Monday, October 31, 2011

Motivational Monday: "Which Team's Jersey?"

I missed Elder Holland speaking to us during General Conference. It was nice to be able to hear the message he gave during the Priesthood session "We Are All Enlisted". He is such a powerful speaker.

I especially ask the young men of the Aaronic Priesthood to sit up and take notice. For you, let me mix in an athletic analogy. This is a life-and-death contest we are in, young men, so I am going to get in your face a little, nose to nose, with just enough fire in my voice to singe your eyebrows a little—the way coaches do when the game is close and victory means everything. And with the game on the line, what this coach is telling you is that to play in this match, some of you have to be more morally clean than you now are. In this battle between good and evil, you cannot play for the adversary whenever temptation comes along and then expect to suit up for the Savior at temple and mission time as if nothing has happened. That, my young friends, you cannot do. God will not be mocked.

So we have a dilemma tonight, you and I. It is that there are thousands of Aaronic Priesthood–age young men already on the records of this Church who constitute our pool of candidates for future missionary service. But the challenge is to have those deacons, teachers, and priests stay active enough and worthy enough to be ordained elders and serve as missionaries. So we need young men already on the team to stay on it and stop dribbling out of bounds just when we need you to get in the game and play your hearts out! In almost all athletic contests of which I know, there are lines drawn on the floor or the field within which every participant must stay in order to compete. Well, the Lord has drawn lines of worthiness for those called to labor with Him in this work. No missionary can be unrepentant of sexual transgression or profane language or pornographic indulgence and then expect to challenge others to repent of those very things! You can’t do that. The Spirit will not be with you, and the words will choke in your throat as you speak them. You cannot travel down what Lehi called “forbidden paths” and expect to guide others to the “strait and narrow” one—it can’t be done.

But there is an answer to this challenge for you every bit as much as there is for that investigator to whom you will go. Whoever you are and whatever you have done, you can be forgiven. Every one of you young men can leave behind any transgression with which you may struggle. It is the miracle of  forgiveness; it is the miracle of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus  Christ. But you cannot do it without an active commitment to the gospel, and you cannot do it without repentance where it is needed. I am asking you young men to be active and be clean. If required, I am asking you to get active and get clean.

Now, brethren, we speak boldly to you because anything more subtle doesn’t seem to work. We speak boldly because Satan is a real being set on destroying you, and you face his influence at a younger and younger age. So we grab you by the lapels and shout as forcefully as we know how:
Hark! the sound of battle sounding loudly and clear;
Come join the ranks! Come join the ranks!

Chad said: Do you realize that the talk you link to does not contain the quote that's in the picture? In fact, can you provide me a citation to the talk when Elder Holland said what's quoted in the picture? I cannot seem to find it.

Sondra Murray said...
Hi Chad, yes I knew when I posted the picture to the talk that the quote wasn't in it. I used the picture I found on Pinterest because it has a similar message. In my research of this quote this is what I was able to find from John Bytheway and quoted/referenced in his book "When Times Are Tough" said:

John related that he had heard a Jeffrey R Holland quote about the outcome of the world has already been decided, but we need to choose which side we will be on.

He wanted to quote it, but first, he wanted to authenticate it.

Unable to find it in his own research, he called Elder Holland’s office. The secretary did not know the quote, but said she would ask Elder Holland.

John B. thought that was the end of that. Weeks later he got an email from Elder Holland, acknowledging that he did indeed say what John heard him say and offering to write it and authenticate if for John. And signed the email, “Jeff”. !!!

The quote:

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “The future of this world has long been declared; the final outcome between good and evil is already known. There is absolutely no question as to who wins because the victory has already been posted on the scoreboard. The only really strange thing in all of this is that we are still down here on the field trying to decide which team’s jersey we want to wear!”


4 comments:

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

Beautiful.
A call to action!

Valerie said...

I have loved that quote about the jerseys for a couple of years now. He must have re-used it. :) This is something I need to review with my young man, as well as my girls.

Chad said...

Do you realize that the talk you link to does not contain the quote that's in the picture? In fact, can you provide me a citation to the talk when Elder Holland said what's quoted in the picture? I cannot seem to find it.

Sondra said...

Hi Chad, yes I knew when I posted the picture to the talk that the quote wasn't in it. I used the picture I found on Pinterest because it has a similar message. In my research of this quote this is what I was able to find from John Bytheway and quoted/referenced in his book "When Times Are Tough" said:

John related that he had heard a Jeffrey R Holland quote about the outcome of the world has already been decided, but we need to choose which side we will be on.

He wanted to quote it, but first, he wanted to authenticate it.

Unable to find it in his own research, he called Elder Holland’s office. The secretary did not know the quote, but said she would ask Elder Holland.

John B. thought that was the end of that. Weeks later he got an email from Elder Holland, acknowledging that he did indeed say what John heard him say and offering to write it and authenticate if for John. And signed the email, “Jeff”. !!!

The quote:
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “The future of this world has long been declared; the final outcome between good and evil is already known. There is absolutely no question as to who wins because the victory has already been posted on the scoreboard. The only really strange thing in all of this is that we are still down here on the field trying to decide which team’s jersey we want to wear!”

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