Choice—The Crucible of Character | J. Richard Clarke | February 1989

Classic BYU Speeches

BYU Speeches

Religion & Spirituality

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🗓️ 6 September 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Christlike character is cultivated through our choices, not our circumstances or predispositions. We are always accountable for the outcome of our actions. Click here to access the speech page.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the classic speeches podcast presented by BYU Speeches, bringing you treasured talks from 70 years of BYU Devotionals.
0:09.5	Be sure to check out our other podcasts by searching BYU speeches wherever you get your podcasts,
0:14.7	or by visiting speeches.bYU.edu slash podcasts.
0:22.1	It is the only.edu.edu slash podcasts. It is the ultimate design of and purpose of our divine creator that we develop a Christ-like character.
0:32.2	A noble character is the product of a life well invested.
0:42.4	While our intellect may be the gift of God or our ancestral pedigree, our character is man-made and the fruit of personal exertion. In this sense,
0:51.5	we are a co-creator with our Heavenly Father.
0:55.6	Our character is produced from the crucible of human experience.
1:00.0	The forging process removes impurities and tempers and shapes us
1:05.3	so that we might realize the measure of our creation.
1:10.2	Character is the leohona of our moral conduct.
1:16.3	The philosopher Emmanuel Kant wrote,
1:20.5	No doubt it is good and a desirable thing to have intelligence, sagacity, judgment,
1:27.3	and other intellectual gifts by whatever
1:31.3	name they may be called.
1:34.3	It is also good and desirable in many respects to possess by nature such qualities as courage,
1:41.3	resolution, and perseverance.
1:43.3	But all these gifts, these gifts of nature, may be in the
1:49.6	highest degree pernicious and hurtful if the will which directs them or what is called
1:56.8	character is not itself good."
2:01.6	Character is the power to act upon principle, the discipline to follow through with resolutions
2:09.6	long after this spirit in which they were made has passed.
	...

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