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Days of Tribulation

8/28/2026

There is a quiet danger that can come when life feels comfortable.
We begin to assume tomorrow will look much like today.
The grocery store will have food. The bank will open. The power will stay on. Our freedoms will remain secure. Our government will remain strong. Someone else will notice the problems. Someone else will speak up. Someone else will take care of things.
President Ezra Taft Benson warned against this kind of thinking:
“Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here.”
He continued with an even stronger warning:
“Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.”
President Benson gave this warning in his October 1980 General Conference address, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation.”
Those words may sound sobering, but their purpose is not to make us afraid. Their purpose is to wake us up.
God Warns Because He Loves Us
When the Lord warns His children, He is not trying to frighten them. He is trying to prepare them.
The Lord gave us this simple promise:
“If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” —Doctrine and Covenants 38:30
Notice that the Lord does not say difficult things will never happen. Instead, He teaches us how to face them.
Prepare.
Preparation changes fear into faith because instead of sitting helplessly and wondering what might happen, we ask a better question: What would the Lord have me do today?

Perhaps the answer is to repent.
Perhaps it is to repair a relationship.
Perhaps it is to build food storage, reduce debt, develop useful skills, or create an emergency plan.
And perhaps it is to become a better-informed and more involved citizen.

These are not separate from discipleship. When done with wisdom and prayer, they can become part of it.
Spiritual Preparation Comes First
We can have a pantry filled with food and still be unprepared.
The greatest preparation begins in the heart.

Are we praying?
Are we studying the scriptures?
Are we worshipping in the temple?
Are we repenting quickly?
Are we listening to the living prophets?
Are we trying to hear the Holy Ghost?

If difficult days come, we will need more than supplies. We will need revelation. We will need courage. We will need peace. Most of all, we will need Jesus Christ.
Repentance, therefore, is one of the greatest forms of preparation.
The Savior taught:
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” —Matthew 24:42
Watching does not mean staring anxiously at everything going wrong in the world.
It means living awake. It means keeping our lamps filled. It means staying close enough to Christ that when He whispers, we are ready to follow.

We Cannot Be Complacent About Our Country Either
There is another kind of complacency we should guard against—the belief that good government, freedom, and constitutional principles will simply take care of themselves. They require good people who are willing to participate.
The Lord taught:
“Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold.” —Doctrine and Covenants 98:10
Notice the word diligently. It doesn't sound passive.
President Dallin H. Oaks taught in the April 2021 General Conference:
“We should be knowledgeable citizens who are active in making our influence felt in civic affairs.”
Notice that his counsel is not Republican, Democratic, Liberal, or Conservative. It is simply a principle of responsible citizenship.
President Oaks also warned us against turning political preference into a test of another person's faith. He taught that we should not claim that faithful Latter-day Saints must belong to one political party or support one particular candidate.
That means our responsibility is deeper than simply choosing a political team.

We should study.
We should pray.
We should understand issues.
We should learn constitutional principles.
We should seek honest and wise leaders.
We should vote.
We should respectfully make our voices heard.
And we should do all of it as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Being Involved Does Not Mean Being Angry
There is a trap here. Once we become concerned about our country, it is easy for concern to turn into anger. We begin seeing neighbors as enemies. Political disagreements become personal attacks. Social media becomes a battlefield. That is not the Lord's way.
President Russell M. Nelson gave remarkably clear counsel:
“I urge you to choose to be a peacemaker, now and always.”

We can stand firmly for truth without hatred.
We can disagree without contempt.
We can defend freedom without attacking people.
We can participate in government without making politics our religion.
Our first loyalty is always to Jesus Christ.

That changes the way we speak, vote, post, disagree, and serve.
Prepared People Become Useful People
There is another reason to prepare that we sometimes overlook. Preparation isn't only about protecting ourselves. It increases our ability to help someone else.
After giving his strong warning about calamities, President Benson encouraged Saints to prepare so they could not only care for themselves but help others as well.
Imagine the difference. Instead of asking: “Who will take care of me?”
A prepared disciple can ask: “Lord, who can I help?”
That is a much more Christlike reason to prepare.

Store some food so you can share.
Build financial reserves so you can help.
Learn useful skills so you can serve.
Strengthen your testimony so you can lift someone whose faith is shaking.
Learn about your community so you can contribute.
Understand your government so you can participate wisely.
And become closer to Christ so that when uncertainty comes, your home can be a place of peace.

