That Our Children May Know
to What Source They May Look

Stephen D. Nadauld and Margaret D. Nadauld

(M) We are grateful for the opportunity to speak on the theme, "That Our Children May Know to What Source They May Look." Our approach will be to stand here together as we visit with you about this important topic.

(S) Who among us doesn’t desire to be better at working with and understanding youth, at teaching and touching the hearts and lives of children in the vulnerable teenage years, and even before and beyond?

(M) There are many major issues which our children are facing in today’s world. Among them are gender roles; preparation for future responsibilities; moral purity; peer pressure; modesty in behavior, in speech, and in appearance; and staying close to family and the Church. Our children can be strengthened as we help them know to what source they may look to find encouragement and strength as they face challenges in their lives. Today we will focus on four important sources of influence to which our children may look: doctrine and principles, parents, leaders, and the Lord.

Look to Doctrine and Principles

(S) First, we believe our children can find strength and safety in doctrine and true principles.1

Elder Boyd K. Packer has observed that, "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behaviors."

The young people we work with today were once mature spirits. We must remember that they have been taught by God Himself, and it wasn’t that long ago. They don’t need any more fluff in their lives. They are immersed in plenty of that by virtue of living in the world. What they need is a better understanding of gospel truths. What President J. Reuben Clark said many years ago is still true today, They "are hungry for the things of the spirit; they are eager to learn the Gospel, and they want it straight, undiluted.

" . . . You do not have to sneak up behind [them] and whisper religion in [their] ears. . . . You can bring these truths [out] openly."2

(M) A clear understanding of gospel principles has great power. My friend, Silvia Allred, was fifteen when she joined the Church in El Salvador with her seventeen-year-old sister. They were the only members in their family, and yet Silvia has been strong in her testimony of the gospel and active in the Church all her life. I asked her what kept her true and faithful when she was so alone as a teenager. She said it was her deep conviction of the divinity of the Savior, her testimony of the power of the Atonement, and her commitment to obey the commandments. I think that is so remarkable. It was her testimony that served her so well in the teenage years and beyond.

We have so much that is wonderful to teach, and that which we teach must be more powerful and more satisfying than what the world offers.

(S) We believe most children want to be successful. They want to be respected, have influence, and amount to something. In an age of situational ethics, microwave pushbutton, and instant everything with magazines and books touting quick fixes to every problem, it is easy to see how they could be confused about life’s best processes. Children need to be taught to look to doctrine and principles for strength, power, safety, and enduring value.

(M) "A 1998 review by Duke and Vanderbilt universities cited the relationship between religion and crimes committed by young people. Scholars from both schools looked at 40 separate studies on the issue and found that 30 of them demonstrated a strong relationship between religious worship and low levels of delinquency. They also found that many people who commit crimes or become drug addicts report that they stopped going to church when they became adolescents. These studies show religious people have lower crime rates, lower levels of sexual promiscuity, better health and a better chance of escaping poverty and despair than people who don’t actively believe in a God. Yet, other studies also have found that social scientists tend to discount this relationship."3

(S) In Helaman 5:4 we learn that "it came to pass that Nephi had become weary because of their iniquity; and he yielded up the judgment-seat, and took it upon him to preach the word of God all the remainder of his days, and his brother Lehi also, all the remainder of his days."

Here is a very important pedagogical concept at work. It is, that perhaps the most effective way to change behavior is to teach doctrine, from which emerge principles, which when understood, lead to behavior.

Elder Packer’s powerful insight is that, "The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior."4 Parents and sometimes leaders, usually out of frustration, spend time and energy chiding, hectoring, and railing on the behavior of their children. When they move their attention to the principles and doctrine they obtain better long-term results (not to mention lower blood pressure).

In summary, our first point is that our children’s lives will be blessed if they learn to look

to the doctrine and principles of the Church as the source of their strength and success in life.

Look to Parents

(M) To illustrate a second point, look to parents, let us share a story. One evening a family was sitting around the family room, the little children playing at the feet of their parents, when the three-year-old, out of the clear blue sky, said, "3 Nephi, chapter 11, verse 33." Somewhat startled, the father perked up and asked, "What did you say, son?" and the little boy again repeated that scripture reference. The parents looked at each other quizzically and then decided he must have learned it in Primary. The mother opened her Book of Mormon to see what this child might be talking about and recognized this scripture about baptism: "And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God."

