Great Expectations

Some things that stuck out to me from President Monson's fireside talk last night...

1. avoid pitfalls and detours like peer pressure and temptation.

2."beware the flashy start and the fadeout finish"

3. President Monson told the story of listening to a football game where Y.A.Tittle was quarterback it was the last play of the game, he dropped back into the pocket and the line appeared to collapse and the commentator said the game is over. And then, the commentator got excited and said Y. A. Tittle somehow escaped from the defenders and avoided the sack and ended up throwing a touchdown and winning the game. I guess the moral of the story was to never give up and persevere. Even when things seemed hopeless and bleak. If, Y. A. Tittle would have given up and taken the sack they would have lost the game. There is always hope, we must keep persevering.

4. Something else I found interesting, President Monson quoted Joseph Smith from 1830 and said something like this, during the first eight years of our lives Satan has no power over us to tempt us. President Monson mentioned we have an eight year head start on Satan. And President Monson mentioned a scientific researcher, sorry I don't remember the name, who did a study with very interesting results. President Monson said the researcher probably had never heard the quote from Joseph Smith, but the results of his research indicated that newborn children are like computers, except more advanced, they are continually taking in information. The information received during The first eight years of a child's life will be with him forever. If a child receives misinformation during this time. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to change or erase the information. Years two to three were the most formative. This is why it is so important to teach children correct principles while they're young. Especially during the first eight years of life. What we learned during the first eight years of our lives molds us into who we are, and how we live the rest of our lives.

5. President Monson started out talking about the Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations. We have many great expectations. Christ is the author of our great expectations, he said.

These are just a few of the things I remembered from listening to the fireside. I hope I didn't butcher his talk too much. If anyone else heard the talk, feel free to comment to add corrections or your own insight. I'm not sure when BYU TV will be re-airing this fireside but if you would like to listen to it, go to LDS.org and you can see a video stream or listen to an audio stream of the fireside.