Security System

In these troubling times we often wonder how we can protect ourselves and our families from the evils of the world. While I am always a strong proponent of firearms and self defense, often we find ourselves in need of defense of a spiritual nature that only the Lord can provide. I was reminded of this the other night while attending a fireside with my teenage daughter. The speaker was a woman who is LDS and a former Miss California. She related a story of when she was young and was put into a position where someone wanted her to compromise her standards. She prayed for help and a way was found for her to maintain her standards.

This reminded me of when I was in college about 10 years ago. As a part of my quest for a degree I had to take two upper division electives in something unrelated to my major. The two electives had to be related to each other though. Originally I had wanted to take one of the several options on religion that were listed but due to budget cuts these had been cancelled. I also wanted to avoid any of the options regarding ethnic studies because in the state owned school I was in, these often turned into opportunities to say very vile things about people of other races, particularly whites.

Finally I settled on a set of classes. One was Adolescent Psychology. I had always enjoyed my general education psychology class and figured this one would just build on that. It was a pretty good class that I did enjoy quite a bit. The second class of the set that I took the following semester was Juvenile Delinquency. I figured this might not be too bad as it fit well with the previous class I had taken.

This turned out to be a very difficult class. I quickly learned that there was little difference between the crimes committed by some juveniles and some adults other than the ages of the perpetrators. Any horror that an adult was capable of, so was a juvenile. It was quite an eye opening experience and I quickly saw how good parenting makes such a big difference. I also learned why gang bangers are all kids, they are either dead by the time they reach adulthood or spending the rest of their lives in prison. Basically, the class became a study of how many modern day Gadiantons operate.

The instructor for the class had a PHD in criminology. She was tough as nails and had worked throughout the prison system for the state. She was a consultant for both state and federal prisons. The things she had seen were horrible. She had very high expectations for our performance in her classroom even though she knew most of us were not criminology majors. Her essay exams were particularly intense. In spite of the difficulty, I enjoyed the challenge and was doing quite well. Her comments on my reports and essays were very good and I felt confident I was doing well in the class.

When the final report was announced I could not believe what we were supposed to do. We were to watch a Hollywood movie that had as it's subject Juvenile Delinquency. Then we were to write a report on the movie describing how certain behaviors or scenes in the movie related to the several theories on delinquency that we had studied.

Unfortunately, most of the films that deal with this subject are rated R. They are horrible films about gangs such as Boyz in the Hood, Colors, etc. To make matters worse, when suggesting films to use she had told how a woman in one of her classes had used the Disney classic Pinocchio and done an excellent report. She then followed up this comment with a warning of how she did not want another report on Pinocchio again.

Immediately my heart sank. I did not want to compromise my standards. My spiritual defense and indeed the best defense we have is to keep our lives as clean as possible so that we can be receptive to the Spirit. I had been serving as a Stake Missionary at this time and relied heavily on the influence of the Spirit to do the calling.

I went home that day depressed. I expressed my concerns first with my wife who understood my frustration but could offer no solution. I knew that talking to the instructor would be pointless. She was as hard as flint when it came to this subject. She did not budge. I desperately did not want to compromise my standards and poured out my heart to my Heavenly Father for assistance. I had come to rely on my Heavenly Father throughout my college experience. I studied hard but prayed hard for the assistance I needed. I prayed at home, in my car, and even in the school library. I know it made all the difference.

I prayed several times over the next few weeks for a way. I pleaded for some way that I could fulfill the assignment without compromising my standards. All I could think about was how easy it would have been if Pinocchio had not been taken off the table. I grew sad thinking I might have no choice but to watch some vile film. I wondered if there was a way to get an edited version of one of the films that would meet the requirement.

One night as my wife and I were watching television a commercial came on. I don't remember exactly what it was. It was either for a musical that was playing in theater in the city, one that was appearing on television in movie form, or it was a commercial where a tune from one of these musicals was used to sell a product. I wasn't really paying attention but the distinct impression came to me at that moment to ask my wife about a musical I had never seen and one which I didn't even know the plot of.

I looked over at my wife and asked her, "What is West Side Story about?" Her eyes got big and she went on to describe gang fights between the Sharks and Jets, forbidden love, racial strife, etc. We had found the answer to my prayers through the inspiration of the Spirit.

We rented the movie and the report was written shortly thereafter. I received an A for that report and great comments from the instructor. The Lord had helped me find a way to maintain my standards but still fulfill the requirement. I still have a copy of that report somewhere at home. It is one of the few from college I kept a copy of. I value it not so much for the grade but for the tangible evidence it is to me that the Lord does hear and answer our prayers. He will help us in our spiritual defense, as long as we are willing to maintain that defense.