The Time to Begin Is Now
We don't need to panic. We don't need to predict dates. We don't need to live frightened by every headline. But neither should we sleep through the warnings the Lord has already given.
Complacency says, “It probably won't happen in my lifetime.”
Fear says, “What if everything falls apart?”
Faith asks, “Lord, what would Thou have me do?”
And that is the only question worth asking.
So this week, consider doing something simple.
Pray and ask the Lord where you need to repent. Add something to your family's emergency supplies. Review your finances. Study an issue facing your community. Read the Constitution. Learn about the people seeking public office. Register and vote when elections come. Contact an elected representative about something that matters to you. Find someone who needs help.
And while doing these things, refuse to become bitter toward people who see the world differently.

Be informed.
Be involved.
Be prepared.
Be peaceful.
And above all, become more deeply converted to Jesus Christ.

The future ultimately belongs to Him. That truth should not make us complacent. It should give us the faith to get to work.

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Progress Needs an Anchor

7/10/2026

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Every generation wants to move forward.
We celebrate innovation. We admire discovery. We strive to improve our communities, strengthen our economy, cure diseases, expand opportunity, and leave the world better than we found it.
Progress is part of the American story.

The Constitution itself was an extraordinary step forward. It established a government built on the revolutionary idea that power belongs to the people, not to kings. It secured liberties that countless others around the world could only dream of. Those blessings have allowed America to flourish in remarkable ways. Yet there's a question we rarely stop to ask.
Can a nation keep moving forward if it no longer knows what direction it is heading?

We often assume that change is the same thing as progress.
It isn't.
Movement alone doesn't guarantee improvement.
A ship can move at full speed and still be headed toward the rocks.
The difference isn't motion.
It's direction.
And direction requires a fixed point of reference.
For centuries, sailors navigated by the stars because the stars remained constant. Without them, they were left to drift wherever the winds and currents carried them.
Societies need an anchor just as much.
The Constitution gives us a framework for ordered liberty. It protects our rights and limits the power of government. It has proven to be one of the greatest governing documents ever written.

But even the Constitution assumes something deeper. It assumes a moral people.
John Adams famously observed that "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Why? Because no document, no matter how brilliantly written, can replace personal character.

The Constitution protects freedom. It cannot teach honesty.
It guarantees the right to speak. It cannot make us speak truthfully.
It protects religious liberty. It cannot make us worship.
It preserves justice through law. It cannot make us love justice in our hearts.

The Founders understood that liberty without virtue would eventually destroy itself. That truth hasn't changed.
Today we have technologies the Founders could never have imagined. We communicate instantly across continents. Medical breakthroughs save lives that once would have been lost. Our knowledge continues to expand at an astonishing pace.
These are genuine achievements. We should celebrate them. But technological advancement and moral advancement are not always the same thing. History is filled with civilizations that became more sophisticated while becoming less virtuous.

Knowledge increased. Wisdom declined.
Comfort grew. Character weakened.
The result was not lasting progress. It was decline.

That's because real progress isn't measured only by what we can do. It's measured by what we ought to do. And that question has always been moral.
Scripture reminds us that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). If God does not change, then the moral laws flowing from His character do not change either.

Truth does not become false because a majority rejects it.
Justice does not become injustice because culture shifts.
Honesty, compassion, humility, fidelity, mercy, and love do not go out of style.

They remain the foundation upon which healthy families, strong communities, and free nations are built. This doesn't mean resisting every new idea. Far from it. Latter-day Christians should welcome discoveries that relieve suffering, encourage human flourishing, and improve lives. America should continue striving for excellence in education, medicine, science, business, and the arts.
We should seek better solutions to difficult problems. We should never stop learning. But progress should never require abandoning the moral truths that made genuine progress possible in the first place.
Imagine constructing a skyscraper while removing the foundation beneath it. The building may continue rising for a while.
Eventually, however, gravity wins. The same principle applies to civilizations. When a society begins treating timeless moral truths as outdated obstacles rather than enduring guides, it may continue to prosper for a season.
But cracks eventually appear.

