This post focuses on a Brigham Young University (BYU) Devotional in January 1983, and it is called "Looking to the Future" by Elder Robert L. Backman. This post is part one, and I hope you will be able to learn something new while you are reading through this post.
"... I sense faith and good works in you and face the future with keen anticipation as I contemplate your devotion to righteousness and your desire to serve the Lord and your fellowmen. ... And I pray that you are looking forward to the future with the assurance and serenity that God will guide you through this life and back to his presence if you will keep his commandments.
Looking at you, I know that the future is safe. I would like to speak to you about the future and something of your role in it. ...
Opening and Closing Doors
... If our past has been triumphant and successful, well and good. We should enjoy it and hark back to it occasionally for warm memories. But we cannot live in it. We cannot rest on the laurels of our past accomplishments.
... Growth is a ruling law of life. Unless we grow, we begin to die, and one of the best ways to grow is to close the books on our past accomplishments and go forth and do something else. ... It is possible for us to open and to close the doors of our lives whenever we choose.
Sometimes we procrastinate the closing and opening of our doors. Habits we would like to break, new projects we would like to embark on, great things we say we are going to do someday. But that someday will never come unless we choose to close the door on old past patterns that are not working for us and open the door on new opportunities.
... New doors can be opened any time we choose, and old ones can be closed even today. What better time to open new doors than at the beginning of a new year to begin today to be the person you want to be to surpass yourself, to live life more abundantly as God would have you do? The future is beyond our grasp unless we take advantage of today.
New Frontiers
The future? There are those who claim there will be no future, that there are no new frontiers to conquer, that the world is doomed, that mankind will be annihilated. In the words of the great industrialist, Charles Kettering, “We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there” (Seed for Thought, 1949).
... Lincoln Steffens reminded us: I teach my child and I tell other children of all ages pre-school, in school, in college, and out: That nothing is done, finally and right. That nothing is known, positively and completely. That the world is theirs, all of it. It is full of all sorts of things for them to find out and do, or do over and do right. ...
That there is not now and never has been a perfectly run railroad, school, newspaper, bank, theater, factory, grocery store; that no business is or ever has been built, managed, financed, as it should be, must be and will be, someday possibly in their day.
... [Young people] are glad, as I am, that there is something left for them to discover and say and think and do. Something? There is everything. [Lincoln Steffens, “Unfinished Business,” Reader’s Digest, January 1937, pp. 1–2]
... We are living in the most exciting, explosive, dynamic, dramatic dispensation in the history of the world! What a time to be preparing for life! I envy all of you the years ahead of you and pray you will be ready for these rich adventures.
Please remember, however, that the future is beyond our grasp unless we take advantage of today, opening new doors to growth and accomplishment.
Gospel Brings Great Opportunities
... The Lord gave all of us who are members of his Church an awesome commission as we prepare for life: And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;
Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms -
That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you. [D&C 88:77–80; emphasis added] Note his words “that ye may be prepared in all things”!
The trouble with most of us is that we so underestimate our ability and our potential that we go through life without ever sensing what we could have accomplished. We never get our deck chairs unfolded. Henry Ford added: “One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.
Most of the bars we beat against are in ourselves - we put them there, and we can take them down” (quoted by Earl Nightingale, “Your Job,” Success Unlimited, June 1980, p. 41). None of you knows what life has in store. ... I am grateful that I could always count on the Lord’s guidance in what I did in my life.
None of us knows life’s length; none of us knows its breadth, what experiences lie ahead, even where we will live. Some of you don’t yet know whom or if you will even marry. Looking back on my own life, I marvel at the rich adventures I have enjoyed, much of it unanticipated and unexpected. Believe me, if I had my choice, I would not have programmed some of those experiences.
... And yet, my young brothers and sisters, looking back, I count that chapter in my life as one of the most character building in all my years. I gained a real appreciation for my wife and family during that separation. I developed a deep love for my country and my home in the mountains.
... I learned to take advantage of every day, living it the best I could, grateful I was alive. I came to the realization of my absolute dependence on my loving Father in Heaven and counted on his inspiration, guidance, and consolation. I recognized what a sublime gift my Savior had given me through his living ministry, his death, and his resurrection.
I was grateful for the guidance that the gospel gave me and understanding of the purpose of life. ... I am grateful I could always count on the Lord’s guidance and the assurance that all of those experiences, good or bad, have been to prepare me to return to his presence.
... My challenge to you is to prepare for life by seizing the opportunities you enjoy right now, making the most of every experience that comes your way. The Lord has reminded us that if we are prepared we shall not fear."
Stay Tuned until next time.
