Tag Archives: Gordon B. Hinckley

The Trick is to Thank the Lord for Letting You Have the Ride

President Hinckley reminded us that the trials and struggles we have in life are part of the journey:

Transcript:

 I have had my head bumped and my shins barked. On some of these occasions when I have needed a laugh I have turned to a letter which I think is something of a classic, which was first published in the Manchester, England,Guardian and later reprinted in the Deseret News.

A hurricane had hit the West Indies, and a bricklayer was sent to repair the damage. He wrote to the home office as follows, and I hope you can get this delightful picture:

Respected Sirs:

When I got to the building I found that the hurricane had knocked some bricks off the top. So I rigged up a beam with a pulley at the top of the building and hoisted up a couple of barrels full of bricks. When I had fixed the building, there was a lot of bricks left over. I hoisted the barrel back up again and secured the line at the bottom, and then went up and filled the barrel with the extra bricks. Then I went to the bottom and cast off the line. Unfortunately the barrel of bricks was heavier than I was, and before I knew what was happening the barrel started down, jerking me off the ground. I decided to hang on, and halfway up I met the barrel coming down and received a severe blow on the shoulder. I then continued to the top, banging my head against the beam and getting my finger jammed in the pulley. When the barrel hit the ground it bursted its bottom, allowing all the bricks to spill out. I was now heavier than the barrel and so started down again at high speed. Halfway down, I met the barrel coming up and received severe injuries to my shins. When I hit the ground I landed on the bricks, getting several painful cuts from the sharp edges. At this point I must have lost my presence of mind because I let go of the line. The barrel then came down, giving me another heavy blow on the head and putting me in the hospital. I respectfully request sick leave.

Life is like that—ups and downs, a bump on the head, and a crack on the shins. It was ever thus. Hamlet went about crying, “To be or not to be,” but that didn’t solve any of his problems. There is something of a tendency among us to think that everything must be lovely and rosy and beautiful without realizing that even adversity has some sweet uses. One of my favorite newspaper columnists is Jenkin Lloyd Jones. In a recent article published in the News, he commented:

There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks, to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and ravishing wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear, the divorce courts are jammed.

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just ordinary 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.

September 25, 1973 | BYU Devotional |“God Shall Give unto You Knowledge by His Holy Spirit”

Virtues Over Vices

President Hinckley counseled us to focus on virtues over vice,

I am satisfied that if we would look for the virtues in one another and not the vices, there would be much more of happiness in the homes of our people. There would be far less of divorce, much less of infidelity, much less of anger and rancor and quarreling. There would be more of forgiveness, more of love, more of peace, more of happiness. This is as the Lord would have it.

Gordon B. Hinckley,
“Living Worthy of the Girl You Will Someday Marry”
April 1998 General Conference

Pray Always (2 Nephi 32:8)

From time to time, I find myself wondering if in this or that moment it would be appropriate to say a prayer. I know there are a few scripture mastery verses out there on the subject, so I always what is the hold up, even for myself. The Lord is pretty clear on the subject:’pray always.’

For me, the most telling verse is in 2 Nephi, chapter 32, just before an exhortation to pray always.

“If ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray” (2 Nephi 32:8. emphasis added).

From that, I conclude that the adversary is engaged in a deliberate, coordinated effort to break the habit and predisposition to pray. Any distance or time he can put between us and our Father in Heaven gives him a window of opportunity to make us miserable like unto himself (see 2 Nephi 2:27). Where so many blessings are contingent on our asking, I can see why disrupting our desires and intentions to pray would be key for him.

If we can recognize more readily the promptings to pray and the temptation to not pray, I suspect that knowledge alone will help us a great deal to put us in a better position to do the will of the Lord in a given situation.

To do that, let’s consider the Lord’s Prayer. When we consider the different aspects of the Lord’s prayer, what can they teach us recognizing the influences of the evil spirit that discourages us to pray?

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

A few observations:

1. ‘As we forgive our debtors’

Effective prayer involves personal commitment to act in order to receive blessings. The adversary certainly would have us be passive in our prayers.

2. Give Us Our Daily Bread

Prayer, and our reliance on God is a daily matter. Our relationship is a daily experience. Satan would have us grow complacent and lax in the maintenance of that relationship.

Howard W. Hunter taught,

“If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies. We should remember the Most High day and night–always–not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help” (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1997], 39).

3. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

This statement reminds me that I am the servant, and the one who needs guidance (not the other way around).

President Gordon B. Hinckley said,

“The trouble with most 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 speaketh to another” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 469).

Conclusion

Some of the best advice I received regarding the mindset of prayer was the imagining the Lord was there in front of you as you prayed. As I remember that there is not just another person listening to my prayers, that it is the Eternal and Infinite God and Father of us all, and let that faith guide my thoughts and words, suddenly prayer becomes a much more honest process.

“But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul”

The Wisdom of Chastity

Speaking on chastity and morality, President Gordon B. Hinckley said,

You should recognize, you must recognize, that both experience and divine wisdom dictate virtue and moral cleanliness as the way that leads to strength of character, peace in the heart, and happiness in life. Will and Ariel Durant, who wrote eleven large volumes of history covering thousands of years, declared: “A youth boiling with hormones will wonder why he should not give full freedom to his sexual desires; and if he is unchecked by customs, morals, or laws, he may ruin his life before he matures sufficiently to understand that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group” (The Lessons of History, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968, pp. 35–36).

“Reverence and Morality”
April 1987 General Conference

The Administration of the Sacrament

Regarding the administration of the Sacrament, Gordon B. Hinckley taught,

“The priest at the sacrament table places all in the congregation under sacred covenant. The offering of the prayer is not a ritual to be thoughtlessly spoken. It is, rather, the voicing of an obligation and a promise. Cleanliness of hands, as well as purity of heart, should be taught to the priests who officiate at the sacrament table.”

“Reverence and Morality”
April 1987 General Conference
Priesthood Session

The Chapel is a Sacred Precinct

Gordon B. Hinckley taught,

“Socializing is an important aspect of our program as a church. We encourage the cultivation of friends with happy conversations among our people. However, these should take place in the foyer, and when we enter the chapel we should understand that we are in sacred precincts.”

“Reverence and Morality”
April 1987 General Conference
Priesthood Session

FRIDAY: Hinckley’s Quest for Excellence

We’re starting something new for Fridays. Fridays will be our feature day. We’ll share a talk or address from a general authority for the weekend. Whenever possible, we’ll embed links to the audio and video as well as share a few quotes. As always, we’ll include a question or two to consider.

Today’s Feature:

Quest for Excellence

Gordon B. Hinckley, BYU Devotional

This is the great day of preparation for each of you. It is the time of beginning for something that will go on for as long as you live. I plead with you: Don’t be a scrub! Rise to the high ground of excellence. You can do it. You may not be a genius. You may be lacking in some skills. But you can do better than you are now doing. You are students at BYU. Most of you are members of this great Church whose influence is now felt all over the world. You are people with a present and with a future. Don’t muff the ball. Be excellent.”

Questions to Consider

  • Starting today, what can I do to be excellent?