Trust declines.
Families weaken.
Communities fracture.
Public discourse becomes hostile.
Freedom gives way to confusion because people no longer agree on the principles that make freedom sustainable.

The question before every generation is not whether change will come. It will. The real question is whether we will remain anchored while navigating that change.

Will we pursue excellence without sacrificing integrity?
Innovation without abandoning wisdom?
Prosperity without forgetting gratitude?
Liberty without losing virtue?

Those are the questions that shape the future of a nation.
The blessings secured by the Constitution are extraordinary gifts. They have created opportunities unmatched in much of human history. But they were never intended to stand alone. They rest upon something deeper than parchment and ink. They rest upon the character of a people willing to govern themselves according to truths that do not change.
We should continue moving forward. We should continue building, creating, discovering, and improving. But as we do, we would be wise to remember that the strongest tree reaches higher only because its roots grow deeper.
America's future will not be secured by choosing between progress and principle. It will be secured by pursuing progress while holding fast to the eternal moral laws of the Lord.
Only then can we move forward without losing our way.

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A Sacred Charge

7/10/2026

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"There is entrusted to each generation a sacred charge: to cherish the hallowed inheritance of our liberties and steward those liberties for all generations to come."
—Matthew S. Holland

Most of us think of freedom as something we were born with.
We celebrate it on national holidays. We quote the Constitution. We thank veterans for defending it. We enjoy the right to worship, speak, vote, work, and raise our families according to our convictions.
But here's a question worth asking:
What if liberty isn't really ours?
What if it never belonged to us in the first place?
Matthew S. Holland's words challenge us to see freedom differently. He describes liberty not as personal property, but as a sacred charge.
A charge is a responsibility.
It's something placed in your hands with the expectation that you will care for it before passing it on.

Imagine someone entrusted you with a priceless family heirloom. You wouldn't neglect it. You wouldn't abuse it. You certainly wouldn't sell it because it seemed inconvenient. You would protect it because you understood it wasn't truly yours.
Now ask yourself this.
Do we treat liberty with the same care?
Or have we begun to assume it will always be there, no matter what we do?
History offers a sobering lesson.
Every great civilization believed, at one point, that its freedoms would last forever.
Few did.
Freedom is remarkably difficult to achieve, but surprisingly easy to lose. Most often, it doesn't disappear overnight. It fades gradually, one compromise at a time. One generation becomes a little less vigilant than the one before it. Comfort replaces conviction. Convenience replaces principle. People begin trading responsibilities for security, truth for popularity, and character for personal gain.
By the time they realize what's been lost, recovering it is far more difficult than preserving it would have been.

That's why Holland's use of the word steward is so significant.
A steward doesn't own what he manages. He protects it for someone else.

Parents understand this instinctively. When you hold a newborn child, you know that your choices will shape a life that extends beyond your own. The values you teach, the example you set, and the sacrifices you make become part of that child's future.

The same principle applies to a nation.
Every decision we make either strengthens or weakens the inheritance we leave behind.
Will our children inherit greater freedom than we did?
Or less?
That's not simply a political question. It's a moral one.
Too often, we think preserving liberty is someone else's responsibility. We expect elected officials to defend it. Courts to interpret it. The military to protect it.
While each has an important role, none can preserve a free society if its citizens abandon the character required to sustain it.
The Constitution can limit government. It cannot force honesty.
Laws can punish crime. They cannot create integrity.
Policies can encourage prosperity. They cannot teach courage, self-restraint, or personal responsibility.
Those qualities begin long before Election Day.
They begin in homes where children learn right from wrong. In churches where faith is lived rather than merely spoken.
In schools that value truth over ideology. In neighborhoods where people still know their neighbors. And in ordinary citizens who choose principle even when no one is watching.

Perhaps the greatest threat to liberty isn't an enemy across the ocean.
Perhaps it's the quiet belief that someone else will preserve it for us.
Freedom has always demanded participation. It asks citizens to be informed. To exercise self-government before demanding more government. To value truth even when it's uncomfortable. To defend the rights of others, even when they disagree. To place the common good above personal convenience.
None of those things are easy.
All of them are necessary.
Every generation faces its defining test. Some generations fought wars for liberty. Others rebuilt nations. Some ended slavery. Others defended civil rights.
Our generation's test is no less important.
Will we be faithful stewards of the freedom we inherited? Or will we become the generation that assumed liberty could survive without sacrifice?
One day, history will answer that question. More importantly, so will our children.
When they look back on our generation, what will they say? Will they thank us for preserving the blessings we received? Or wonder why we allowed them to slip away?
Freedom is not guaranteed by parchment, prosperity, or power. It endures only when each generation accepts the sacred responsibility to protect it, strengthen it, and pass it on. That is the charge entrusted to us.
The only question is whether we will prove worthy of it.

