A word to the wise for precious youth

Sir

This is my personal advice to the youth. You are precious behind measure. I have seen you in dozens of countries and on every continent. You are much better than we were when young. You know more about the Gospel. You are more mature and more faithful.

I am now 90 years old. You may wonder what I can contribute to your lives at my age.

I have been where you are and I know where you are going. But you have not been where I am. With all that is going on in the world; with the lowering of moral standards; you young people are being raised in enemy territory.

We know from the scripture that there was a war in heaven and that Lucifer rebelled and ‘was cast out into the earth’ with his followers. He is determined to disrupt our Heavenly Father’s plan and seeks to control the minds and actions of all. This influence is spiritual, but despite the opposition, trials and temptations fear not.

Youth

Today, there are wars and rumours of wars and the whole world is in commotion, but you our youth may feel uncertainty and insecurity. I want to counsel, teach and warn you about things to do and not to do.

God has a great plan for your happiness. The family is the centre of the plan. The family depends on the worthy use of those life-giving powers that are in your body.

In ‘The Family: A proclamation to the World’, a 1995 statement issued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which defined the official position of the church on family, marriage, gender roles, and human sexuality, we learn that in the premarital existence, all human beings male and female were created in the image of God.

Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents and as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic ‘and was established in that premarital existence’.

We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

The great penalty Lucifer and his followers brought upon themselves was that they were to be denied a mortal body.

Many of the temptations you face, certainly the most seriously ones relate to your body, you don’t only have power to create bodies for a new generation, but you also have agency.

Power

Every living soul who has a physical body has power over the adversary. You suffer temptations because of your physical nature. But you also have power over Him and His angels.

It is not expected that you go through life without making mistakes, but you will not make major mistakes without first being warned by the promptings of the spirit. This promise applies to all members of the church.

To those who have made critically serious mistakes, now is the time to remind you of the atonement, repentance and complete forgiveness to the point that you can become pure again. The Lord said: “Behold, He who has repented of his sins, he is forgiven. And I the Lord remember them no more”.

If the adversary should take you prisoner due to misconduct, I remind you that you hold the key that will unlock the prison door from the inside. You can be washed clean through the atoning sacrifices of the saviour Jesus Christ.

Repentance

You may in time of trouble think that you are not worth saving because you have made mistakes, but that is never true. Only repentance can heal what hurts, no matter what it is.

If you are dipping into things that you should not slip into or if you are associating with people who are pulling you in the wrong direction, this is the time to asset your independences, your agency, listen to the voice of the spirit and you will not fall astray.

Dress modestly, talk reverently, listen to uplifting music. Avoid all immorality and personally disgracing practices.

Take hold of your life and order yourself to be valiant because we depend so much on you, you will be remarkably blessed. You are never far from the sight of your loving Heavenly Father.

If you will follow these principles, you will be watched over and protected and you yourself will know by the promptings of the Holy Ghost which way to go.

By the power of the Holy Ghost you may know the truth of all things ‘I promise you that if will be so and invoke a blessing upon you, our precious youth’.

Sipho Jackal Magagula Plaza Total, Pigg’s Peak