Man-Up Bro!

I don’t know if I have mentioned before that I am the Young Men’s President in my ward. This gives me a great opportunity to spend a lot of time with boys that range in age from 12 to 18. It is really a great blessing for me.

Last summer I spent a week with the 16-18 year olds hiking the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. It was an amazing experience and we had a lot of fun. There were parts of the week that were quite challenging. At one particularly difficult point, where a couple of the boys were complaining, one of the older boys; a star of the high school football team, said “Man-up Bro”, meaning stop being a baby and just do it!

Although this is something we laughed about at the time, it is something that I have thought about many times since then. I have often asked myself how this applies to my life; or in other words, how do I need to “Man-up?”

Last week I was out of town on business. I had a crew of 7 with me, and the production company I was working for had a crew of 3. Of this staff of 10 people, 6 of us are endowed Latter-day-Saints. Of these 6, only 2 are currently active. The other 4, all returned missionaries, were drinking and partying with the non-members we were with.

Now I don’t mean to “cast stones” at anyone. I certainly have my own temptations and am far from doing all I should be doing, but I ask myself how does one fall so far from doing the right thing? When does one “Man-up and do the right thing?

A couple of weeks ago a few of my staff and I were sitting around the conference table in my office. The name of a mutual acquaintance came up. Now, I know that this person is a Latter-day-Saint. Someone in the group said “that guy gives me the creeps”, I chimed in “something about him is slimy.” This type of commenting went around the room until one employee said “when I judged him, I said the same thing.” He said this to be funny, and we all laughed, but it also cut me to the core. I realized that I indeed was judging this man. I then thought of the commandment to avoid “evil speaking of the Lord’s anointed.” We often interpret this phrase to mean sustaining church leaders. However, are not all endowed Latter-day-Saints anointed? When will I “Man-up” and stop participating in these types of conversations?

Our world today is filled with filth. There are so many ways for us to be immoral that they are too many to number. Unfortunately too many, even Latter-day-Saints, fall short of expectations. In our most recent General Conference, Elder Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve spoke on this subject.

Elder Cook told a story of when he was a boy he often visited his grandfather’s ranch. The ranch house got it’s water from a nearby spring. The spring was important to his grandfather and he always kept it clean and took extra care to protect it. When his grandfather was in his nineties, and no longer lived on the farm, Elder Cook took him back for a visit. Much to his grandfather’s disappointment, the fence surrounding the spring had fallen in to disrepair and cows had ruined the spring. The grandfather was very upset at this finding. Elder Cook said “To him, it was a violation of a trust he had observed all his working life. He felt somehow he had not protected that life-sustaining spring which had meant so much to him.”

Elder Cook went on to say “As servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is our sacred responsibility to teach His standard of morality, which is the same for all of His children. When our thoughts or our actions are impure, we violate His standard. The Lord has said, “I . . . cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” Some attempt to rationalize away their conduct.

In a poem by John Holmes titled “Talk,” an old, deaf New England shipbuilder teaches a young man about rationalization. In describing one of the lessons he learned, the youth explains, “I wouldn’t have known that however you build it, the ship must sail; you can’t explain to the ocean.”

It has been suggested that what happens in a certain city stays in a certain city. I like the sign posted in Sevier County, Utah, which states, “What happens in Sevier County . . . you can share with your friends!!!” When we realize that we are accountable to God, we see how foolish rationalizations can be. Those who rationalize remind us of little children who cover their eyes, convinced that if they can’t see us, we can’t see them. I would suggest that if we think about giving an accounting of our actions to the Savior, our rationalizations will be seen in their true light.

We are aware that there are those who have already engaged in conduct inconsistent with this sacred standard of morality. Please understand that through the Savior’s Atonement, all can repent and return, like the spring of water, to a clean and pure state. It is difficult to repent; it requires a broken heart and a contrite spirit. But when the steps to repentance are righteously followed, the words spoken by the prophet Alma to his son Corianton, who had been involved in moral transgressions, are applicable: “And now, my son, I desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more, and only let your sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you down unto repentance.” The Savior has said, “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.”

It is time for each of us to “Man-up” and to take responsibility for our actions. For most of us this means to recognize that we have made mistakes that we need to repent of. We need to recognize that we need the Savior and His atonement. Then we need to take a step toward change. From my own experience I have learned that if we begin this way, the Lord will step in and help us along the way. I know that He loves us and will do all he can to help us succeed. May we all be willing to accept help from Him!