes out of Hollywood, off the Internet, and in much of today’s music creates a web of decadence that can trap our children and endanger all of us.

Church leaders have the responsibility to speak out on moral issues and to counsel individuals and families. The family is the basic unit of society; it is the basic unit of eternity. Thus, when forces threaten the family, Church leaders must respond.

The family is at the heart of Heavenly Father’s plan because we are all part of His family and because mortality is our opportunity to form our own families and to assume the role of parents. It is within our families that we learn unconditional love, which can come to us and draw us very close to God’s love. It is within families that values are taught and character is built. Father and mother are callings from which we will never be released, and there is no more important stewardship than the responsibility we have for God’s spirit children who come into our families.

Within this context of the preeminent importance of families and the threats families face today, it is not surprising that the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles used strong words in the proclamation to the world on families: “We warn that individuals … who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” ¹ One such prophet was Malachi, who admonished parents to turn their hearts to their children and children to their parents, lest the whole earth be cursed (see Mal. 4:6).

To these warnings, ancient as the Old Testament and current as the proclamation on the family, I add my own voice of warning, specifically concerning today’s media and the powerful negative effect it can have on families and on family life.

Because of its sheer size, media today presents vast and sharply contrasting options. Opposite from its harmful and permissive side,media offers much that is positive and productive. Television offers history channels, discovery channels, education channels. One can still find movies and TV comedies and dramas that entertain and uplift and accurately depict the consequences of right and wrong. The Internet can be a fabulous tool of information and communication, and there is an unlimited supply of good music in the world. Thus our biggest challenge is to choose wisely what we listen to and what we watch.

As the prophet Lehi said, because of Christ and His Atonement, we are “free forever, knowing good from evil,” able to act for ourselves rather than be acted upon, “free to choose liberty and eternal life … or to choose captivity and death” (2 Ne. 2:26–27).

The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we’re not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.

If we do not make good choices, the media can devastate our families and pull our children away from the narrow gospel path. In the virtual reality and the perceived reality of large and small screens, family-destructive viewpoints and behavior are regularly portrayed as pleasurable, as stylish, as exciting, and as normal. Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up. Immorality and sexual innuendo are everywhere, causing some to believe that because everyone is doing it, it must be all right. This pernicious evil is not out in the street somewhere; it is coming right into our homes, right into the heart of our families.

To be strong and happy, families need to be nourished by the truths depicted in the thirteenth article of faith—by a belief “in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men.” [A of F 1:13] Gratefully, there are many like-minded men and women of all cultures and faiths who also seek that which is “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.”

But we live in the “perilous times” to which the Apostle Paul referred when he warned about our day as one when “men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, … false accusers, … despisers of those that are good, … heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:1–4).

Conspiring men and women, intent on gain rather than goodness, “stir up the people” to “all manner of … wickedness” (see Alma 11:20), preventing the noble uses to which the media could be employed.

The new morality preached from the media’s pulpit is nothing more than the old immorality. It attacks religion. It undermines the family. It turns virtue into vice and vice into virtue. It assaults the senses and batters the soul with messages and images that are neither virtuous, nor lovely, nor of good report, nor praiseworthy.

The time has come when members of the Church need to speak out and join with the many other concerned people in opposition to the offensive, destructive, and mean-spirited media influence that is sweeping over the earth.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the percentage of television prime-time shows with sexual content jumped from 67 percent in 1998 to 75 percent in the year 2000. ² Media with this kind of content has numerous negative effects. It fosters a callous attitude toward women, who are often portrayed as objects of abuse and not as precious daughters of God who are essential to His eternal plan. The long-cherished values of abstinence from intimate relationships before marriage and complete fidelity between husband and wife after marriage are denigrated and derided. Children and youth are confused and misled by the deviant behavior they see demonstrated by so-called stars they admire and want to emulate. In the moral confusion created by the media, enduring values are being abandoned.

We see a rapid increase in cyberporn, involving sexual addiction over the Internet. Some become so addicted to viewing Internet pornography and participating in dangerous online chat rooms that they ignore their marriage covenants and family obligations and often put their employment at risk. Many run afoul of the law. Others develop a tolerance to their perverted behavior, taking ever more risks to feed their immoral addiction. Marriages crumble and relationships fail, as addicts often lose everything of real, eternal value.

