Jesus Christ Is Your Strength
What’s Your “Attitude”?
Your attitude toward the principles in the For the Strength of Youth guide can help you soar to greater heights.
Pilots refer to an airplane’s position in the air as its attitude. Is the airplane nose-up or nose-down? Turning or cruising straight and level? In English, an attitude can also mean a mindset for dealing with the ups and downs of life. An old saying about both flying and life is this: “Our attitude determines our altitude.”
What will our attitude be as we read For the Strength of Youth: A Guide for Making Choices? Our attitude about the principles in the guide can be life-changing and can affect whether we will soar to new heights or sink to a lower level.
The Savior gave us a great place to start. He said, “Blessed are the meek” (Matthew 5:5). We can practice having a meek attitude by being righteous, humble, and willing to follow gospel teachings. Here are three questions that express different attitudes we might have about the principles we’ve been given.
Attitude 1: How Bad Can I Be?
Those with this attitude say, “Where is the line? I want to live as close to it as possible without crossing over it.” It is as dangerous as a skydiver asking, “How close can I get to the ground before opening my parachute?”
Attitude 2: How Good Do I Have to Be?
This attitude is looking for the least possible effort. This is like asking a teacher, “What is the least I can do and still pass the class?” It is like the skydiver saying, “I want to do a good job packing my parachute, but not that good.”
Attitude 3: How Valiant Can I Be?
A boy once told me he went to seminary at 5:00 a.m. I said, “That is super early. Why do you go?” He simply answered, “Because I want to. I love it. Seminary is the best part of my day.” His attitude was “I want to be valiant!” For him, obedience was a quest, not an irritation.
That is like the skydiver saying, “I pack my parachute carefully and open it long before I hit the ground because I love to skydive and want to keep doing it.” That kind of attitude will help us soar.
In the Book of Mormon, King Lamoni’s father offered a beautiful prayer that perfectly expresses that third attitude:
“O God … wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee” (Alma 22:18).
The king did not say, “How bad can I be and know thee?” or “Exactly how good do I have to be to know thee?” No, his attitude was “I will give away all my sins to know thee.”
Higher and Holier Habits
The Lord is trusting us not to look for loopholes but to instead look for higher and holier habits. If something is not spelled out as clearly in the guide as we were expecting, let’s not ask, “What will God permit?” but “What would God prefer?” The second question reveals the willing heart that the Lord desires each of us to develop as He teaches us to be meek.
If I get in an airplane, I don’t want the pilot to be asking “How bad can I be?” or even “How good do I have to be?” I want him or her to be asking, “How valiant can I be?” In flying and in life, attitude will determine our altitude. The For the Strength of Youth guide was not written to explain minimums of behavior but doctrine for discipleship. It is truly the next level.