The Beloved Gordon B. Hinckley: Man of God

My Dear Readers,

This was a man of God. The role of a prophet is to bring people to God and understand His law, and President Hinckley performed this function with perfection. His "Six B's" talk changed the mindset of the youth of the church forever, but it affected me in a very powerful and personal way that I will never forget. The talk was given at a time when the internet was still fairly novel and it looked like chat rooms would be the new national pastime. I was in high school then, and therefore struggling socially, and I had found that the anonymity of chat rooms allowed me to be social with a minimal risk. I picked a specific one with people of similar interests and quickly became addicted. By that, I mean I would spend every free moment between school and bedtime on the computer talking to the other chat room patrons. Sometimes I would spent eight hours a day chatting with complete strangers about essentially meaningless topics.

It became a problem long before the "Six B's" talk, but no matter how much I was teased and prodded, I refused to give up my new "hobby," even though somewhere inside of me, I knew that I was engaging in a very destructive behavior. It wasn't until I read the talk in detail later that I discovered these words in the section about being clean: "And don’t try to create associations through the Internet and chat rooms. They can lead you down into the very abyss of sorrow and bitterness." It was then that I got really angry (they say that hit pigeons flutter). Then I realized that a testimony of a prophet is also a promise to do as he says, and that since I had a testimony, I had to do what the prophet said and abstain from chat rooms from then on. I quit cold turkey, which was a lot harder than you might think, and I've never really looked back since. I have instead tried to focus my energies on creating human relationships face-to-face, which takes a lot more effort, but is much more rewarding.

I guess that little thing might seem insignificant, and since President Hinckley has addressed topics that range from abuse to pornography, you may think that I should have been moved by something that was much more thrilling. But I didn't have a problem abusing others, and I was nowhere near a pornography problem. I had a problem with creating friendships, and President Hinckley provided me with exactly what I needed when I needed it. It's really one example among many, and I'm sure that his words have helped those who did have abuse problems and etc. He spoke of Christ, and his words encouraged us to turn to God and the Redeemer and be healed by Them. He was truly a man of God, a prophet in the last days, and he has used his divinely appointed position to bless the lives of countless people, myself included.

Regards, best wishes, and healing,

-Cecily Jane