President Charles W. Dahlquist: Choose to live on the Lord's side
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The words of the hymn ask this definitive question: "Who's on the Lord side? Who?"
"It is a question that should be in the mind of each young man and each young woman the world over: "Who's on the Lord side?" said Young Men General President Charles W. Dahlquist II in his Sunday afternoon conference address. "And our resounding answer should be, 'I am!"'
Young David of the Old Testament showed his allegiance to God by taking upon himself the Lord's name and facing the giant Philistine Goliath in battle, said Brother Dahlquist.
"My young brethren and sisters, wherever I travel I meet noble youth just like you who are faced constantly with modern-day Goliaths in the form of temptations that would cause us to violate our covenants and the standards the Lord has given us," Brother Dahlquist said. "This becomes even more important when you are surrounded daily with profanity, socially accepted immorality, immodesty, pornography, and other inappropriate material in the media, including television and the Internet, and widespread availability of drugs and alcohol. In a word, not a day goes by that we are not asked, in one form or another, 'Who's on the Lord side? Who?'"
Brother Dahlquist offered two simple suggestions to help prepare to answer that question. First, young people in the Church must never forget who they are — children of God who have been blessed with loving families and living prophets to lead them.
Second, young people should learn to control their thoughts.
"Our work, as Latter-day Saints, is to keep the commandments of God, in spite of the temptations that Satan sends our way. In my life, I have found that this is much easier to do when we can control our thoughts — and especially when we have memorized music, scriptures and good poetry to replace the evil thoughts that come into our minds."