Now the parents might have left it at that or left it to the Primary to teach their child the doctrine of baptism, but not these parents. They understood the instruction given by the Lord, "And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents" (D&C 68:25).

The responsibility is the parents to teach the doctrines and principles of the gospel. These parents nourished the seed planted in a Sunbeam class, and the whole family memorized and discussed 3 Nephi 11:33 and others after that.

(S) Another day when this mother looked for her little boy, she found him sitting on the bottom stair with the Book of Mormon open in his lap, upside down. He told her he loved the scriptures. And he was reading them like Mommy and Daddy do. This young family has already established a foundation upon which to build testimony in their children.

We remember sitting with our family to read scriptures, each boy taking his turn. Our favorite part was when the newest reader was called on. We were in the Beatitudes at the time. The little first grader tried to sound out each word with lots of help. He read, "Blessed are the merciful for they shall . . ." and then without any help at all he finished, " . . . orbit Mercury!" We couldn’t help it; we all burst into laughter. And he joined us as we hugged and cheered his efforts. Surely to his young, imaginative eyes, "obtain mercy" looked like "orbit Mercury."

(M) Years later, as he studied this scripture as a missionary, we hope for a fleeting moment, his memory went back to the happy day his family read the Beatitudes and he was part of it.

(S) It’s not always easy to get the children in a mood to join the family in scripture reading. We would say: Keep it happy, keep it light. Serious times come soon enough.

(M) We’ve tried every way we could think of: early morning on Mom and Dad’s bed, or at supper with meatloaf and Moroni. Many times we read with friends joining in. We tried on Sundays, on Mondays, sometimes awake, sometimes not.

One picture is worth a thousand words. It is not a pretty, orderly sight; but you know, they were all there. Sometimes it took us a long time to finish one of the books because we discussed what we read, and sometimes our reading was short to match attention span. In fact, we remember saying goodbye to a missionary son and promising him we’d try to finish the Book of Mormon as a family by the time he returned.

(S) We’re sorry we weren’t perfect in our scripture reading. We wanted to be and we tried lots of ways to be perfect in it, but we did the best we could under the circumstances.

We believe that the first thing children should look to their parents for is to be taught correct principles. There are many other things for which children should look to their parents; we have chosen to highlight three. The first of these is the all-encompassing notion of example.

(M) As a parent you teach the gospel through the way you live. Let our example of integrity and love for gospel living be one that youth can follow, one they will want to follow.

Let our children feel safe as they look to our example. What a blessing when there is nothing amiss in the lives of parents; when language is kindly, intent pure. Let us treat our children with respect. Let us endeavor to keep the harsh and the coarse out of our language. Seeing the example of temple attendance will bless our children and it will bless us with peace and spiritual strengthening. Oh that our children could look to us as one who walks in faith.

I think of the example of my parents in my parenting and as I serve the Young Women of the Church. I’m grateful for their righteous lives, for their tireless devotion to gospel living, and I am grateful for their constant teaching and example of gospel principles.

As parents we can be an example of the positive effects of living with honesty and integrity in all we do. Even in the face of disappointment or betrayal by others—especially in those cases—we can look to gospel truths for hope. It is by holding to eternal truths that we can be an example of having hope for a brighter future.

(S) President Hinckley, in speaking of his father, said that "more religion is caught than is taught."5 What we are doing as parents is contagious. Let our example of integrity and love and gospel living be one that youth can follow, one they will want to follow. We cannot afford to be indifferent or wavering or weak. We must speak with a strong voice for that which is right, and we must do it in happy and appealing ways.

(M) Do our children know from our example and attitude that we value womanhood? Do your girls know that it is a privilege and a joy to be a woman, that it is a divine and priceless blessing from God? In a world where gender roles are questioned and even outdated in popular media, we believe in the teachings of God regarding our divine nature. Help your daughter know that she was feminine and female long before her physical body began to develop inside her mother. The spirit which gives life to her body is female. In other words, she is "all girl" from the inside out.

