The Prophet’s Call to Be Extraordinary

The national declines in marriage and childbearing are understandable for historic reasons, but Latter-day Saint values and practices should improve—not follow—those trends.

-President Oaks

The prophet is calling us to have more children.  That means he is calling us to be extraordinary.  We have to find a way to not be swept along with national or global trends.

This means youth being extraordinary about dealing with the very real break downs in the dating markets, in the job markets, and in the housing markets.  It means the rest of us have to be extraordinary about helping them and confronting those problems.  The discourse of the world is

Boomer: stop being lazy, just pull yourself up by the bootstraps, I deserve what I have

Zoomer:  life is deeply unfair, I’m hopeless, trying is pointless

Zion must reverse that.

Older Zioner:  life for the young is deeply unfair, let me roll up my sleeves and start fixing that for the youth I know, for my community, my church, and my nation

Younger Zioner:  whatever it takes, I will sacrifice, I will work harder, I will scramble, I will up stakes and move across the  continent because the Spirit suggested it was a good idea, and I will also find time to make my home very happy and rewarding and to have a warm, active extended family.  I will do the almost impossible.

As President Oaks acknowledged, a push for more family and births is difficult because some people can’t and will feel left behind.  The only way to solve that is to be extraordinary.

The great majority of us must push hard even while there are excuses ready at hand not to, even though we wouldn’t be judged if we didn’t.

Those who can’t must embrace the Nameless Virtue of celebrating a norm and a drive which they are not part of.

The way of the world is not the way of Zion.