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The Principles that United a Nation

7/10/2026

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"The general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity."
—John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813

More than three decades after the Declaration of Independence, John Adams reflected on what had made the American Revolution possible. His answer was surprisingly simple. The men who founded the United States did not all belong to the same church. They did not agree on every doctrine. They came from different colonies, different occupations, and often held sharply different political opinions. Yet Adams believed they shared something far more important. "They were united," he wrote, by "the general principles of Christianity."
That's an important distinction.

Adams wasn't arguing that every Founder believed exactly the same things about doctrine. He knew they didn't. What they shared was a common moral framework, one that shaped how they understood human nature, government, and freedom itself.
Those principles would sound familiar to Christians across nearly every tradition. They include the belief that every person has inherent worth because each is created by God. They teach that justice is better than tyranny, that truth matters, that integrity is worth protecting, that people are accountable for their actions, and that loving your neighbor isn't optional.
These weren't Baptist principles or Methodist principles or Catholic principles.
They were simply Christian principles.
Adams went on to say that these beliefs worked hand in hand with "the general principles of English and American liberty." In other words, the Founders believed freedom could only last if it rested on virtue.
Liberty without morality eventually turns into license. Rights without responsibility become impossible to sustain.
That theme appears throughout the Founding Era.
George Washington called religion and morality "indispensable supports" of political prosperity. James Madison understood that liberty could not survive if people refused to govern themselves. Benjamin Franklin regularly stressed the importance of virtue in public life.
These men disagreed on plenty of issues, but on this point they largely agreed: a free nation depends on the character of its citizens.
The Constitution could create a framework for liberty. It could not create virtue.
That responsibility belonged to the people.
Perhaps that's why Adams emphasized the "general principles" of Christianity instead of theological debates. Nations aren't held together by agreement on every secondary issue. They're strengthened when people share a commitment to enduring virtues such as honesty, humility, forgiveness, compassion, courage, self-control, and respect for the dignity of others.
Those virtues are woven throughout the teachings of Jesus.

Love God.
Love your neighbor.
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Forgive those who wrong you.
Care for the poor.
Seek peace.
Speak the truth.
Keep your word.

Whether someone worshipped in Boston, Philadelphia, Williamsburg, or Charleston, these principles formed a common moral language that crossed denominational lines.
Adams' observation still feels relevant today.
Modern America often seems divided by politics, ideology, and culture. We spend a great deal of time talking about what separates us and far less time considering the values we've historically shared.
Perhaps Adams would remind us that lasting unity doesn't require everyone to agree on every political issue. It requires agreement on the moral principles that make freedom possible.

A healthy society is built when people choose honesty over deceit, service over selfishness, humility over pride, forgiveness over resentment, and love over hatred.
These aren't just religious ideals. They're practical necessities for any free people.
Whether someone embraces them through faith or simply recognizes the role they've played throughout history, these principles have shaped Western civilization for centuries and helped define the American experiment.
Adams believed they were essential to winning independence. His words leave us with a question that's still worth asking today.
If these principles helped build the nation, could they also help preserve it?
America's greatest challenges have never been overcome by laws alone, or by elections, or by political victories. They've been met when ordinary people chose virtue over vice, sacrifice over comfort, and conviction over convenience.
The enduring strength of the United States has never rested only on its Constitution, its economy, or its military. Those institutions matter. But in the end, they depend on something even deeper. They depend on the character of the people.

John Adams believed that America's founders were united by the general principles of Christianity and by the enduring principles of liberty.
Perhaps the greatest challenge before us is not simply to admire those principles. It is to live them.
For nations, like individuals, are sustained not merely by the rights they possess, but by the virtues they practice.

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Days of Tribulation

Progress Needs an Anchor

A Sacred Charge

The Principles that United a Nation

by Stephen Gorton

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