Our Modern Day Commandments

The talks in Sacrament Meeting yesterday were on prophets and they were excellent. One lady who gave her talk read through the last year of Ensign's and wrote down all the things President Monson has asked us to do. I asked her if I could get her "list" and she emailed them to me. I wanted to share. It was interesting to note that often after he asks us to do something, he mentions a blessing associated with that commandment...

Some of the things he has asked us to do include:

Every worthy able, young man should prepare to serve a mission.

Mature couples – we need many, many more senior couples. To those of you who are not yet to the season of life when you might serve a couples mission, I urge you to prepare now for the day when you might serve a mission.

If you are able, consider making a contribution to the General Missionary Fund of the Church.

Pray.

Make a decision right now not to deviate from the path that will lead to eternal life. That path includes: missionary service, temple marriage, church activity, scripture study, prayer, and temple work.

Stay away from pornography, alcohol and drugs.

Repent and correct your mistakes.

Constantly nourish your testimony of the gospel – it will be a protection to you against Satan.

Pray, study the words of our Heavenly Father, obey his commandments. Therein is found safety; therein is found peace.

Judge not. Mother Teresa: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

Love one another. Have patience with those who have let us down. Resist the impulse to be easily offended.

Be faithful in attending the temple. Some degree of sacrifice has ever been associated with attending the temple. But the saving ordinances received in the temple that permit us to someday return to our Heavenly Father in an eternal relationship are worth every sacrifice and every effort. If you live in close proximity to a temple, your sacrifice could be setting aside the time in your busy lives to visit the temple regularly.

If you don’t have a temple recommend, there is no more important work for you to work toward than being worthy to go to the temple. The all-important and crowning blessing of membership in the Church are those blessings which we receive in the temples of God.

To parents of young children, he repeats some advice from President Kimball: It would be a fine thing if parents would have in every bedroom in their house a picture of the temple so their children from the time they are infants could look at the picture every day until it becomes a part of their lives. When they reach the age that they need to make the very important decision concerning going to the temple, it will have already been made.

Parents, I plead with you to teach your children of the importance of the temple. As we go to the temple, and as we remember the covenants we make there, we will be more able to bear every trial and to overcome each temptation. We will find peace and we will be renewed and fortified.

Care for one another.

Pay tithes and offerings.

Be good citizens and good neighbors in our communities. Reach out to other faiths.

Be examples of honesty and integrity wherever we go.

Attend church.

When you are married, be fiercely loyal one to another. Being happily and successfully married is generally not so much a matter of marrying the right person as it is being the right person. The conscious effort to do one’s part fully is the greatest element contributing to success.

If any of you are having difficulty in your marriage, I urge you to do all that you can to make whatever repairs are necessary. Do not let your marriage get to the point where it is in jeopardy.

As important as it is to follow past prophet's counsel, it is more important to follow our modern day prophet's counsel.