President Hinckley Speaks to Young Adults, Civic Groups

President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke during September and August at events ranging from a Church Educational System Young Single Adult fireside broadcast to stake centers throughout the United States and Canada to the convention of an international community service organization.

He encouraged young people attending the 9 September fireside to be faithful and optimistic. “I am suggesting that as we go through life that we try to ‘accentuate the positive,’” President Hinckley said, asking “that you turn from the negativism that so permeates our modern society and look for the remarkable good among those with whom you associate, that we speak of one another’s virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults. …

“No matter the circumstances, I encourage you to go forward with faith and prayer, calling on the Lord. You may not receive any direct revelation, but you will discover, as the years pass, that there has been a subtle guiding of your footsteps in paths of progress and great purpose.”

Speaking to the opening session of the International City/County Management Association’s convention on 23 September, President Hinckley said that many of modern society’s problems arise out of deficiencies in the home. “You are altogether too familiar with many of these problems—crime, pornography, drugs, fatherless homes, the whole litany of ills which have been tearing us apart,” he said. “If there is to be a reformation, if there is to be a change, if there is to be a return to old and sacred values, it must begin in the home.”

“The health of any society, the happiness of its people, their prosperity and their peace, all find their roots in the teaching of children by fathers and mothers.”

He outlined 10 practices that could strengthen all families and societies: (1) Accept responsibility for our role as parents and fulfill our obligations to our children. (2) Get married and stay married. (3) Put father back at the head of the home. (4) Recognize and value the supreme importance of mothers. (5) Celebrate and treat children as our most priceless treasures. (6) Discipline and train children with love. (7) Teach values to children. (8) Teach children to work. (9) Read to and with children. (10) Pray together.

Earlier, in August, President Hinckley had pledged a matching grant of $100,000 to Rotary International in its efforts to take the polio vaccine to remote areas of the world. He made the pledge on behalf of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Foundation. Rotary International is one of the globe’s oldest service organizations, with 30,000 chapters worldwide.

President Hinckley spoke at the Rotary International convention held 31 August in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. He congratulated Rotary International on its work in combating polio and added the hope that “you will never rest until this dread disease is totally eradicated. When that happens, it will mark the completion of a great miracle and a wondrous gift to the human family.”