The following is a story given by Carlfred Broderick, as written in the book “My Parents Married on a Dare.” Brother Broderick has served as Stake President and spoken at Education week.
While I was serving as a stake president, the event occurred that I want to use as
the keynote to my remarks. I was sitting on the stand at a combined meeting of the stake Primary board and stake Young Women's board where they were jointly inducting from the Primary into the Young Women's organization the eleven-year-old girls who that year had made the big step. They had a lovely program. It was one of those fantastic, beautiful presentations—based on the Wizard of Oz, or a take-off on the Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy, an eleven-year-old girl, was coming down the yellow brick road together with the tin woodman, the cowardly lion, and the scarecrow. They were singing altered lyrics about the gospel. And Oz, which was one wall of the cultural hall, looked very much like the Los Angeles Temple. They really took off down that road. There were no weeds on that road; there were no munchkins; there were no misplaced tiles; there was no wicked witch of the west. That was one antiseptic yellow brick road, and it was very, very clear that once they got to Oz, they had it made. It was all sewed up. Following that beautiful presentation with all the snappy tunes and skipping and so on, came a sister who I swear was sent over from Hollywood central casting. (I do not
believe she was in my stake; I never saw her before in my life.) She looked as if she had come right off the cover of a fashion magazine—every hair in place—with a photogenic returned missionary husband who looked like he came out of central casting and two or three, or heaven knows how many, photogenic children, all of whom came out of central casting or Kleenex ads or whatever. She enthused over her temple marriage and how wonderful life was with her charming husband and her perfect children and that the young women too could look like her and have a husband like him and children like them if they would stick to the yellow brick road and live in Oz. It was a lovely, sort of tearjerking, event.
After the event was nearly over, the stake Primary president, who was conducting, made a grave strategic error. She turned to me and, pro forma, said, "President Broderick, isthere anything you would like to add to this lovely evening?" I said, "Yes, there is," and I don't think she has ever forgiven me. What I said was this,
"Girls, this has been a beautiful program. I commend the gospel with all of its auxiliaries
and the temple to you, but I do not want you to believe for one minute that if you keepall
the commandments and live as close to the Lord as you can and do everything right and fight off the entire priests quorum one by one and wait chastely for your missionary to return and pay your tithing and attend your meetings, accept calls from the bishop, and have a temple marriage, I do not want you to believe that bad things will not happen to you. And when that happens, I do not want you to say that God was not true. Or, to say, 'They promised me in Primary, they promised me when I was a Mia Maid, they promised me from the pulpit that if I were very, very good, I would be blessed. But the boy I want doesn't know I exist, or the missionary I've waited for and kept chaste so we both could go to the temple turned out to be a flake,' or far worse things than any of the above. Sad things—children who are sick or developmentally handicapped, husbands who are not faithful, illnesses that can cripple, or violence, betrayals, hurts, deaths, losses—when those things happen, do not say God is not keeping his promises to me. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain. It is resource in event of pain, and when that pain comes (and it will come because we came here on earth to have pain among other things), when it comes, rejoice that you have a resource to deal with your pain."
I don’t share this story to be a dooms-day predictor. In fact, there are many trials that we can avoid by living the gospel—trying our best to be honest, taking care of our bodies, striving for preparedness, and listening to the Holy Ghost can all help us avoid some of life’s problems. But, even with the gospel, none of us get through life without out some sorrow or pain, some of it quite severe. Our yellow brick roads have weeds. Sometimes, someone else has taken a jack hammer and ripped out a portion of our yellow bricks all together.
Today I’d like to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a resource in our lives when the inevitable happens.
Not speaking spiritually, but temporally, what comes to mind when I say “resource” or “natural resource?”
According to the dictionary a resource is “a source of supply, support, or aid, esp. one that can be readily drawn upon when needed.” The first thing that comes to my head is oil. We have heard so much about oil lately and the rising costs. Some of us have tried to limit our oil consumption. But when it comes down to it, we need oil as part of our modern lives and we are willing to pay high prices to get it. Eventually, we may switch to another resource. But, we always need some kind of resource for our lives to function.
I would like to ask each of you, have you ever had an experience in your life that allowed you to take one of the basic aspects of the gospel and use it as a resource. I will share one of my experiences while you think, and then I will ask if anyone would like to share.
Several years ago, my husband was a student and I worked at a doctor’s office. Our first son been born. For his program in school, Taylor was required to spend two months on an internship in a different state. We lived in Utah at the time and he elected to do his internship in Oklahoma while I stayed behind with Brayden.
I was not excited. I didn’t want to work and take care of Brayden by myself. Also, I had never lived by myself and was nervous about my safety. Before Taylor left, he gave me a blessing. In this blessing he told me that through the next two months, when trials arouse, I was to think of the scripture stories I knew and draw from their example.
I was raising a young child and wasn’t always the best at scripture study. But during this period of my life, the scriptures became a source of power and a resource to help me through those two months. And they were terrible months.
Ask if anyone would like to share.
