Last week, we mistakenly posted Lesson 37 as Lesson 36. This is the real Lesson 36 from Manual 1.
Discussion Questions
• What are some gospel truths and standards that the world distorts?
• How can we explain living the law of chastity, a sacred and sensitive topic, to friends who may not believe the same way?
• What does integrity mean? What are the blessings of living true to what you know is right?
Excerpt from "I Believe in Being Honest and True," by Sister Ann M. Dibb, April 2011 General Conference:
When we are tempted to be dishonest, and this temptation comes to all of us, we may suppose that no one will ever know. This story reminds us that our Heavenly Father always knows, and we are ultimately accountable to Him. This knowledge helps me continually strive to live up to this commitment: “[I] believe in being honest.”
The second principle taught in the thirteenth article of faith is “[I] believe in being … true.” The dictionary defines the word true as being “steadfast,” “loyal,” “accurate,” or “without deviation.” 7
One of my favorite books is the British classic Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë and published in 1847. The main character, Jane Eyre, is a penniless, teenage orphan who exemplifies what it means to be true. In this fictional account, a man, Mr. Rochester, loves Miss Eyre but is unable to marry her. Instead, he begs Miss Eyre to live with him without the benefit of marriage. Miss Eyre loves Mr. Rochester as well, and for a moment she is tempted, asking herself, “Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?”
Quickly Jane’s conscience answers: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God. … Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this. … If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth—so I have always believed. … Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.” 8
In a desperate moment of temptation, Jane Eyre was true to her beliefs, she trusted in the law given by God, and she planted her foot in resistance to temptation.