Iceburgs and Currents

In the October 1974 semiannual general conference, President Spencer W. Kimball gave a message that has repeatedly blessed my life. He spoke of how icebergs are quietly moved through the ocean by immense currents that guide them. He taught that we are more like ships than icebergs, for we have our own motive power to give us the advantage. He said:

The icebergs spawned by the Greenland ice sheet followed a highly predictable course. As the silent Labrador Current ceaselessly moves to the south through Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, it takes with it these mountainous icebergs, even against the force of the winds and the waves and the tides. Currents have much more power to control its course than the surface winds. [CR, October 1974, 159; or "Ocean Currents and Family Influences," Ensign, November 1974, 110]

President Kimball continued:

Youth . . . are subjected to so many swirling winds that we sometimes wonder if they can survive. The winds of fashion push those about who are insecure and who require the feeling that they are in step with the crowd. The winds of sexual temptation drive some to . . . dash bright prospects or to degrade themselves. Bad companions, addicting drugs, the arrogance of profanity, the slough of pornography--all these and more act as influences pushing us, if we are not being carried forward by a strong, steady current toward the righteous life. [CR, October 1974, 160; or "Ocean Currents," Ensign, November 1974, 110–11]

This example has taught me that there are currents of divine influence in our lives that will lead each of us along the individual plan the Lord would have us fulfill here on earth. Seek, through the Spirit, to identify and carefully follow the current of direction that the Lord has placed in your life. Align yourself with it. Choose, willingly, to exercise your agency to follow it. Do not be overcome by concentrating solely on today and its challenges, difficulties, and opportunities. President Kimball called those things the relatively insignificant surface winds and waves of today. They are the preoccupations that must not capture your interest and attention so as to consume your life.

Richard G. Scott "Have No Regrets" September 12 1999 CES Fireside