College-age young adults gathered at the institute of religion adjacent to Utah State University were told Oct. 21 by President Gordon B. Hinckley that they have a fourfold obligation - "to one's vocation, one's family, the Church, and to one's self."

"I suggest," said President Hinckley, "that as you look forward with your lives, you consider your options carefully. Life is more than earning a living. Earning a living is important. Hard work is important. Dedication to one's chosen vocation is important. But you have more to do than working at your daily job."He then spoke about each obligation individually.

To one's vocation

"Choose a vocation where you will be happy," President Hinckley said. "You will spend eight and more hours a day at it through all the foreseeable future.

Income is important, but you do not need to be a multi-millionaire to be happy. In fact, you are more likely to be unhappy if wealth becomes your only objective. . . . You need enough to provide well for your family. It will be better if the husband becomes the provider and the wife does not work when the children come. The situation may be necessary in some cases, but if you choose wisely now, it is not likely to become a requirement."

He told the young adults to choose a field in which they can grow. "You need the stimulation of new effort and new ambitions, of new discoveries and new challenges."

He admonished the students to get all the schooling they can to qualify for a chosen vocation. "In this world competition is terrible. . . . But it must be faced, it is something with which we have to deal."

Finally, he asked students to choose a profession that will be stimulating, thought provoking, and that will carry with it day-to-day opportunity to do something to improve society.

"These are the great days of your preparation for your future work," he noted. "Don't waste them. Take advantage of them. Cram your heads full of knowledge. Assimilate it. Think about it. Let it become a part of you."

President Hinckley said Church members also need to remember that there are other things in life, besides a vocation, of tremendous importance. "The greatest task of all, the greatest challenge, and the greatest satisfaction lie in the rearing of a good family. There must be service in the Church. Otherwise you will lose interest, and this very important dimension of your life will be relegated to a back burner."

To one's family

Normally, every young man and young woman desires a wife or husband, said President Hinckley. "Be worthy of the mate you choose. Respect him or her. Give encouragement to him or her. Love your companion with all your heart."

President Hinckley told the students that who they marry "will be the most important decision of your life."

"Nearly every one of you here this morning will marry in the temple. That is a wonderful thing. There is no substitute for it. It is the only place under the heavens where marriage can be solemnized for eternity. Don't cheat yourself. Don't cheat your companion. Don't shortchange your lives. Marry the right person, in the right place, at the right time," he counseled.

To the young men, President Hinckley said: "Choose a companion of your own faith. You are much more likely to be happy. Choose a girl you can always honor, you can always respect, one who will complement you in your own life, one to whom you can give your entire heart, your entire love, your entire allegiance, your entire loyalty.

"Determine that there will never be anything that will come between you, that will disrupt your marriage. Make it work. There is far too much of divorce. Inevitably hearts are broken and lives are destroyed. Be fiercely loyal one to another."

President Hinckley said he and his wife, Marjorie, who accompanied him to Utah State, have been married for more than 60 years. "We have grown old and wrinkled," he said. "But our love and respect and loyalty one to another have remained undimmed."

A good marriage requires time and effort, he added. "You have to work at it. You have to cultivate it. You have to forgive and forget."

President Hinckley told the young adults that their children will be the "source of your greatest pride and happiness. Rear them in love. You don't have to beat children. . . . You don't have to get angry with them. You just have to love them. If they make mistakes, forgive them and help them to avoid a repetition. But let them see in you their truest and best friend, their constant support."

To the Church

Speaking of the Church, President Hinckley counseled the students to let it "be your dear friend. Let it be your great companion. Serve wherever you are called to serve. Do what you are asked to do. Every position you hold will add to your capacity."

Serving in the Church, he explained, requires unselfish devotion and unyielding loyalty and faith. "You will serve in many capacities before your lives are complete. Some of them may seem small, but there is no small or unimportant calling in this Church. Every calling is important. Every calling is necessary to the advancement of the work. Never demean a responsibility in the Church."

President Hinckley told his listeners to make room for the Church in their lives. "Let your knowledge of its doctrine grow. Let your understanding of its organization increase. Let your love for its eternal truths become ever and ever stronger."

He said the Church may call upon its members to sacrifice. "It may call upon you to give of the very best that you have to offer. There will be no cost in this, because you will discover that it will become an investment that will pay you dividends for as long as you live. The Church is the great reservoir of eternal truth. Embrace it and hold fast to it."

To one's self

"Now, finally," continued President Hinckley, "there is another interest that you must look after as you look forward in your lives . . . you need time to meditate and ponder, to think, to wonder at the great plan of happiness that the Lord has outlined for His children. You need time to read. You need to read the scriptures. You need to read good literature. You need to partake of the great culture which is available to all of us."

Quoting President David O. McKay, President Hinckley said members do not spend enough time meditating.

"Our lives," continued President Hinckley, "become extremely busy. We run from one thing to another. We wear ourselves out in thoughtless pursuit of goals which are highly ephemeral. We are entitled to spend some time with ourselves in introspection, in development."

President Hinckley told his listeners that their needs and tastes will vary with their age. "I decry the great waste of time that people put into watching inane television," he said. "I am not anti-sports. I enjoy watching a good football game or a good basketball game. But I see so many men who become absolutely obsessed with sports. I believe their lives would be enriched if, instead of sitting on the sofa and watching a game that will be forgotten tomorrow, they would read and think and ponder.

"They would be blessed if they were to go out into the dark of night, look at the stars, and ponder their place in the eternal plan of the Almighty."

President Hinckley concluded by reminding the young adults that this is their great day of opportunity.

"This is your season of preparation," he said. "Resolve to keep balance in your lives, to work at a good vocation that you can greatly enjoy, to look forward to the time when you can rear an honorable family who will walk in righteousness and with faith, to serve the Church in a wonderful and unselfish manner and grow tremendously while so doing, and to ponder the things of life as occasionally you sit by yourself and simply think and perhaps offer a word of prayer to the God who is the giver of all these wonderful things."