(S) Likewise, the spirit which gives life to a boy’s body is male. And he is all boy. Prophets teach in the Proclamation on the Family that "gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."6

I love what President Faust taught in a recent address to the young women of the Church. He said, "One of humankind’s greatest blessings is for righteous womanhood to hold ‘the highest place of honor in human life’ and to be ‘the perfect workmanship of God..’ . .

" . . . One of your unique, precious, and sublime gifts is your femininity, with its natural grace, goodness, and divinity. . . . One of your particular gifts is your feminine intuition. Do not limit yourselves. As you seek to know the will of Heavenly Father in your life and become more spiritual, you will be far more attractive, even irresistible."7

(M) We must help our young men and our young women to value and honor motherhood, to value family above all else. Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said it so well: "When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happens in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing."8

(S) The Proclamation is very clear about priorities for parents. Can we show our children that we are in tune with this teaching by our example? The Proclamation reads, "By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."9

(M) What better compliment can be given a father than was expressed by a small boy when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer: "Like my daddy." I know his daddy, and if he is like him it will bless his life forever. May it be the blessing of our children to find, in their parents, worthy examples.

(S) Let us keep in mind what Jean Paul Richter once said, "What a father [and may I add, a mother] says to [their] children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity."10

Let us turn from example and talk about work. Children need to look to their parents to be taught how to work. There is no substitute for learning how to work. It is one of the most important values that can be acquired in this life and should be taught early and taught in the family. Children need to know that they are part of the family engine and not part of the baggage. Our ancestors whose lives were lived in largely rural environments learned that work was a natural part of everyday life. For example, the pioneers would never have made it across the plains if the teenagers had ridden in the wagons.

Learning to work is more of a challenge in our modern society but it is no less important to the success of our children. As our boys were growing up we tried very hard to find work for them to do. They love to remind us that at times we were quite creative at it. They like to recall one Saturday morning as Margaret and I were leaving to go to an assignment and they were imagining a whole Saturday of unsupervised free time. A huge dump truck drove up to our home and dumped an enormous load of dirt on our driveway and pulled away. Their version of the story is that I gathered all of them around the huge pile of dirt and said, "Boys, we need to raise the level of the back yard by six inches. Please have this dirt hauled out there and spread around by the time your mother and I get back."

(M) How critical it is to learn to work. But it’s also important to have fun. Do you have fun with your family? Do you ever all get the giggles, including the parents, when you shouldn’t? What do you do for fun?

As I was reading the minutes from our Family Home Evenings during 1986, I noticed a definite pattern. We had a song, a prayer, paid allowances, praised each boy for something wonderful he had done (like a good spelling test, or making his bed, or something), timed them while they ran to do forgotten chores, had a short message, and then went down to the local college playing field and had a game of family soccer.

Every week! We must have liked soccer. The boys could choose what would be fun and it was always the same. I’d love to know what a family of girls or a mixture of sons and daughters would choose.

(S) We had an old boat, which we bought used with another family. One time we took it and the children (they were usually happy to come boating) and went out into the middle of a nearby lake.

(M) Steve turned off the engine, and as we floated there for a few minutes, no escape possible, we passed around the licorice, and then he said, "You know boys, there is something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about." And then he taught them. But it was short. Short lessons are the key in our family of active boys. How is it with girls in the family?

(S) You do what it takes to love, teach, have fun, work, and build unity in a family. But children must know to what source they may look . . . and parents are the scripturally mandated source!

"And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin. . . . But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another" (Mosiah 4:14–15).

To summarize our second major point, children need to know they can look to their parents to be teachers of true principles, to be steady examples of correct living, to teach the value of work, and to have fun.

Look to Their Leaders

(M) Now to our third point, children need to look to their leaders. We watched a small child who was in attendance at the opening of a children’s exhibit at the Museum of Church Art and History when along came President Howard W. Hunter in his wheelchair.

The prophet enjoyed the exhibit for a time and then began moving on. Just as he was leaving, the little boy looked up and recognized the President of the Church who was leaving. As the boy turned and ran after President Hunter we heard him say, "Follow the Prophet, Follow the Prophet!" What a blessing for our children to be able to look to a living prophet as a source of guidance in these latter days.

