These simple 'four agreements' will change your life, Godfrey says

By Camille Blake

November 20, 2004 | The Institute Women's Association for the Logan Institute of the LDS Church invited Ron Godfrey to speak at the Logan Tabernacle Wednesday night. Godfrey proposed four points to follow that would make life happier. The first was to always be impeccable with your words, second never take anything personally, third never assume anything and fourth to always do your best.

"I promise you will live happily ever after, for the rest of your life," Godfrey said about applying the four points to life.

Godfrey is vice president for the business and finance department at Utah State University. He is also serving at the second councilor in the first university stake for the LDS church. He has six children and two grandchildren. His wife, Marilynn, accompanied him.

Godfrey said when we speak impeccably it changes our behavior. He defined impeccable as without sin, faultless. Ninety-eight percent of people don't like to hear what's wrong with them. When we are speaking impeccably, we won't speak unkindly about others and we will stop gossiping, he said. Our attitudes will change. We will treat others better and we will treat ourselves better.

Never ever, ever take anything personally, Godfrey said. When others are telling us we are stupid or not good enough, they are really telling us about themselves, he said. He related a story of an athlete so talented that fans from the opposing team despised him. After a game in a visiting city, a man came up to him and told him he was worthless trash. The athlete turned to the man and said, "God bless you. I hope that your life is blessed." Godfrey said the point of this story is we don't need to let what other people say affect us. The athlete believed in himself and wasn't effected by what the man said.

"Nothing is ever as bad as we imagine them to be," Godfrey said.

He told a story about a businessman who had come into a meeting to find an empty seat next to a man. The businessman leaned over and asked the man if the seat was taken. The man said nothing but stared straight ahead. The businessman was upset at the lack of response, but sat in the seat anyways. He spent the whole meeting angry with the man sitting next to him. After the meeting was over, a man sitting on the other side leaned over and introduced himself and his friend who was deaf. The business man was then ashamed for feeling angry at a man who could not have heard him.

Godfrey said we are so quick to assume the worst. Girls may see another group of girls whispering, and assume they are being talked about, he said. If we strip ourselves of the games we play in assuming the worst, we will be a lot happier and have better self-esteem, Godfrey said.

"Always do your best," Godfrey said.

He continued on to tell the story of his heroine Rosa Parks. In 1954, Rosa Parks got on a bus and sat down in the back designated for African Americans. A white man got onto the bus after Rosa and demanded her seat. She refused to give it up, when it was required of her. The bus driver pulled over and called the police. Godfrey said Rosa Parks' action was the start of the civil rights movement. She always had lived her life the best she could so that when this moment came she could be held as something great. Rosa Parks was recognized because she had no blemishes; she was impeccable.

We need to constantly check ourselves to see if we are doing our best, he said. Godfrey knew Ty Detmer in college. A couple of years later when Detmer was baptized into the LDS church, he went to a conference in Texas a few days later. There was only ice tea to drink. Detmer didn't drink ice tea because his new religion asked all members not to. He asked for water and a lady behind him noticed and commented to him about it. She had heard that was he newly baptized. Godfrey said the point of the story was that if Detmer had not been doing his best, the lady my have though differently of the LDS church.

"People watch us as Latter-day Saints and draw conclusions based on our actions," Godfrey said. He emphasized the importance of doing our best because non-members would be watching us.

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