Incorruptible Men and Women

"Integrity is realized by doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason--at any cost. "The U.S. Military Academy has a code that declares, 'A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.' It is an external code imposed by the institution, and those who violate it are subject to harsh discipline.

"But men and women of honor have an internalized code of conduct that informs their decisions which is far more demanding that anything this academy can impose. If that internal code is built on the right principles, a soldier will do the right thing in any given situation, even if doing it is at great personal cost."

Aderence to such an internalized code makes a man or woman incorruptible, and the world needs incorruptible men and women today as desperately as it ever has in it's history."

Joan of Arc believed some things are worse than dying, even worse than dying young. One of those things worse than dying is to live without integrity to a cause you believe to be more sacred that life itself."

Elder Holland at an address shared with cadets and others on May 7, 2010. This address was given for the National Day of Prayer Breakfast at the US Military Academy at West Point. This was the first time a Latter-day Saint had spoken in the prayer breakfast series.

Church News. Week Ending May 15, 2010

Clinging to the Doctrine

"I've often thought, and I've said to my own children, that those parents who kept going past Chimney Rock and Martin's Cove (and some didn't get farther than that) and those little graves that are dotted all across the historic landscape of this church--they didn't do that for a program, they didn't do it for a social, they did it because the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ was in their soul, it was in the marrow of their bones. That's the only way those mothers could bury that baby in a breadbox and move on and say 'The promised land is out there somewhere. We're going to make it to the valley.'

"Well thats because of covenants and doctrine and faith and revelation and spirit. If we can keep that in our families and in the Church, maybe a lot of other things start to take care of themselves. Maybe a lot of other things sort of fall off the wagon. I'm told those handcarts could only take so much. They had to choose what they took. And maybe the 21st century will drive us to decide, 'what can we put in this handcart?' It's the substance of our soul; it's the stuff right down in the marrow of our bones. We'll have blessed family and church if we can cling to the revelations."

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, World Wide Leadership Training Meeting; Building up a Righteous Posterity, Roundtable Discussion, section "Clinging to the Doctrine"