According to one social observer: “Television … has replaced the family, the school, and the church—in that order—as the principal [instrument] for socialization and transmission of values. … Greed, debauchery, violence, unlimited self-gratification, absence of moral restraint … are the daily fare glamorously dished up to our children.” ³

We must be concerned with the violent and sexually charged lyrics of much of today’s popular music and the relatively new “art form” of the music video. According to industry observers, 40 percent of the music video audience is under the age of 18. ⁴ One study reports that approximately three-fourths of all the music videos that tell a story utilize sexual imagery, and nearly half involve violence. ⁵ And the fashion trends spawned in their images are about as far away from being “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy” as you can get. Ours surely is a time when men “call evil good, and good evil” (Isa. 5:20).

Let me say again that the family is the main target of evil’s attack and must therefore be the main point of our protection and defense. As I said once before, when you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense to Satan. When he wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church’s missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn’t send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O and casseroles. When evil wants to strike out and disrupt the essence of God’s work, it attacks the family. It does so by attempting to disregard the law of chastity, to confuse gender, to desensitize violence, to make crude and blasphemous language the norm, and to make immoral and deviant behavior seem like the rule rather than the exception.

We need to remember Edmund Burke’s statement: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ⁶ We need to raise our voices with other concerned citizens throughout the world in opposition to current trends. We need to tell the sponsors of offensive media that we have had enough. We need to support programs and products that are positive and uplifting. Joining together with neighbors and friends who share our concerns, we can send a clear message to those responsible. The Internet Web sites and their local affiliates will have their addresses. Letters and e-mails have more effect than most people realize, especially those like one sent by a Relief Society sister that stated, “I represent a group of over a hundred women that meets every week and often talks about the harm your program is doing to our children.”

Of course the most basic way to protest negative-impact media is simply not to watch it, see it, read it, or play it. We should teach our family members to follow the First Presidency’s counsel to young people. From the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, their instruction regarding entertainment and the media is very clear:

“Do not attend, view, or participate in entertainment that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way. Do not participate in entertainment that in any way presents immorality or violent behavior as acceptable. …

“Have the courage to walk out of a movie or video party, turn off a computer or television, change a radio station, or put down a magazine if what is being presented does not meet Heavenly Father’s standards. Do these things even if others do not.” ⁷

Brothers and sisters, refuse to be used. Refuse to be manipulated. Refuse to support those programs that violate traditional family values. We may be a small voice to begin with; nevertheless, let us speak out and encourage a more uplifting, inspiring, and acceptable media.

Besides making our voices heard, let me conclude with seven things that every parent can do to minimize the negative effect media can have on our families:

1. We need to hold family councils and decide what our mediastandards are going to be.

2. We need to spend enough quality time with our children that we are consistently the main influence in their lives, not the media or any peer group.

3. We need to make good media choices ourselves and set good examples for our children.

4. We need to limit the amount of time our children watch TV or play video games or use the Internet each day. Virtual reality must not become their reality.

5. We need to use Internet filters and TV programming locks to prevent our children from “chancing upon” things they should not see.

6. We need to have TVs and computers in a much-used common room in the home, not in a bedroom or a private place.

7. We need to take time to watch appropriate media with our children and discuss with them how to make choices that will uplift and build rather than degrade and destroy.

May God bless us with courage and wisdom in doing what each one of us can to help turn the tide in the media away from darkness toward truth and light. And may God bless our families to be strong and true to the principles of the gospel is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Show References 

1. “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Liahona, Oct. 1998, 24;Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102.

2. See Dale Kunkel and others, Sex on TV 2003: A Biennial Report to the Kaiser Family Foundation (2003), 40.

3. Zbigniew Brzezinski, “Weak Ramparts of the Permissive West,” in Nathan P. Gardels, ed., At Century’s End: Great Minds Reflect on Our Times (1995), 53.

4. See National Institute on Media and the Family, “Fact Sheet,” Internet, http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_mtv. shtml.

5. See Barry L. Sherman and Joseph R. Dominick, “Violence and Sex in Music and Videos: TV and Rock ’n’ Roll,” Journal of Communication,Winter 1986, 79–93.

6. Attributed in John Bartlett, comp., Familiar Quotations, 15th ed. (1980), ix.

7.  For the Strength of Youth (2001), 17, 19.