"True"

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men. Indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul. We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

~13th Article of Faith~

Today in sacrament meeting Ryan spoke as a youth speaker about the 13th Article of Faith. His talk included a wonderful quote by President Hinckley, as well as some thoughtful personal insights and testimony from Ryan. I was quite impressed, given the fact that he remembered he had a talk last night at 10pm (church begins at 9am), and wrote the majority of it this morning - oh well, live and learn.

This evening in Family Home Evening our lesson focused again on this insightful declaration of what we, as members of the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day Saints, truly believe. The part I wanted the children to really understand is what it means to be "true." Do we profess to believe and act according to our standards in one arena of life, only to behave differently when we find ourselves among others whose standards are not as high? I think that staying "true" can be a struggle for just about anyone at any age. How do our actions everyday in every situation truly reflect our devotion and committment to the Lord? We then discussed what it means to be "hypocritical" and how difficult it would be to share the gospel with those who observe us behaving less than our standards dictate. I do believe that keeping the 13th article of faith close to our hearts will keep our family strong and bless each member with greater integrity.


This is the quote Ryan used in his talk: "This article of faith is one of the basic declarations of our theology. We ought to reflect on it again and again. I wish that every family in the Church would write out that article of faith and put it on a mirror where every member of the family would see it every day. Then, whenever we might be tempted to do anything shoddy or dishonest or immoral, there would come into our minds with some force this great, encompassing statement of the ethics of our behavior. There would be less rationalizing over some elements of our personal conduct which we try to justify with one excuse or another."

~ President Gordon B. Hinckley