If There Is Anything Virtuous

About fifteen years ago, President Nelson gave a talk at BYU about the power and protection of worthy music. He taught, “Do not degrade yourself with the numbing shabbiness and irreverence of music that is not worthy of you. Delete the rubbish from your minds and your iPods. Protect your own personal standards! Be selective! Be wise! Do not allow unworthy, raucous music to enter your life. It is not harmless. It can weaken your defense and allow unworthy thoughts into your mind and pave the way to unworthy acts. Please remember: That which [does] not edify is not of God, and is darkness. That which is of God is light. [D&C 50:23–24] Dear brothers and sisters, please fill your minds with worthy sights and sounds. Cultivate your precious gift of the Holy Ghost. Protect it as the priceless gift that it is. Carefully listen for its quiet communication. You will be spiritually stronger if you do. You know the proverb ‘As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he’ (Proverbs 23:7). As you control your thoughts, you control your actions. Indeed, worthy music can provide power and protection for your soul.” I vaguely remember a story told by my mission president and his wife in one of our zone conferences that focused on the power of music. As I remember it, they had taken in a troubled youth into their home—foster care, I think—and stripped away his access to all of the negative things such as drugs that had been destroying his life. They had tried to help him clean up his ways and become a new person, which worked for a time. But eventually he found his way back to all of those things and addictive habits and destroyed all the progress they had made helping him repent and build a stable life. When my mission president and his wife pondered what they might have done wrong and how he had found his way back to all those destructive behaviors when he had for a short time become clean of them, they were taught by the Spirit the reason. They realized that it was his music, the one thing that had not been taken away, which sent him eventually back to his former ways. Their message to us was to not underestimate the power of music, both for good and for bad—it can both destroy and save lives.

                And so, knowing how important it is, how do we properly “be selective” and “be wise” in relation to the music that we listen to and participate in? The new For the Strength of Youth pamphlet says this, “Seek that which uplifts, inspires, and invites the Spirit. As you make choices about what to watch, read, listen to, or participate in, think about how it makes you feel. Does it invite good thoughts? Stay away from anything that mocks sacred things or that is immoral. Don’t participate in anything that dulls your judgment or sensitivity to the Spirit, such as violence, alcohol, and harmful drugs. Have the courage to turn off a video or game, walk out of a movie or a dance, change your music, or turn away from anything that is not consistent with the Spirit.” I believe that the 13^th article of faith should be frequently on our minds as we make these choices about what music we listen to and other media that we participate in. The Prophet Joseph Smith wrote, “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things” (Articles of Faith 1:13). Of course, he was really just quoting Paul in the New Testament who wrote to the Philippians, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8). We should not passively let the world dictate what we listen to or what is acceptable and we certainly should not depend solely on the world’s rating systems to decide what is acceptable or not. Rather, we should actively seek—the key word that Joseph added to Paul’s admonition—that which is good and virtuous and pure and praiseworthy (and let the rest go). I’m convinced that if we truly did this, most of what we watch and read and listen to as Latter-day Saints would be given up. We should take a lesson from the good people at Ephesus who believed in the words of Paul “and confessed, and shewed their deeds.” Luke recounted, “Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed” (Acts 19:18-20). They were willing to give up the things of the world—even though they were of great monetary value—because those things were not consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they threw them into the fire to be burned. We should cultivate that kind of willingness to forsake the music and books and media of the world unfit for a disciple of Jesus Christ. For, as Jesus so poignantly asked, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)