Sunday Night Post - "Fear Not..."

My post for tonight is a reference to the commencement speech given by Elder David A. Bednar given at BYU Hawaii in December. (Oh how pitiful it must be to have to go to BYU in Hawaii.)

When I went to Ricks College (now BYU Idaho), I didn't always attend the devotionals. Needless to say, I regret that now. However, I quite often go online and read them now. (Some of us grow up and mature much later than others.)

 I can't write anything about the Sandy Hook school shooting. I'll never get over it. I've never been able to get over the Columbine shooting. Or the Amish school shooting. My mind and my heart cannot fathom it.

I can only turn to my faith.

Here is an excerpt from "Fear Not, I Am With Thee", the commencement speech referred to above.


"Stonewall Jackson was a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Many military historians consider General Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in U.S. history. As a young man he fought in the Mexican American war, and during the Civil War he served with General Robert E. Lee and commanded confederate troops in a number of key battles with Union forces. 

"Once as General Jackson was discussing strategic options with his associates, a commander began his recommendation with the statement, “I fear we will not find our wagons tonight.” 

"Stonewall responded to the words, “I fear,” in his colleague’s observation with a penetrating truth that ultimately became the general’s trademark: “Never take counsel from your fears” (Mary Anna Jackson, Memoirs of “Stonewall” Jackson, 1895, 264). That is the simple principle I want to discuss with you today: never taking counsel from your fears."

"We live in a world that grows increasingly confused and chaotic, ever more evil and dark.  President Boyd K. Packer observed,  

“The world is spiraling downward at an ever-quickening pace. I am sorry to tell you that it will not get better.

“I know of nothing in the history of the Church or in the history of the world to compare with our present circumstances. Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds in wickedness and depravity that which surrounds us now. Words of profanity, vulgarity, and blasphemy are heard everywhere. Unspeakable wickedness and perversion were once hidden in dark places; now they are in the open, even accorded legal protection. At Sodom and Gomorrah these things were localized. Now they are spread across the world, and they are among us” (Boyd K. Packer, "The One Pure Defense," Address to CES Religious Educators, 6 February 2004, Salt Lake Tabernacle).  

"As we consider so many of the things that are occurring all around us today, we could perhaps find ample reasons to be afraid, to hesitate, and to wonder if things in our lives can indeed turn out the way we have long hoped they would turn out."

Click HERE to read the whole article. I highly recommend it.