A Trio of Truths – Sunday, April 17, 1983
Moral courage characterizes the highest order of manhood and womanhood. It is the courage to seek and to speak the truth; the courage to be just, to be honest, to resist temptation; the courage to do one’s duty.
A great deal of the unhappiness and much of the vice in the world comes from a lack of moral courage and purpose. The weak and undisciplined person is at the mercy of every temptation. A national researcher studying self-fulfillment reported that “nothing has subverted self-fulfillment more thoroughly than self-indulgence.”1
In order to have moral courage and do the things that are best for us, we must believe we are capable—we must have faith in ourselves, as well as in our values. If we excuse ourselves because “we can’t,” we never will…for “without faith [we] can do nothing.”2
Popular clichés often miss the point of moral courage. For example, consider the description of a person groping for life as someone who “has not found himself.” The statement is not accurate because self is created, not found. We change our circumstances by changing our attitudes and exercising our moral courage.
Or consider those who give up on life and dismiss it as “hopeless.” They have become discouraged and have lost all hope. Of course, the Lord could intervene and help at any time, but He knows it is through the exercise of faith and courage that we grow and become stronger. We learn the virtue of self-discipline that helps forge strong character traits. And the cycle repeats itself again and again.
By blending courage with faith, we create character. Character, in turn, brings the moral courage and faith to stand firm or yield when desirable. And so the circle is complete, ready to begin again.
The actual building of moral courage is an individual, personal endeavor which goes on inside of us each day. It is an achievement, not a gift. It develops gradually through continuous right decisions, and it must be pursued systematically through the end of our days.
Moral courage brings self-discipline, self-respect and self-control. It brings victory over oneself, and that is the ultimate challenge facing each of us in the personal search for truth.
1 Daniel Yankelevich, Time Magazine, August 3, 1982, p. 18.
2 Doctrine and Covenants 8.10
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April 17, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,800