{"id":2430,"date":"1998-01-20T09:57:36","date_gmt":"1998-01-20T16:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2021-07-08T16:27:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T22:27:47","slug":"be-honest-be-pure-be-humble","status":"publish","type":"speech","link":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/talks\/jack-h-goaslind\/be-honest-be-pure-be-humble\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Honest, Be Pure, Be Humble"},"content":{"rendered":"
My dear young brothers and sisters, it is wonderful to be on this campus. I recognize that it is both a rare privilege and an awesome responsibility to occupy this podium today. It is also a privilege to be a student at this institution. I honor your president and my brother in the Quorum of the Seventy, President Merrill Bateman. I\u2019m especially grateful for the confidence of those who have entrusted me to address you and pray that you might come away today with a message that will strengthen you. In section 50 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord reminds us that both \u201che that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together\u201d (verse 22). I pray that such will be the case today.<\/p>\n
I honor you for your willingness to take counsel from those of us who are older and are supposed to be wiser. I know that there is also great wisdom, experience, and tremendous potential among this group. I am not unaware of the generations that separate us. Most of you are the age of my children or grandchildren. I want you to know of my love and support for you and of my sincere appreciation for the good choices you are making. I know that it is not always easy to be young. And you must also understand that it is not always easy to be old.<\/p>\n
Together, however, we can work to make better homes, increase the love in our families, bring peace to our neighborhoods and communities, and make the world a better place for you, for your children, and for your grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Somewhere between your age and my age there is common ground that binds us together. And since truth knows no age nor generation, today I\u2019d like to focus on some truths that bless us and help us have happier, more productive lives in our homes, in the Church, and in our work.<\/p>\n
Your generation has grown up in the \u201cinformation age.\u201d You have at your fingertips vast stores of data. You can carry around on a CD-ROM an entire encyclopedia. The scriptures are contained\u2014along with a variety of commentary\u2014on a small magnetic disk. You can download from the Internet volumes of information of every kind. You can access information around the clock on cable, satellite, and digital TV channels. To the uninitiated, this is an overwhelming resource. The key in using this information to our advantage\u2014as in all things\u2014is to know how to manage it. Of all the stores and stores of information available on the topic of William Shakespeare, for example, what do you include in your report, how do you write it in an interesting and informative way, and how do you select the sources you\u2019ll quote? It seems to me that with the availability of that kind of information, there is a danger of either using too much or not using enough as we try to apply it to our lives.<\/p>\n
I want to talk to you today in a way that will give you enough information, yet not overwhelm you. I\u2019d like to begin by sharing with you an example of information that has been put in the format of a \u201cto do\u201d list. I think you\u2019ll recognize them.<\/p>\n
A few years ago Robert Fulghum became an overnight household word when he published his little guide All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.<\/i> His counsel was pretty sound\u2014even in the sophisticated world in which we live:<\/p>\n
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:<\/i>
\nShare everything.<\/i>
\nPlay fair.<\/i>
\nDon\u2019t hit people.<\/i>
\nPut things back where you found them.<\/i>
\nClean up your own mess.<\/i>
\nDon\u2019t take things that aren\u2019t yours.<\/i>
\nSay you\u2019re sorry when you hurt somebody.<\/i>
\nWash your hands before you eat. . . .<\/i>
\nWarm cookies and cold milk are good for you.<\/i>
\nLive a balanced life\u2014learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.<\/i>
\nTake a nap every afternoon.<\/i>
\nWhen you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.<\/i>
\nBe aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.<\/i>
\nGoldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup\u2014they all die. So do we.<\/i>
\nAnd then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned\u2014the biggest word of all\u2014LOOK.<\/i> [Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten<\/i> (New York: Villard Books, 1988), pp. 6\u20137]<\/p>\n
Mr. Fulghum\u2019s little list is concise and to the point. It gives us enough information to clearly see his wisdom and boils it down just enough to tell a wonderful story.<\/p>\n
For all the years that you and I have been alive, we have benefited from the foresight of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who sought to give a brief but concise summary of what it is the Latter-day Saint believes. We know his work to be the Articles of Faith, and they are dutifully memorized by almost every Primary child. I could call upon most of you to come forward and recite them, and it would not cause you any distress whatsoever. I will spare you that exercise, but I invite you to draw upon those time-tested and honored points of living belief.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Heavenly Father has shared with us a concise list of the Ten Commandments. It is not by any means an all-inclusive list, but it\u2019s sure a step toward exaltation to be able to say that your life conforms to them.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to continue by sharing with you today my own list. It is brief and contains a few principles that I think you can easily remember and that I think will ultimately add a great dimension to your lives. I sincerely doubt these principles will ever be published as \u201cThe Goaslind Guidelines\u201d or the \u201cThree B\u2019s\u201d or enjoy the popularity of any of the lists I\u2019ve shared with you thus far today, but I still stand by them and hope that you will find them useful as you think about how to go on from here.<\/p>\n
