Compilation - High Fives and High Hopes. Favorite Talks from Especially for Youth

Have you ever driven in the fog? Isnt that an interesting challenge? How do you stay on the road in the fog? In some states you have helpyou have some bumps on the side of the road. When you hit those bumps, you know its time to go the other direction. Some other states dont have any bumps. Oh, they do, but not in the right placestheyre all in the middle of the road and everywhere else.

When driving through snow and fog, what can keep us on the road? The wonderful little white lines. Our lives are a little like driving in the fog. Lehi, sharing a representation of life, said that a mist of darkness comes over us and we need to get through it somehow. Driving along through the fog of life, we learn line upon line. Scriptures, commandments, parents, bishops, and the living prophets all help us learn line upon line.

What about those times when the fog gets really dense and we can see only a few lines ahead? Have you ever been in that much fog? Once I learned a lesson about that while driving to the airport. I was in a hurry. The fog was so dense that the fastest I could go was twenty miles an hour. All of a sudden a huge semi truck went by with its fog lights on. I quickly found that I could go a lot faster following him than I could just traveling on my own. So, I pulled in behind the truck and was able to go forty-five and fiftyjust roaring along. My only problem was that I was going to end up wherever he was going.

My mom was driving through the fog one night, going to a study group. She and her friends decided they would follow someone who knew the way because they couldnt find their way through the fog. Twelve cars were following the lead car. The leader pulled up to a stop sign and turned right. There was another car just like his that was stopped, and it went straight. All twelve cars ended up following the wrong car. As they pulled through the intersection, the driver of the lead car looked in his rear-view mirror and saw twelve cars following him. He pulled into his subdivision, and all the cars turned and followed him. He must have watched too much television, because he decided that the Mafia was after him! He drove around just as fast as he could trying to lose those cars. He sped up, and the twelve cars behind him sped up. They went all around the subdivision until finally the lead driver saw a house with its lights on. Gambling that the people might be home, he decided to run in and call the police. He pulled up next to the house, ran up to the porch, and started to beat on the door. Nobody was homethats why they had all the lights on. He was standing there, pounding on the door, and all he could hear was all the cars stopping and footsteps coming through the fog. My mom was one of the first ones through the fog, and she heard him say, No, no, please dont kill me. She came home laughing. They never did make it to the study group.

In our lives, there is someone with spiritual fog lights on. He can see clearly enough to give us exact, careful direction, and we can then understand things we wouldnt know on our own. He is the living Prophet.

Our prophets see far enough ahead that they remind us to lengthen our stride and quicken our pace. We have so many things to do. I picture the Prophet driving a spiritual Porsche. He travels at about two hundred miles an hour down the freeway of life. He then turns to us and says, Lengthen your stride! Quicken your pace! And were standing on our skateboards or tricycles saying, Well, Im trying. Im trying. We need to follow his tail lights, if you will, and, seeing his example, give everything we have to try to stay up with him. If we do this, we are going to be ready for the challenges of life. If we dont, were not. I have strong feelings about the importance of active obedience.

Is it easy to follow a prophet? Has it ever been easy to follow a prophet? I think we need to consider this, because many times in history following a prophet has been a challenge.

Lets look at an example out of those beautiful books, the scriptures. Once there was a great young man named Gideon. He was probably about your age. The Lord called him to be the Prophet of Israel. He said, Me? The Prophet? The Lord assured him that he had great potential. So Gideon worked to strengthen his testimony. He worked to get his own confirmation. Then he received his first assignment. The Lord asked him to go out to a grove, chop down all the trees, and burn down all the idols there. Any of you who have read the Old Testament know that people used to do awful things with these idols in the groves. They had an idol called Moloch and one called Baal. Baal worship included torture and immorality. Moloch was a metal image that would be stoked up until it was red hot like a furnace. The people would sacrifice their little children to Moloch. So, the Lord sent this young man to cleanse the groves. The scriptures say that he took ten of his friends and did as the Lord had commanded. I think that was probably one of the best young adult parties they ever had. They had a big fire and maybe even a cook-out.

The next day, the people from the city went out to worship the idols, but they couldnt do it any morewhich I am so thankful for. A knock came on Gideons door, and Gideons dad answered it. There stood the people from town, saying, Bring Gideon out here. Gideons dad said, Why do you want Gideon?

He destroyed our god last night.

Gideons father just looked at them and said, He did what? My boy? I didnt know he had that kind of power. You have always told me your god was all powerful. Isnt that right?

Yes. Thats right. Baal is all powerful.

The father said, You dont have to punish Gideon. If he destroyed Baal, certainly Baal will come and get my son.

They said, Okay. Baal on your son, and away they went.

Gideons father walked back into the house and said something like, Put her there, Gideon. Give me five. All right! Things seemed okay. Baal didnt seem to be doing anything, and Gideon was fine.

Soon, however, the massive army of the Midianites would come over the mountains to destroy Israel. But the Israelites had a prophet they could follow. Gideon was called to lead them, and this was going to be a big challenge for them. This was really the first time they had ever followed Gideon.

Gideon gathered the biggest army he could32,000 soldiers to fight an army of 135,000. That is a big army! Imagine that we are Gideons army and that tomorrow were going over the mountains to fight. There are 135,000 of the Midianites, and there are only 32,000 of usare you ready? The odds are just four to onecan you handle that?

Gideon said to the Israelites, We need to go defend our families. Then Gideon received a message from the Lord: Gideon, you have too many soldiers. Its a good thing the Lord didnt tell