The Celestial Nature of Self-reliance
President Marion G. Romney
Second Counselor in the First Presidency
Conference Report, Oct. 1982, 132-136
Contents
Brothers and sisters, I have been asked to speak in so
many of these welfare meetings that I’m beginning to feel
that I ought to respond in a manner similar to a grandfather
I once knew who was getting along in years and some
people thought he didn’t know when to quit talking. At a
ward gathering they thought they shouldn’t call on him
because he would speak too long. Their final decision was,
however, that they couldn’t pass him by, so they called on
him and asked him to stand and tell them in just a word how
they could live to be as old as he was and still be of service.
So he got up and said, “Keep breathing." I won’t be that
brief, but I will attempt to be to the point.
Self-reliance and Freedom
I love the simple truths contained in the welfare
principles as taught by all the holy prophets since the world
began, and I never tire of speaking about them. Today I
shall speak to you about the principle of self-reliance and its
impact upon our spiritual development.
Since the beginning of time man has been counseled to
earn his own way, thereby becoming self-reliant. It is easy
to understand the reason why the Lord places so much
emphasis on this principle when we come to understand that
it is tied very closely to freedom itself.
On this subject, Elder Albert E. Bowen said, “The Lord
must want and intend that His people shall be free of
constraint whether enforceable or only arising out of the
bindings of conscience. . . . That is why the Church is not
satisfied with any system which leaves able people
permanently dependent, and insists, on the contrary, that the
true function and office of giving, is to help people [get] into
a position where they can help themselves and thus be free."
(The Church Welfare Plan, Gospel Doctrine manual, 1946,
p. 77.)
Many programs have been set up by well-meaning
individuals to aid those who are in need. However, many of
these programs are designed with the shortsighted objective
of “helping people," as opposed to “helping people help
themselves." Our efforts must always be directed toward
making able-bodied people self-reliant.
Gullible Gulls
I clipped the following article from the Reader’s Digest
some time ago and have told it before, but it bears
repeating. 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 them 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.
(“Fable of the Gullible Gull," Reader’s
Digest, Oct. 1950, p. 32.)
Don’t Sacrifice Self-respect and 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.
We cannot afford to become wards of the government,
even if we have a legal right to do so. It requires too great
a sacrifice of self-respect and in political, temporal, and
spiritual independence.
In some countries it is extremely difficult to separate
earned from unearned benefits. However, the principle is the
same in all countries: We should strive to become
self-reliant and not depend on others for our existence.
Caution to Parents and Priesthood Leaders
Governments are not the only guilty parties. We fear
many parents in the Church are making “gullible gulls" out
of their children with their permissiveness and their doling
out of family resources. Parents who place their children on
the dole are just as guilty as a government which places its
citizens on the dole. In fact, the actions of parents in this
area can be more devastating than any government program.
Bishops and other priesthood leaders can be guilty of
making “gullible gulls" out of their ward members. Some
members become financially or emotionally dependent on
their bishops. A dole is a dole whatever its source. All of
our Church and family actions should be directed toward
making our children and members self-reliant. We can’t
always control government programs, but we can control
our own homes and congregations. If we will teach these
principles and live them, we can do much to counter the
negative effects which may exist in government programs in
any country.
We know there are some who for no reason of their own
cannot become self-reliant. President Henry D. Moyle had
these people in mind when he said:
This great principle does not deny to the needy nor to
the poor the assistance they should have. The wholly
incapacitated, the aged, the sickly are cared for with all
tenderness, but every able-bodied person is enjoined to do
his utmost for himself to avoid dependence, if his own
efforts can make such a course possible; to look upon
adversity as temporary; to combine his faith in his own
ability with honest toil; to rehabilitate himself and his family
to a position of independence; in every case to minimize the
need for help and to supplement any help given with his own
best efforts.
We believe [that] seldom [do circumstances arise in
which] men of rigorous faith, genuine courage, and
unfaltering determination, with the love of independence
burning in their hearts, and pride in their own
accomplishments, cannot surmount the obstacles that lie in
their paths.
We know that through humble, prayerful, industrious,
God-fearing lives, a faith can be developed within us by the
strength of which we can call down the blessings of a kind
and merciful Heavenly Father and literally see our
handicaps vanish and our independence and freedom
established and maintained.
(In Conference Report, Apr.
1948, p. 5.)
Welfare Program is Spiritual
Self-reliance is not the end, but a means to an end. It is
very possible for a person to be completely independent and
lack every other desirable attribute. One may become
wealthy and never have to ask anyone for anything, but
unless there is some spiritual goal attached to this
independence, it can canker his soul.
The welfare program is spiritual. In 1936, when the
program was introduced, President David O. McKay made
this astute observation:
The development of our spiritual nature should
concern us most. Spirituality is the highest acquisition of
the soul, the divine in man; ‘the supreme, crowning gift that
makes him king of all created things.’ It is the
consciousness of victory over self and of communion with
the infinite. It is spirituality alone which really gives one the
best in life.
