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A Chosen Generation


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In Sunday School a couple of weeks ago we were discusing the stripling warriors & coincidentally that our youth had just come back from EFY.

It was mentioned, that our youth had been told that they were a chosen generation, reserved for this time, just as their parents and indeed their grandparents had been told the same.

I supose the reason that this was raised was that at face value it begs the question, how can the differing generations all be chosen?

I don't know how you feel about it, but here's somewhat of an obvious answer that we came to in concensus.

Each different generation faces different problems, certainly the youth of today have varying temptations that weren't even way out on left field when their parents were growing up.

It could be said that these temptations, or whatever, are just variations, subtleties on the same themes, but many parents voiced the opinion that they believed that they would have really struggled in todays world as youth in the Church.

Does this lend the truth that they were specifically reserved for their generation in time and that this generation are reserved for theirs?

I hope that makes sense...........

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That makes sense to me. The Saints are chosen (or self choosen) to be separate from the world in many ways. This is not easy but it brings blessings that a strictly worldly existence cannot.

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If I had been "chosen" to live in a previous generation, I probably wouldn't have even made it through birth assuming the same physical situation existed. If I managed that, I probably wouldn't have lived past 45...at least not in any meaningful sense of the word "live". Assuming personality type was the same....I wonder what a woman who is overly invested in mental activities would do in a world where she was limited to pretty much solely physical pursuits of a very mundane, repetitive quality (I can't even manage to make myself to cook the same thing more than once a year or so if it takes any effort, variety is the spice of life and all).

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I think we are really talking about dispensations and then different generations within this dispensation. No way would I have made a good pioneer, I just don’t think I would have had the strength to carry on, carry on. I’m doing okay in this generation, hanging on to that iron rod!

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Elder Bednar said this in a CES Fireside at BYU-I in May of 2009:

"I would like to speak specifically to you as you really are. You really are the rising generation in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In October of 1997, Elder Neal A. Maxwell visited the campus of Brigham Young University–Idaho to speak in a devotional. During the day he was on the campus, we talked together about a variety of gospel topics in general and about the youth of the Church in particular. I remember Elder Maxwell making a statement that greatly impressed me. He said, “The youth of this generation have a greater capacity for obedience than any previous generation.”

He then indicated that his statement was based upon a truth taught by President George Q. Cannon: “God has reserved spirits for this dispensation who have the courage and determination to face the world, and all the powers of the evil one, visible and invisible, to proclaim the Gospel, and maintain the truth, and establish and build up the Zion of our God, fearless of all consequences. He has sent these spirits in this generation to lay the foundation of Zion never more to be overthrown, and to raise up a seed that will be righteous, and that will honor God, and honor him supremely, and be obedient to him under all circumstances.”7

Parents and Church leaders frequently emphasize that the young men and women of this generation have been reserved for this season in the history of the world and are some of the most valiant of Heavenly Father’s children. Indeed, such statements are true. But I often have wondered if young people hear this description so often that it becomes overused and trite—and that its importance and deep implications may be overlooked. We know that “unto whom much is given much is required” (D&C 82:3). And the teachings of President Cannon and Elder Maxwell help us to understand more fully what is required of us today. You and I are to be valiant and “obedient to him under all circumstances.” Thus, obedience is the principal weapon upon which the rising generation must rely in the latter-day battle between good and evil."

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I don't think this is a notion the church is presently teaching. In fact a year or so ago, the church official put a stop to statements mis -attributed to various apostles prophets that suggested those who were born when Pres. [insert name] or _________ were president were particulrly blessed. We know children come now. We don't know what is the significance of spirits doing so now, except that some people have been foreordained for various latter - day roles.

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