A father sat down to talk to his 17-year-old son. The teen had been asked by the Church News to represent all priests Churchwide in a photograph to accompany an article on the Aaronic Priesthood.

"I don't know why you were chosen," the young man's father said, acknowledging that the process may have been fairly random. "What is important, is that you were ready."

Many opportunities in life and in the Church, he explained, depend on a person's worthiness; opportunities to be an example, exercise the priesthood, accept a calling or serve a mission, for example, come only to those who are ready.

If you're not ready — not worthy — you won't feel comfortable doing any of these things, the father told his son. The result will be missed opportunities and blessings that could have been yours.

The following day, when the 17-year-old arrived in downtown Salt Lake City for the Church News photograph, he learned that he and a teacher and deacon would be posing with President Thomas S. Monson. He thought about his past actions, and remembering his father's words without regret, anxiously anticipated meeting a prophet of the Lord.

He was ready.

Speaking to the Aaronic Priesthood holders who posed with him, President Monson offered advice that, in essence, echoed the words of the young man's father.

"You want to be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way," President Monson told the teens. "If you are not prepared you are in difficulty."

While the vast majority of worthy Aaronic Priesthood holders will never meet a living prophet, they can live their lives in a way that they would have no regrets if they did. They can be ready to claim the opportunities and blessings that will come to them.

Perhaps no modern-day story of readiness is more tragic than that of Oliver Cowdery. He served as a scribe for the Prophet Joseph Smith when the Lord made him a promise: "And, behold, I grant unto you a gift, if you desire of me, to translate, even as my servant Joseph" (Doctrine and Covenants 6:25).

But Oliver was not as ready as he could have been. And the Lord did not wait for his preparation. Instead, He took away the gift of translation. "It was expedient when you commenced; but you feared, and the time is past, and it is not expedient now," the Lord told him. (See Doctrine and Covenants 9:11.)

The gift of translation for Oliver was his to claim. Yet he feared and the time passed. He missed the opportunity and its accompanying blessings.

President Spencer W. Kimball said the Lord's blessings accompany worthiness.

"I urge you sons and daughters of God, who are in the image of your Creator, to put your minds in the image of His, and to discipline and mold your spirits after the pattern of the Only begotten," he said. "If you will do so, the Lord has promised that joys will follow eternally, and you need never fear having cheated yourself of what might have been" (From The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 167).

After posing for the Church News photograph, the young man — and two other Aaronic Priesthood holders — listened as President Monson took a few minutes to talk to them. He shared experiences from his own life, then offered simple advice: "Be the best of which you are capable in all things," President Monson told the teens.

It was undoubtedly an experience that the young priest will never forget, one that he claimed because he was ready.