(S) President David O. McKay was the prophet of our youth. My, how we loved him! President Hinckley describes him as "a tall and handsome man, physically robust, he loved the contest, his mind was scintillating and his wit delightful. His was a buoyant personality, he was always encouraging, lifting up, seeing the bright side of things, and challenging others to move forward.

"On one occasion he submitted to a lengthy interview from an internationally renowned writer who had interviewed the great and famous of the world." President Hinckley reports that when the reporter came out of the President’s office after a long question-and-answer session he said to the secretary, "‘Today, for the first time in my life, I have talked with a prophet. I have spoken with a most remarkable man, who will stand out always in my mind as one who is preeminent among the many with whom I have spoken over the years and across the world. I have had an unusual and wonderful experience for which I am grateful.’11

(M) There are highlights which stand apart in a life as significant. One such moment in my life was a personal meeting with President McKay when I was in college. What a thrill it was when I received an invitation to meet with the President of the Church, along with a group of other young people.

I remember my great feelings of unpreparedness for such an interview, but I also remember thinking how marvelous it would be if I could sit close to him and receive his personal counsel to me.

I was determined to be spiritually prepared for this special visit. With a prayer in my heart, I read my scriptures all the way from Provo to Salt Lake City, typical of the "cramming" style of a college student. It must have worked because the meeting was wonderful. As we arrived at President McKay’s apartment at the Hotel Utah, several of the Apostles were leaving, and they stopped to greet us. Then I met the Prophet.

He invited us to sit with him on the couch, and he took my youthful hand in his large, warm prophet’s hand for the duration of the meeting. I will forever remember the great warmth and love I felt in his presence as he talked with us.

All too soon the visit ended and I realized that there had been no personal advice for any of us. In fact, the words of the meeting have left my memory, but priorities became very clear that day. I had heard the prophet teach principles from the pulpit many times, and on this day I understood in a very personal way that when the prophet speaks, he is speaking to me—and to you. Ever since then I have listened carefully when the prophet speaks because I know his words give sure guidance for our lives.

(S) It is a great blessing for our children to be able to look to a living prophet as a source of guidance in these latter days. Members of the Church sustain wholeheartedly the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets, seers, and revelators. We love to follow their counsel for we know that in so doing there is safety and peace.

The First Presidency speaks directly to our children in the wonderful booklet, For the Strength of Youth. Each sentence is powerful. We would like to share just some of their words:

"You can avoid the burden of guilt and sin and all of the attending heartache if you will but heed the standards provided you through the teachings of the Lord and His servants.

"We bear witness of the truth of these principles and promise you the blessings of the Lord as you keep the standards outlined in the scriptures and emphasized in this pamphlet. Among those blessings will be the constant and calming companionship of the Holy Ghost and the feelings of peace and happiness that you will experience.

(M) "We pray that you—the young and rising generation—will keep your bodies and minds clean, free from the contaminations of the world, that you will be fit and pure vessels to bear triumphantly the responsibilities of the kingdom of God in preparation for the second coming of our Savior."12Surely our children will be blessed if they will learn to look to the prophet as their leader.

There is something else that can be learned as children look to their leaders. We think the greatest blessing leaders can give to young people is a vision of who they are and what they can become.

(S) It is not by accident that young women worldwide are encouraged to stand each Sunday to recite the Young Women Theme which begins, "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father who loves us and we love Him."13 Each week young women are reminded who they are and the relationship they have with their Heavenly Father.

(M) The statement of Aaronic Priesthood Purposes provides a similarly strong vision to young men so that they too know clearly who they are and what is expected of them.

13. Let us tell you a quick story. I’ll relate it to you as it appeared in something I wrote last year.

"I can still see it in my mind’s eye. It was Sunday morning and there about twenty-five feet up in the top of the very large tree in our front yard was a big, strong, eighteen-year-old boy. He was wearing his Sunday clothes—white shirt, tie, nice pants.

"He was surrounded on nearby limbs by six or seven others in similar attire. Their most prominent features were the big grins they had on their faces. I have no idea what our nonmember neighbors thought. I suppose it looked like a flock of very strange birds had swooped out of the sky and landed in our tree. They were having just as much fun taking the fifteen rolls of toilet paper out of the tree as they undoubtedly had putting it in the trees the Saturday night before.

