On Remaining Unchanged – Sunday, June 24, 1945
Conscientious parents often find it necessary to advise their children against frequenting questionable places or traveling with questionable company. But youth are confident in their own strength—confident in their ability to remain unchanged by the influences both of environment and people, and to this kind of caution there often comes the characteristic reply: “It won’t hurt us. Why shouldn’t we do it?”
Youth leaving home, for new experiences, new activities, are often given to assuring those they leave behind that they will remain unchanged—unchanged in their thoughts, in their feelings, in their actions and their attitudes. And they believe it! And they wonder why parents and those they are leaving are doubtful and concerned—they wonder, perhaps because they have not yet learned or have failed to remember ‘that we all tend to be changed and modified both by people and places—in other words, we all respond in some manner or other to our environment. This is so whether we choose it to be so or not, and it is quite useless to say: “I am going to partake of this atmosphere, but I am not going to be affected by it.” A person of strong will, living with undesirable influences, may succeed in maintaining his principles and ideals, his standards of value, his beliefs, but he is nevertheless changed, even if only by the very act of resistance. Resistance to a given set of conditions has its effect upon us, as also has yielding—although not in the same way.
Knowing this, it is natural for the parents of youth to be concerned about the influences that enter the lives of their sons and daughters, about the company they keep, about the things they see and hear, about the ideals that are set before them, about the friendships and attachments they form. Indeed, it is not only a natural inclination, but also an obligation of which parents may not rightly relieve themselves. And to those who are young we say—and to all who need such reminder—don’t make the mistake of supposing that a new experience or a new association won’t change you. We are changed, sometimes favorably, sometimes unfavorably, but always with certainty, by the company we keep, by the friends we embrace, by everything we see or touch, or think—by all we experience—both as to places and people and also as to our own thoughts. Indeed, change is the essence of life itself—to season and qualify us for greater things to come—eternal change and progression. But danger lies in supposing that we can deliberately choose wrong influences, and not be changed unfavorably.
This we ask youth to remember when those wiser and more experienced caution them—concerning questionable places, questionable companions, and unwise experiences.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 24, 1945. Copyright 1945.
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June 24, 1945
Broadcast Number 0,827