Thank you, Laurie, for preparing and presenting this week's lesson: Living What We Believe. When George Albert Smith was 34 years old, he made a list of resolutions that he called his 'personal creed':
"1. I would be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor.
"2. I would visit the sick and afflicted and inspire in them a desire for faith to be healed.
"3. I would teach the truth to the understanding and blessing of all mankind.
"4. I would seek out the erring one and try to win him back to a righteous and a happy life.
"5. I would not seek to force people to live up to my ideals but rather love them into doing the thing that is right.
"6. I would live with the masses and help to solve their problems that their earth life may be happy.
"7. I would avoid the publicity of high positions and discourage the flattery of thoughtless friends.
"8. I would 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.
"9. I would overcome the tendency to selfishness and jealousy and rejoice in the successes of all the children of my Heavenly Father.
"10. I would not be an enemy to any living soul.
"11. Knowing that the Redeemer of mankind has offered to the world the only plan that will fully develop us and make us really happy here and hereafter, I feel it not only a duty but also a blessed privilege to disseminate this truth."
"Now let us examine ourselves. Are we doing as much as we should? And if we are not, let us turn around and do better. If we are doing as we should, if we are reaching out in all directions to do good to the children of our Father, then we will bring to ourselves the blessing of an all wise Father, and we will rejoice in the good that we accomplish here... Let us be humble and prayerful, living near to our Heavenly Father, and evidence our belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ by living up to its principles. Let us evidence our faith in God, and in the work He has given to the earth, by a correct and consistent life, for after all that is the strongest testimony that we will be able to bear of the truth of this work."
I love the creed. I feel that it would be good to review it often to remember the covenants that I have made with my Heavenly Father. I am grateful that He is patient with me as I strive to learn to live the principles of the Gospel.
