In this address for a fireside broadcast on Feb. 26, 1989, President Gordon B. Hinckley speaks to specific groups of single adults in the church.
"Somehow we have put a badge on a very important group in the Church. It reads 'Singles.' I wish we would not do that. You are individuals, men and women, sons and daughters of God, not a mass of 'look-alikes' or 'do-alikes.' ... Your numbers include various categories — young men and women who have never married and who, possibly, are not yet ready for marriage. Some of you wish to serve missions first, and that is commendable. Your numbers include some who are older who have not married and who may not have that opportunity in this life. There are likewise those who have been married and who are now divorced, and also many who have been widowed."
President Hinckley offers advice to individuals in each of these categories. To those who have never had the opportunity to be married, he says, "I assure you that we are sensitive to the loneliness that many of you feel. Loneliness is a bitter and painful thing. I suppose all people have felt it at one time or another. Our hearts reach out to you with understanding and love. We do not pity you, for you do not want pity. You want opportunity and challenge and appreciation. ... I send a charge to reach beyond the routine of your daily work to serve in the Church, in the community, in the society of which you are a part. Though your talents be meager, polish them. Increase your skills, extend your love to help those who need your lifting hand."
President Hinckley also reaches out to those who have lost a spouse to death.
"The Lord is your strength. He is available to you, and, when invited, by His Spirit He will come to you. You, too, have great talents to enrich the lives of others. You will find comfort and strength as you lose yourself in their service. Your own troubles will be forgotten as you help others with theirs. Your burdens will become lighter as you lift the burdens of the downtrodden and the oppressed," he says.
Read the rest of President Hinckley remarks at LDS.org, and see similar stories from The Vault.