President Uchtdorf in his talk “Have we not reason to Rejoice?” Shares one of his own “resource” experiences:
I remember a time when things didn’t look good for our family when I was a child. It was in the winter of 1944, one of the coldest during World War II. The war front was approaching our town, and my mother had to take us four children, leave all our possessions behind, and join the millions of fleeing refugees in a desperate search for a place to survive. Our father was still in the military, but he and Mother had agreed that if they were ever separated during the war, they would try to reunite at the hometown of my grandparents. They felt this place offered the greatest hope for shelter and safety.
With bombing raids during the night and air attacks during the day, it took us many days to reach my grandparents. My memories of those days are of darkness and coldness.
My father returned to us unharmed, but our future looked extremely bleak. We were living in the rubble of postwar Germany with a devastating feeling of hopelessness and darkness about our future.
In the middle of this despair, my family learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the healing message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. This message made all the difference; it lifted us above our daily misery. Life was still thorny and the circumstances still horrible, but the gospel brought light, hope, and joy into our lives. The plain and simple truths of the gospel warmed our hearts and enlightened our minds. They helped us look at ourselves and the world around us with different eyes and from an elevated viewpoint.
My dear brothers and sisters, aren’t the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and our membership in His Church great reasons to rejoice?
Please open your scriptures:
“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28-29).
“For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee” (3 Nephi 22:10).
“The lord knows how to succor his people” (Alma 7:12).
Because we have the capability and the resources, we are asked to Endure to the end. Sometimes it seems impossible, but with the help of the gospel, we can.
President Uchtdorf said:
“Enduring to the end, or remaining faithful to the laws and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout our life, is a fundamental requirement for salvation in the kingdom of God. This belief distinguishes Latter-day Saints from many other Christian denominations that teach that salvation is given to all who simply believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ. The Lord clearly declared, “If you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7).
What does Enduring to the End mean to you?
Enduring to the end is not just a matter of passively tolerating life’s difficult circumstances or “hanging in there.” Ours is an active religion, helping God’s children along the strait and narrow path to develop their full potential during this life and return to Him one day. Viewed from this perspective, enduring to the end is exalting and glorious, not grim and gloomy. This is a joyful religion, one of hope, strength, and deliverance. “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25).
Enduring to the end implies “patient continuance in well doing” (Romans 2:7), striving to keep the commandments (see 2 Nephi 31:10), and doing the works of righteousness (see D&C 59:23). It requires sacrifice and hard work. To endure to the end, we need to trust our Father in Heaven and make wise choices, including paying our tithes and offerings, honoring our temple covenants, and serving the Lord and one another willingly and faithfully in our Church callings and responsibilities. It means strength of character, selflessness, and humility; it means integrity and honesty to the Lord and our fellowmen. It means making our homes strong places of defense and a refuge against worldly evils; it means loving and honoring our spouses and children.
If there is time, add this story:
Carlfred Broderick, in a talk given at a BYU Women’s Conference, tells of an experience of covenant keeping he had while visiting a foreign country. He was asked by a mission president to talk to a sister missionary who was determined to return home after serving only six weeks. When they met, this sister defiantly insisted that no one was going to talk her out of going home. He asked why and she told him. She had grown up in a poor Mormon family in Idaho. She had been terribly abused in about every way there is to be abused. She had sufered much even though she herself was innocent. She made attempts to discuss her situation but no one listened. Finally, at age 14, a teacher did believe her. Her Bishop took her into his own home where she finished high school, went to college and then left on her mission. Her father, even then, had taunted her before she left saying, “Well, let me just tell you something, girl, and don’t you never forget it. They can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
That’s what she had decided. She was struggling on her mission with doubts about herself and felt that her father was right. She could finish high school, go to college and even go on a mission but that didn’t change what she had been taught she was- a sow’s ear. She was going home to throw herself away, to stop pretending she was someone she wasn’t.
Brother Broderick asked her, “Before you came on your mission, you went to the temple, didn’t you? You were anointed to become a queen, weren’t you, a princess in your Heavenly Father’s house? That’s no way to treat a princess. The Lord will not easily forgive you if you treat his daugher that way. You’re going to throw her away, a princess of our Heavely Father? Then what are you going to say to him when he says, ‘How have you handled the stewardship that I gave you of this glorious personage who lived with me, who is my daughter, who is a royal personage of dignity and of honor? I sent her down to the earth, and how have you brought her back to me?’
The sister stayed on her mission, and a few years later, Brother Broderick saw her in Provo. He asked her how she was doing. She answered, “I’m growing just as fast as I can.” Brother Broderick confirmed that her stewardship was to get that daughter home to Heavenly Father where she belonged. He concludes, “That’s the mystery of the kingdom, that’s the mystery of godliness--that we are our Father’s children.
This girls’s yellow brick road had been ripped out by someone else. Where was she supposed to skip? Yet, it was through the truths and love experienced by embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ that allowed her to start on her yellow path again.
Part of President Uchdorf’s testimony at the end of his talk:
“My dear brothers and sisters, there will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Church. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose. . .My dear friends, the Savior heals the broken heart and binds up your wounds (see Psalm 147:3). Whatever your challenges may be, wherever you live on this earth, your faithful membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the divine powers of the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless you to endure joyfully to the end.
Of this I bear witness with all my heart and mind in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.”
I would like to add my testimony. . .
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