It is something to supply clothing to the scantily clad,
to furnish ample food to those whose table is thinly spread,
to give activity to those who are fighting desperately the
despair that comes from enforced idleness, but after all is
said and done, the greatest blessings that will accrue from
the Church [welfare program] are spiritual. Outwardly,
every act seems to be directed toward the physical:
re-making of dresses and suits of clothes, canning fruits and
vegetables, storing foodstuffs, choosing of fertile fields for
settlement—all seem strictly temporal, but permeating all
these acts, inspiring and sanctifying them, is the element of
spirituality.
(In Conference Report, Oct. 1936, p. 103.)
Seek the Kingdom of God
In the Doctrine and Covenants we read:
34 Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto
me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you
a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the
children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created.
35 Behold, I gave unto him that he should be an agent
unto himself; and I gave unto him commandment, but no
temporal commandment gave I unto him, for my
commandments are spiritual.
(D&C 29:34–35.)
This scripture tells us there is no such thing as a
temporal commandment. It also tells us that man is to be
"an agent unto himself." Man cannot be an agent unto
himself if he is not self-reliant. Herein we see that
independence and self-reliance are critical keys to our
spiritual growth. Whenever we get into a situation which
threatens our self-reliance, we will find our freedom
threatened as well. If we increase our dependence, we will
find an immediate decrease in our freedom to act.
Thus far, we should have learned that self-reliance is a
prerequisite to the complete freedom to act. We have also
learned, however, that there is nothing spiritual in
self-reliance unless we make the right choices with that
freedom. What then should we do once we have become
self-reliant in order to grow spiritually?
The key to making self-reliance spiritual is in using the
freedom to comply with God’s commandments. The
scriptures are very clear in their command that it is the duty
of those who have to give to those who are in need.
Jacob, speaking to the people of Nephi, said:
17 Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be
familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may
be rich like unto you.
18 But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom
of God.
19 And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall
obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the
intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the
hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to
the sick and the afflicted.
(Jacob 2:17–19.)
Service is Exalted Life
In our own dispensation, when the Church was only
nine months old, the Lord said:
16 And for your salvation I give unto you a
commandment, for I have heard your prayers, and the poor
have complained before me, and the rich have I made, and
all flesh is mine, and I am no respecter of persons.
(D&C
38:16)
This revelation was given on the second day of January
1831. The next month, in another revelation, the Lord said:
29 If thou lovest me thou shalt serve me and keep all my
commandments.
30 And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and
consecrate of thy properties for their support.
(D&C
42:29–30.)
The same month, the Lord referred to this subject again.
Evidently the Brethren had been a little remiss. They had
not moved fast enough.
6 Behold, I say unto you, that ye must visit the poor and
the needy and administer to their relief.
(D&C 44:6)
The scriptures are full of commandments regarding our
obligation to care for the poor; therefore, I will not elaborate
further. It has always seemed somewhat paradoxical to me
that we must constantly have the Lord command us to do
those things which are for our own good. The Lord has said,
39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it.
(Matthew 10:39)
We lose our life by serving and lifting others. By so
doing we experience the only true and lasting happiness.
Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can
earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the
very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom
is made.
Knowing that service is what gives our Father in
Heaven fulfillment, and knowing that we want to be where
He is and as He is, why must we be commanded to serve
one another? Oh, for the glorious day when these things all
come naturally because of the purity of our hearts. In that
day there will be no need for a commandment because we
will have experienced for ourselves that we are truly happy
only when we are engaged in unselfish service. Let us use
the freedom which comes from self-reliance in giving and
serving.
Giving Sanctifies
Can we see how critical self-reliance becomes when
looked upon as the prerequisite to service, when we also
know service is what Godhood is all about? Without
self-reliance one cannot exercise these innate desires to
serve. How can we give if there is nothing there? Food for
the hungry cannot come from empty shelves. Money to
assist the needy cannot come from an empty purse. Support
and understanding cannot come from the emotionally
starved. Teaching cannot come from the unlearned. And
most important of all, spiritual guidance cannot come from
the spiritually weak.
There is an interdependence between those who have
and those who have not. The process of giving exalts the
poor and humbles the rich. In the process, both are
sanctified. The poor, released from the bondage and
limitations of poverty, are enabled as free men to rise to
their full potential, both temporally and spiritually. The
rich, by imparting of their surplus, participate in the eternal
principle of giving. Once a person has been made whole or
self-reliant, he reaches out to aid others, and the cycle
repeats itself.
We are all self-reliant in some areas and dependent in
others. Therefore, each of us should strive to help others in
areas where we have strengths. At the same time, pride
should not prevent us from graciously accepting the helping
hand of another when we have a real need. To do so denies
another person the opportunity to participate in a
sanctifying experience.
Again, I say the principle of self-reliance is spiritual, as
are all the principles of the welfare program. This is not a
doomsday program, but a program for today. One of the
three areas of emphasis recently outlined in the statement on
the mission of the Church is to perfect the Saints, and this
is the purpose of the welfare program. Today is the time for
us to perfect our lives. May we continue to hold fast to
these truths, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
