Self-Reliance

President Marion G. Romney gave a talk titled, The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance (This article can be found in the March 2009 edition of the Ensign). In this talk he tells a story he clipped from a Reader's Digest.

"I clipped the following article from the Reader's Digest some time ago. It reads: In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don't know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss the scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved. . .

"The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the. . . sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets.

"Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the 'something for nothing' lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.

"A lot of people are like that, too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the U.S. Government's 'shrimp fleet.' But what will happen when the Government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come?

"Let's not be gullible gulls. We . . . must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence.

"The practice of coveting and receiving unearned benefits has now become so fixed in our society that even men of wealth, possessing the means to produce more wealth, are expecting the government to guarantee them a profit. Elections often turn on what the candidates promise to do for voters from government funds. This practice, if universally accepted and implemented in any society, will make slaves of its citizens."

Did all you hoping to gain from the recent bail-outs get that? Government handouts will turn you into a slave!!! This is spoken by a prophet of God. He saw our day and spoke about it in 1982. Prophets can see the future and he warned us about government hand-outs 27 years ago. If he got that right then maybe we should listen to him about what bail-outs (government handouts) will do to us! Prophets talking about profits. I love it.

We the people must take responsibility for our actions. We voted ourselves benefits we cannot afford. Now we must vote for those that will take them away. We need to provide for ourselves and get the power hungry government out of our lives. In the March 2009 Ensign Elder M. Russell Ballard quotes the Church Handbook of Instructions in his essay titled Becoming Self-Reliant Spiritually and Physically. "The Savior has commanded the Church and its members to be self-reliant and independent. . . To become self-reliant, a person must work. Work is physical, mental, or spiritual effort. It is basic source of happiness, self-worth, and prosperity. Through work, people accomplish many good things in their lives . . ."

Just say no to the government dole!