Were You Raised Right?

This week in one of our lessons, we talked about how children need to be taught how to cooperate, respect, be responsible, and have courage. The last one struck me and a surprise. Whenever I think about necessary characteristics, I never think about courage but as I think about it more and more it only makes sense. People need to have a back bone and stand up for what they believe in. They need to have courage that it's ok not to do drugs even though your best friends are. They need to have courage to wear modest clothing when girls around them at an all LDS school are wearing skirts that are less than appropriate. They need to have the courage to stand up to parents who are criticizing them for believing when their parents have gone astray. How interesting that we don't talk about courage more often. My first semester at BYU-I, the hardest adjustment for me was seeing members sin... badly. I grew up in an area with hardly any members and so it wouldn't have been as big of a deal for people around me back home to do those things but I expect and was naive about the mormon population. I just thought everyone would be good! I'm just so grateful that I had the courage to stay home on some Friday nights instead of going to a dance party or disobey the honor code. Courage is a gift and should not be taken for granted.