"This was not our first experience with that particular flock of priests. I had been the Young Men president and their quorum advisor for several years and had come to know them as an energetic, playful, and an altogether typical group of sixteen- to eighteen-year-old boys. Indeed, as I looked at the boy highest in the tree, I remembered a remark I had made to Margaret several years earlier—something about why didn’t this boy’s parents do a little better job with him? Of course, our own boys were then three and four years old, so we were in the best possible position to render an expert opinion on these matters. Now that Margaret and I had seven teenage sons of our own, you can only imagine how many times I have eaten those words.

"In 1997, nearly twenty-five years later, we saw that flock of priests again. One of them organized a reunion for us all, at general conference time. There was the former bishop and his wife, Margaret and I, and eighteen of the nicest Melchizedek Priesthood holders you have ever seen! They came from California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Louisiana. They were Scoutmasters, Bishops, and Elders Quorum Presidents, fathers, and husbands. They loved the gospel and they loved the Lord, and oh, how they loved their families.

"The boy highest in the tree? The ringleader? The one about whom I had said to Margaret: ‘I think he’s a nice-looking boy, honey, but I think he’s just a scatter-brained football player!’ Yes, he was there. I knew he would be. Three years before, I had visited a stake conference in Louisiana with the assignment to reorganize the stake presidency. I had been told about a wonderful young counselor in the stake presidency who would have made a great stake president had he not just moved. He had been a professor at the university, had a national reputation in his field, and had been recruited by other universities around the country. I asked his name. I asked it again. I said, ‘Naw, it couldn’t be,’ but it was! That big bird, the football player, had his Ph.D., was a nationally renowned scientist, and had served in a stake presidency. Oh yes, he was there with his wife and family. I threw my arms around him and he hugged me so hard it about broke my back. Gratefully, some things never change!

(M) "What a joyous reunion we had! It was a grand celebration. We celebrated Aaronic Priesthood boys becoming Melchizedek Priesthood men. We celebrated a bishop who never gave up. We celebrated parents who really had taught correct principles. We celebrated Leo, who had driven all night from California and parked his eighteen-wheeler the full length of our residential lot.

(S) "I don’t know how they did it. I didn’t help them. But that Saturday night as I sat on the stand in the Tabernacle looking out, there they all were, seated on the front row. I wondered where these ingenious boys had gotten tickets! What a special sight! Who could have imagined that that group of boys would one day all be seated together on the front row of the Tabernacle for a general priesthood meeting. That weekend we laughed together, we embraced, we cried, we hugged, we talked, we ate together, and prayed together.

"The morning after they left, we awoke still basking in the glow of such an experience. We walked out on our front porch and there on our little new trees that could hardly hold leaves, we saw that each had been delicately and loving adorned with one carefully placed strand of white toilet paper."14

(M) From that experience and others like it we have learned how important it is for leaders to believe in our youth and to share with them a vision of who they really are and the great contribution they can make as they become the future leaders of the Church.

There is another way that leaders can be looked to by our children. Leaders can be looked to as the cadre of caring adults. Let us explain it this way. We believe that a bishop could gather together all the adults in the ward—youthful adults, middle-aged adults, and senior adults. In such a gathering the bishop could say something like this:

(S) "Brothers and Sisters, we have gathered you all together, old and young alike, for a specific purpose. We have wonderful young people in our ward. They have great promise; we love them and we wish to see them realize all their God-given potential. But we need your help. We need to make up our collective minds—all of us together—that we are just not going to let these young people fail. We invite (not challenge) you to be a part of our ward cadre of caring adults. We invite you to smile at and call a teenager in our ward by name and inquire about his or her interests. We invite you to attend a choir concert, ball game, or dance recital, and be a visual support. We invite you to invite a young person to dinner, tell them about your job or your hobby or your glory days as a high school athlete. We invite you to hire them to work in your yard or in your house and talk to them while they do it. You grandmothers and grandfathers have wisdom and love to share. You young marrieds have enthusiasm and vitality to share. We want to try this for three months and see what happens. We hope you could do just one thing a week—one interaction in the hall at church, one visit in the neighborhood, one invitation to dinner. Together we can make a huge difference. Won’t you please accept this invitation to be part of our ward cadre of caring adults?"15

(M) Now, finally, the scriptural theme for our presentation is an excerpt from 2 Nephi 25:26 and reads "that our children may know to what source they may look." We have chosen to address that theme by speaking of looking to doctrine and principles, looking to parents, and looking to leaders. We conclude by returning to the theme and reminding us all of the most important source to which our children and each of us may look. The complete verse from which the theme is taken reads as follows:

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins" (2 Nephi 25:26).

