A personal creed

The one thing I have remembered from High School (along with the many things that I want to forget) is studying To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, in particular the character Atticus Finch and the description of his daughter Scout who said he was “the same in his house as he is on the public streets.” I have never forgotten that because I decided the day I read that passage - that that was something I would try and live for the rest of my life......

I thought about Atticus today because although a fictional character in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird - his character was someone of integrity, someone who lived what he believed and was a great example to his children and community. I have never forgotten that and almost twenty five years later, I met another man like this, his name - George Albert Smith. Smith lived from 1870 to 1951 and while researching his life in preparation for teaching a group of women I learnt that he was someone, like Atticus that was "the same in his house as he was on the public streets" and someone who lived what he believed.

When he was 34, George Albert Smith made a list of resolutions that he called his "personal creed" - 11 ideals that he committed to live by. He must have achieved that and more because the inscription on his graveside reads " He understood and disseminated the teachings of Christ and was uncommonly successful in putting them into practice. He was kind, patient, wise, tolerant, and understanding. He went about doing good. He loved Utah and America, but was not provincial. He had faith, without reservation, in the need for and in the power of love. For his Church and his family he unbounded affection and served them passionately, yet his love was not limited; it included all men, regardless of race, faith, or station. To them and of them he frequently said: "We are all our Father's children".

Here are five of those resolutions which I am going to strive to live in 2012. Actually, looking at them, I think it is going to take me the rest of my life to get these right :-). I thank George Albert Smith for being such a wonderful example of how to live these....

I will:

Not seek to force people to live up to my ideals but rather love ten into doing the thing that is right.

Not knowingly wound the feelings of any, not even one who may have wronged me, but would seek to do him good and make him my friend. There is a story that on learning that someone had stolen from his buggy the buggy robe, instead of being angry, Smith responded "I wish we knew who it was, so that we could give him the blacnket also, for he much have been cold; and some food also, for he much have been hungry." I know - was he for real? The answer - yes!

Be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor.

Not be an enemy to any living soul. I have to admit this is going to be hard.

Overcome the tendency to selfishness and jealously and rejoice in the sucessess of all the children of my Heavenly Father.

Well, I'll let you know how I go.

Happy New Year.

Yours in friendship,

Mxo