“When I Get Big”

In 1968 the Ford Motor Company had a famous advertising slogan, “Ford has a better idea.” Such a slogan brings to mind the very essence of the human spirit—especially in youth.

“When I am big and free to do as I please, I’ll do things differently!” many a young person declares.

Great goal. Most of us would surely like to do things better than we or others around us do—and in matters to which we have put some significant thought, often we can indeed come up with a better way. But it will never be better than God’s way.

Ironically, the Ford Motor Company has had to come up with numerous slogans over the years, so evidently the “better idea” had to be replaced by a better idea—as early as 1969, just one year later. That is not to disparage the company’s advertising agents of course—it just means that part of growth and creativity involves coming up with better ideas all the time, not just once.

We all like to flatter ourselves that we are innovative trend-setters, yet how humbling it is to realize that “there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us” (Ecclesiastes 1:9, 10).

So, while I’m on the way to “getting big,” my chief aims really should focus on being watchful about my particular weaknesses and overcoming my sins in striving for eternity. Others have made blind mistakes before me—so who is to say that I am immune to that syndrome?

“God does not bid the youth to be less aspiring. The elements of character that make a man successful and honored among men—the irrepressible desire for some greater good, the indomitable will, the strenuous exertion, the untiring perseverance—are not to be crushed out. By the grace of God they are to be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 602.

John the Baptist’s motto regarding Christ was, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Was that a good way to be? The Lord of heaven gives the answer: “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28).

So what's not only the better—but the best—way to be when you “get big”? “Walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous” (Proverbs 2:20).