For the first five minutes of class, I’d like you to think about and answer on paper these questions. I will ask for volunteers to share their answers.
1. What’s the hardest test you’ve ever taken, and what were the results or consequences of that test?
2. When in your life have you shown courage, and what were the results or consequences of your display of courage?
Mosiah 11-17
Many stories of courage.
Abinadi: How was he courageous? What tests did he face? What were the consequences of his courage?
Alma the Elder: How was he courageous? What tests did he face? What were the consequences of his courage?
The chances of us being called on to defend the gospel of Christ to the level Abinadi was called to are slim. But we face multiple tests of our convictions and courage to be disciples of Christ pretty much daily.
How?
What power do we have to draw on?
2 Kings 6:14-17
Mosiah 16:9
2 Timothy 1:7
Examples of tests or courage from President Monson:
May I speak … about the courage to refrain from judging others. Oh, you may ask, “Does this really take courage?” And I would reply that I believe there are many times when refraining from judgment—or gossip or criticism, which are certainly akin to judgment—takes an act of courage.
Unfortunately, there are those who feel it necessary to criticize and to belittle others. You have, no doubt, been with such people, as you will be in the future. … We are not left to wonder what our behavior should be in such situations. … [The Savior] admonished, “Cease to find fault one with another” [Doctrine and Covenants 88:124]. It will take real courage when you are surrounded by your peers and feeling the pressure to participate in such criticisms and judgments to refrain from joining in. … … I plead with you to have the courage to refrain from judging and criticizing those around you, as well as the courage to make certain everyone is included and feels loved and valued.
Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully but also as the determination to live decently.
Worthwhile
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
IT IS EASY ENOUGH to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is one who will smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
It is easy enough to be prudent,
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it's only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honor on earth
Is the one that resists desire.
By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world's highway is cumbered to-day;
They make up the sum of life.
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile,
It is these that are worth the homage on earth
For we find them but once in a while.
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