{"id":2763,"date":"1995-03-14T11:20:01","date_gmt":"1995-03-14T18:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/?p=2763"},"modified":"2021-03-15T10:47:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T16:47:56","slug":"steer-steady-course","status":"publish","type":"speech","link":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/talks\/w-eugene-hansen\/steer-steady-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Steer a Steady Course"},"content":{"rendered":"
It hardly seems possible, but this June it will be forty-five years since I walked across the podium at Utah State\u2014then the Agricultural College, now a university\u2014and took my place beside approximately two thousand others. It was the largest graduating class in our history as many of those who had served their country during the Great War were also finishing their degrees.<\/p>\n
Many of the graduates were concerned about being able to find jobs, with such large numbers flooding the market. But then as now, things work out if approached with preparation, faith, and a will to work.<\/p>\n
I trust you are genuinely enjoying your experience here. Since I realize what it takes to meet the admission requirements, I know I\u2019m with a group with impressive credentials. I commend you for your preparation and for your accomplishments to this point. You notice I say\u00a0to this point,\u00a0<\/i>and I do so advisedly because, as we know, life is a continual growing experience.<\/p>\n
We read in Ecclesiastes, \u201cThe race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong\u201d (Ecclesiastes 9:11); and in Matthew, \u201cBut he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved\u201d (Matthew 24:13).<\/p>\n
Well, I don\u2019t think any of us feel we \u201chave it made,\u201d so to speak. If you are like most, you will have many happy and wonderful times. But you will also have temptations, discouragements, and disappointments. You will have challenges, sometimes to a degree you may not feel you\u2019re quite up to. But you will find that you are\u2014unless, of course, you are trying to do something that is not right or that just isn\u2019t feasible for you to do.<\/p>\n
So my counsel to you is to steer a steady course, as many a brave sea captain has prescribed when storms and rough seas are encountered and the fainthearted become anxious to turn back. By adopting this resolve you will not be distracted when the winds of temptation or adversity come upon you and threaten to blow you off course or tempt you to turn back.<\/p>\n
We read in Proverbs:<\/p>\n
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.<\/i><\/p>\n
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.\u00a0<\/i>[Proverbs 3:5\u20136]<\/p>\n
This, I would say, has been the key to the success and happiness I have had in my life. I feel I was blessed early on with a deep and abiding faith in the Lord. As far back as I can remember, I have known that he was there and that he loves his children. He stands ready to help us.<\/p>\n
As a young married couple, my wife and I felt that trust and direction as we pled for the life of our firstborn, who lay in a coma with serious head injuries following an automobile-bicycle accident. Physicians later shook their heads when that young boy indeed recovered after having been diagnosed as having fatal injuries. We knew we had witnessed a miracle. You can imagine the joy that Sister Hansen and I felt earlier this year when I was able to ordain that boy\u2014now a man\u2014as a bishop.<\/p>\n
That trust and promise again stood the test when two of our five sons were called home to live with Heavenly Father\u2014one as the result of a mid afternoon automobile accident while on his way to a state debate meet, the other some twelve years after he contracted multiple sclerosis during the eighteenth month of his mission in Sweden. Throughout those difficult times, we unquestionably received the strength and direction to see us through.<\/p>\n
I love my Heavenly Father. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love his gospel, and I will be ever grateful for the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.<\/i><\/p>\n
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.\u00a0<\/i>[Proverbs 3:5\u20136]<\/p>\n
As I think back on my college experience, I remember an inscription above the main library desk at Utah State. Each time I stood there my attention would focus on some other words taken from Proverbs.<\/p>\n
Here I must confess that even though I stood there quite often, it wasn\u2019t always to check out a book. But I did have valid business there. You see, a certain striking coed from Idaho spent several hours a day on the other side of the desk working her way through college.<\/p>\n
I felt a responsibility to look after her since she was a freshman and I was an upperclassman. She, of course, needed the attention, guidance, and tutoring that only an upperclassman could provide.<\/p>\n
Often as I waited nonchalantly for Jeanine to appear, I pondered the statement \u201cAnd with all thy getting get understanding\u201d (Proverbs 4:7). I believe it was Elder Sterling W. Sill who later modified that somewhat to read, \u201cAnd with all thy getting, get going.\u201d I tried to follow both admonitions, and I commend them to you.<\/p>\n
Over the years we have had a great relationship with BYU. In fact, while here I need to check on some property that we assumed\u2014back in October 1948\u2014was merely going to be here occasionally. However, it has been in Logan for only three of the last twenty years. I am referring to the old wagon wheel that we jointly selected back in 1948 as the symbol of football supremacy between the two schools. It has been here so long that we haven\u2019t been able to inspect it. (It must be that training we gave LaVell up in Logan before he signed on down here.)<\/p>\n
Well, since the three wheels that match it are on the Hansen family farm in East Garland, up in northern Utah, and since we may need to borrow the wheel long enough to move the old wagon that it came from in out of the weather, I received instructions from my ninety-year-old father to check it out while I\u2019m here. We just want to make sure you have been taking good care of it and that it\u2019s still sound.<\/p>\n
It was while I was a junior at Utah State that the two chapters of Blue Key inaugurated the traditional exchange of the old wagon wheel. So now the next time you see it you\u2019ll know where it came from.<\/p>\n
We are living in a wonderful era of time. We may not always realize it since there are so many challenges and problems in the world today, but as Latter-day Saints we know what a great blessing it is to have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth. This is the period the Lord has designated as the last dispensation of the fullness of times.<\/p>\n
The apostle Paul, in an epistle to the Ephesians, foretold this era. He wrote:<\/p>\n
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.\u00a0<\/i>[Ephesians 1:10]<\/p>\n
The Prophet Joseph indicated that in this dispensation there would be marvelous things revealed, and indeed there have been.<\/p>\n
The message of a beloved latter-day prophet, President Howard W. Hunter, reminds us of a very important blessing of this dispensation: the blessing of temples and the sealing power. This makes possible the opportunity to partake of the greatest of all the gifts of God, the gift of eternal life and exaltation. With this blessing comes eternal marriage and the opportunity to be together as families for the eternities.<\/p>\n
As we speak of temples, let us not take lightly President Hunter\u2019s charge to make the holy temples the supernal setting of our most sacred covenants, to become worthy or maintain our worthiness to hold a temple recommend, and to attend the temple as often as time and circumstances permit.<\/p>\n
The significance of this charge becomes more meaningful when we realize that as of 1982 there were twenty operating temples in the Church. Now, a little more than a decade later, we have forty-seven operating temples. Thirteen more have been announced by the First Presidency.<\/p>\n