“As You Counsel Young People,” Teaching Seminary: Preservice Readings (2004), 30
“As You Counsel Young People,” Teaching Seminary, 30
As You Counsel Young People
Excerpt from Pathways to Perfection: Discourses of Thomas S. Monson (1973), 92–93
As you counsel young people, you must be in the frame of mind to be receptive to the Spirit of the Lord if you are to help them in their decision making. There are no small decisions in the life of a young person. Remember that the power to lead is also the power to mislead; and the power to mislead is the power to destroy. You have the power to destroy the souls of the young men and women under your charge. Conversely, you have the power to lift them closer to God as you live righteously and as your teaching reflects that righteous life.
I bear testimony to you today that as you listen attentively, as you evaluate carefully, as you counsel wisely, as you pray fervently, as you live righteously, you will be the counselor our Heavenly Father would have bless the lives of his precious youth. Provide that word of encouragement, that interview with the bishop, that example to follow which will bring young people upward and onward toward the celestial kingdom of God. You are indeed shepherds watching over Israel, and you must not be found sleeping when your services are needed.