There are, in fact, three be\u2019s:<\/i> Be honest. Be pure. Be humble.<\/p>\n
Now I would not wish to imply that you can forget everything else and just focus on my list, but if you will make a diligent effort to include these elements in your daily life, I can almost surely promise you that you will find happiness\u2014and that much more rarified goal, joy.<\/p>\n
Examine with me for a few minutes these three broad categories of endeavor and see if together we can\u2019t make a meaningful effort at changing our lives.<\/p>\n
As children we grew up (in this country, at least) hearing about the honesty of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. \u201cI cannot tell a lie\u201d and \u201cHonesty is always the best policy\u201d still ring in my ears today. I expect they were taught to most of you as children. In Primary, and throughout our learning experiences in the gospel, we hear lessons on always telling the truth, not taking things that don\u2019t belong to us, and returning things we\u2019ve borrowed. A popular Homefront <\/i>series a few years ago depicted\u2014in operatic quality\u2014the story of a boy who broke a storeowner\u2019s window and could not lie about it. He confessed in song that he had broken the window and was ready to pay the penalty. Indeed, the ninth commandment, \u201cThou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour\u201d (Exodus 20:16), reminds us that God expects us to be honest.<\/p>\n
All of these are good and workable definitions of honesty. They are the foundation for helping us to define ourselves as \u201chonest.\u201d But as you and I both know, there is an honesty much deeper and perhaps much more important than the answer we give our mothers about whether we took out the garbage.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the honesty I\u2019m probing for today can be dealt with much better by asking ourselves a few questions like \u201cWho am I?\u201d \u201cWho have I become?\u201d or \u201cWho am I becoming?\u201d Shakespeare reminded us, \u201cTo thine own self be true\u201d (Hamlet,<\/i> 1.3.78), and even these 400 years later, that wisdom is good counsel.<\/p>\n
I love the wisdom shown by the young Joseph Smith when he related the experience of the First Vision. He said in his first-person account, \u201cI knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it\u201d (JS\u2014H 1:25). It\u2019s the honesty you show when no one else is around, or when there is no chance of getting caught, that makes all the difference in who we are and who we become.<\/p>\n
I love the Robert Frost poem \u201cStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.\u201d You\u2019ll remember it, I\u2019m sure. In it the old poet recalled youth and the opportunity to do something other than what he knew he should be doing. The final stanza records a young man\u2019s coming to terms with his own will to do what\u2019s right, even when it might not be observed by others:<\/p>\n
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
\nBut I have promises to keep,
\nAnd miles to go before I sleep,
\nAnd miles to go before I sleep.<\/i>
\n[Robert Frost, \u201cStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening\u201d (1923), st. 4]<\/p>\n
The story of a young man\u2019s wrestle 30 years ago with whether to be honest helps to illustrate the point further. Brother Warren Johnson related this poignant experience in a June 1989 Ensign<\/i> article:<\/p>\n
My friend Bob had to do a lot of persuading in order to get another Marine to loan him his new camera to take to a servicemen\u2019s conference in Japan. But Bob assured him that he would take good care of it, and the Marine consented.<\/i><\/p>\n
We were stationed in Vietnam at the height of the war. For months the Latter-day Saints in our battalion had looked forward to this conference, and Bob wanted to take the camera along.<\/i><\/p>\n
Our departure from Vietnam was hectic, with lots of red tape and much confusion. Two of the men in our small group could travel only if space was available, and we were all grateful for the two extra seats on the huge jet bound for Japan. The Spirit was mindful of us! At last we were on our way.<\/i><\/p>\n
For three days we attended meetings, talent shows, dances, and other social activities at the conference, held at beautiful Mount Fuji. After months of exposure to the ugliness of war, we enjoyed the kindness of the members and appreciated the spiritual uplift of hearing a General Authority speak. Battle-hardened men shed tears in some of the meetings because of the great joy they felt in the fellowship of other Saints.<\/i><\/p>\n
As we neared the end of one of our last meetings, Bob quietly excused himself to return to the hotel and get the camera, which he had left in the room we had shared.<\/i><\/p>\n
When he returned, we could tell by his expression that something was very wrong. He said that he couldn\u2019t find the camera. I reassured him that it had to be in our room and told him to look again.<\/i><\/p>\n
He was even more visibly upset when he returned the second time. He knew where he had left the camera in the room, and he knew that it was gone. Locks to hotel room doors were not common then, and both of us realized the possibility of someone entering our room and taking the camera. We knew what a burden it would be to try to replace it on his corporal\u2019s pay, especially with a wife and two small children to provide for. Our elation of the three previous days was gone, and our good feelings were replaced with regret and misgivings.<\/i><\/p>\n
Bob said that he would pray about the matter and ask the kindly hotel manager if he had noticed anyone carrying that particular kind of camera.<\/i><\/p>\n
The meeting was over when Bob returned again, this time smiling, with the camera in his hand. He related what the hotel manager, in his halting English, had told him he had seen: an American had come downstairs into the lobby carrying the camera. He had then sat down and looked at it for a long time, as if he were contemplating something or wrestling with himself. Suddenly he had stood up, placed the camera where the manager could retrieve it, and departed.<\/i><\/p>\n
Since the only Americans in the hotel at the time were those attending the conference, the manager assumed the man was one of our group.<\/i><\/p>\n