Looking at the gathering of Young Women assembled in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for the General Young Women Meeting a week previously, President Gordon B. Hinckley thought, "Are we rearing a generation of young men worthy of them?"
That question formed the theme of his priesthood session address Saturday evening."The girl you marry will take a terrible chance on you," he told the young men in the congregation. "She will give her all to the young man she marries. He will largely determine the remainder of her life. She will even surrender her name to his name."
Thus, as Church members, young men have a tremendous obligation toward the young women they marry, President Hinckley said.
"That obligation begins with absolute loyalty. . . . She will be yours and yours alone, regardless of the circumstances of your lives. You will be hers and hers alone. There can be eyes for none other. There must be absolute loyalty, undeviating loyalty one to another. Hopefully you will marry her forever, in the House of the Lord, under the authority of the everlasting priesthood. Through all the days of your lives you must be as true one to another as the polar star."
A young woman can expect the man she marries to be clean, a man of virtue in thought, word and deed, President Hinckley said, pleading with young men to keep themselves free from the stain of the world.
"You must not indulge in sleazy talk at school," he warned. "You must not tell sultry jokes. You must not fool around with the Internet to find pornographic material. You must not dial a long-distance telephone number to listen to filth. You must not rent videos with pornography of any kind. This salacious stuff simply is not for you. Stay away from pornography as you would avoid a serious disease."
President Hinckley counseled young men to "look upon the Word of Wisdom as more than a commonplace thing."
"The greater the scientific research, the more certain becomes the proof of Word of Wisdom principles," said President Hinckley, who pointed out the irony of beer being sold at service stations, where it can cause motorists to drive " `under the influence' and become a terrible menace on the highway."
"Would any girl in her right mind ever wish to marry a young man who has a drug habit, who is the slave of alcohol, who is addicted to pornography?" he asked; likewise, "Who would wish to be married to a man with speech laden with filth and profanity?"
President Hinckley said another serious thing to which many young men become addicted is anger. "With the least provocation, they explode into tantrums of uncontrolled rage. It is pitiful to see someone so weak. But even worse, they are prone to lose all sense of reason, and they do things which bring later regret."
He decried the phenomenon called road rage in which motorists "become provoked over some small irritation. They fly into a rage, even resulting in murder. A life of regret follows."
He added: "If you have a temper, now is the time to learn to control it. The more you do so while you are young, the more easily it will happen. Let no member of this Church ever lose control of himself in such an unnecessary and vicious manner. Let him bring to his marriage words of peace and composure."
Young men should get all the education they can, President Hinckley counseled, adding, "Education is the key to economic opportunity."
Saying it is the husband's primary obligation to provide for his family, he added: "Your wife will be fortunate indeed if she does not have to go out and compete in the marketplace. She will be twice blessed if she is able to remain at home while you become the breadwinner of the family."
Young couples should be modest in their wants, President Hinckley said, adding that nothing will cause greater tension in marriage than grinding debt.
"The girl who marries you will not wish to be married to a tightwad," he said. "Neither will she wish to be married to a spendthrift. She is entitled to know all about family finances. Unless there is full and complete understanding between you and your wife on these matters, there will come misunderstandings and suspicions that will cause trouble that can lead to greater problems."
An LDS bride will want a husband who loves and trusts her, who walks beside her, who encourages her in Church activity and community service, and who has a sense of service to others, President Hinckley said, adding that they will want to be married in one place only: the House of the Lord.
"She will become the mother of your children," he said. "What greater thing in all this world can there be than to become the father of a precious child, a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven for whom we are given the rights and responsibilities of mortal stewardship?
"Young men," President Hinckley counseled, "now is the time to prepare for the future. And in that future for most of you is a beautiful woman whose greatest desire is to bond with you in a relationship that is eternal and everlasting.
"You will know no greater happiness than that found in your home. You will have no more serious obligation than that which you face in your home. The truest mark of your success in life will be the quality of your marriage."
