Change

This week we were given President Gordon B. Hinckley's talk, "Stand True and Faithful".  This talk was given in 1996 and I was present.  I had just turned fifteen and attended the meeting with my young women's group.  This talk had a profound impact on my life.  In the talk, President Hinckley spoke directly to women my age. He said, "I urge each of you young women to get all of the schooling you can get. You will need it for the world into which you will move. Life is becoming so exceedingly competitive. Experts say that the average man or woman, during his or her working career, can expect to have at least five different jobs. The world is changing, and it is so very important that we equip ourselves to move with that change. But there is a bright side to all of this. No other generation in all of history has offered women so many opportunities. Your first objective should be a happy marriage, sealed in the temple of the Lord, and followed by the rearing of a good family. Education can better equip you for the realization of those ideals.”

My mother is one of ten children and my father is the oldest of eight children.  Neither my mom or any of my seventeen aunts at this time had earned a college degree.  Until that moment, I had assumed I would follow the tradition of graduate high school, work until I got married and had children.  The phrase, “get all of the schooling you can get” has stayed with me.  Even though I was not successful at my first attempt at college, I never lost my desire to get as much information and education as I could.  I have tried to read all I can get my hands on whenever I have needed to learn a new skill, I have attended workshops and classes whenever I could, and I am now in back in school pursuing a degree. 

I haven’t read this talk since hearing it when I was fifteen.  I was struck this time by a different phrase, “The world is changing, and it is so very important that we equip ourselves to move with that change.”  For another lesson, I read Elder Eyring’s talk “A Steady, Upward Course”.  He says the following about change, “The purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to change you so that you're not trying to resist change. You're trying to have change take you where the Lord wants you to go. How you answer the question of who you are will determine almost everything…Each of us wants to live in a world of change where our personal reaction to it is not only productive but where it enhances the best of what we are.”

The way to equip myself for change and be prepared to go where my Heavenly Father wants to send me is to “get all the schooling”.  I am grateful for this week’s reminder and to have had the opportunity to hear President Hinckley’s voice again.

Stand True and Faithful: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1996/04/stand-true-and-faithful?lang=eng

A Steady, Upward Course: http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2001_09_18_Eyring.htm