On the eve of the dedication of the Rome Italy Temple, President Russell M. Nelson offered the youth of the temple district 10 thoughts — the first five pertaining to “things I want you to know,” and the second five pertaining to “things I want you to do.”
“I have learned a lot of things in my life,” he said. “Years in medicine, years in the development of heart surgery. Nothing do I know more than I know that God is our Father and His beloved Son Jesus Christ is our Savior.”
Speaking during the Rome temple youth devotional, President Nelson told a capacity congregation gathered in the Church’s stake center located adjacent to the temple, that he wants them to know the Savior, too.
Prepare for marriage. “Prepare continually to be a wife or a husband. Prepare now to be a mother or a father.” If marriage doesn’t come immediately, “increase your education, your experience and your emulation of the Lord so you become more desirable with each passing year.”
Prepare and pursue your education. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “education is a religious responsibility.”
Feast on the words of the Lord. “It doesn’t matter what your career is or what your circumstances may be…. If you will read the scriptures daily, you will have spiritual life insurance.” Pray about all of your matters. “Constantly consult the Lord.”
Pay your tithing. “You learn to pay your tithing when you are young.”
Honor your parents. “Learn from them. Learn from your grandparents.”
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
"Any over-ritualized religion since the dawn of time can make its priests say yes, we know, it is rotten, and hard luck, but just do as we say, keep at the ritual, stick it out, give us your money and you'll end up with the angels in heaven for evermore."
Is there a better thing for the young women of the church than to aspire to be a uterus for the Lord? There is joy in the morning and all throughout the day when one is happily engaged in bringing more dupes children into the world for the Lord. And don't forget, the Lord is pleased when his bank accounts and investments are overflowing and his holy real estate is upscale, in the finest of neighborhoods.
Mormon Jesus wants us to show him the money
"Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology." - Kishkumen