Look to the Lord

(S) The ultimate success for our children, as well as a measure of our success as parents, will both depend on how well we teach them to look to the Lord. Nephi clearly understood this important instruction. That is why he repeated for emphasis, "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ."

Teaching children to look to the Lord ought to be foremost as we consider sacrament meeting programs, conduct Sunday School classes, and plan activities. But it turns out that the real "heavy lifting" for this task is not institutional. This concept is effectively illustrated by a study of Latter-day Saint young men done some years ago by the Church Evaluation Division. The study analyzed the behavior of young men in the Church—their attendance at meetings, their participation in priesthood assignments, their relationship with advisers, and so on. The conclusions of the study were extended to young women and reaffirmed, in general, in subsequent work done by BYU professors, Brent L. Top and Bruce Chadwick.

(M) The results are quite revealing. It turns out that the best predictors of missionary service for young men, and temple marriage for young women and young men, is private religious observance. It is not attendance at meetings. It is not participation in girls camp or super activities or stake athletic programs. Those things are important, but only if they bring the Spirit and strengthen testimonies. The number one predictor is private religious observance or, in other words, looking to the Lord on an individual basis. Private religious observance is what goes on in the home—personal prayer, family prayer, scripture reading, tithe paying, and Sabbath day observance.

It is in these simple private religious activities that our children really come to know the Lord, to know of His goodness and mercy and love.

(S) We believe that the object of our children’s religious experience ought to be to learn to love the Lord. It is so important that our zeal for teaching and training and requiring of our children not turn into resentment of the Church because of our awkwardness or heavy–handedness.

(M) I love the story my husband tells about a time in his teenage years when he was taught so well and helped ever so subtlety to love and not resent the Lord and His commandments. He and a friend, Richard Sharp, were shooting hoops on the driveway of Richard’s home one beautiful Sunday afternoon in Idaho Falls. Eventually President John Sharp, Richard’s father, drove up to the house, coming home from a meeting of the stake presidency. He leaned against the car and watched the boys playing. They eagerly coaxed him to come shoot a few baskets with them. His reply was simply, "Well, I don’t think so boys, I guess I’ll just watch you today." That was all. He didn’t berate them for not properly honoring the Sabbath Day. He didn’t shame them for not setting a good example as the son of a member of the stake presidency. He didn’t scold them for knowing better than they were behaving.

(S) He didn’t belittle the neighbor boy for leading his boy astray on the driveway with a basketball or any of the many other things he could have said. He just loved us both. We knew it. We felt it as he stood there and just watched and taught by his example. We felt no resentment. We did feel loved and understood.

(M) In time these very good boys came to understand what the example of that good and kind man had taught them. And they followed it. A few years later each boy served a mission, and it wasn’t many years later that each became a bishop at very young ages. Always with love for the Lord and His commandments foremost in their hearts, never with feelings of resentment.

(S) We are grateful to be blessed by the life and mission of our beloved Redeemer and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this morning of a new millennium, the Christian world unites in faith to commemorate 2000 years since the birth of our Savior, the Son of God. I think it truly remarkable that the world still remembers that little baby boy born in Bethlehem so long ago. He grew from boy to man. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man" (Luke 2:52).

(M) He lived a life that we still try to follow. He showed us the way. He performed miracles. He taught by parables. He taught truths we still try to live after two millennia, and the truths He

taught are the truths of Heaven. They are as true today as they were then.

He willingly suffered for our sins because He loved us so completely. Through His Atonement, He gave us the right to repent. And He gave His life that we might be resurrected and live again after death.

When our children know this for themselves, they will know the true Source to which they may look all the days of their lives. It is our prayer that as parents and leaders we can help our children discover and embrace this priceless eternal truth, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.