Code of Honor

I am (probably) teaching a lesson at Institute today. The lesson material is to be taken from the life and teachings of President George Albert Smith, and one of the most notable things I read about his life was the writing of his personal creed. At age 34, just after his call to the Apostleship a year earlier, he wrote:

I would be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor.
I would visit the sick and afflicted and inspire in them a desire for faith to be healed.
I would teach the truth to the understanding and blessing of all mankind.
I would seek out the erring one and try to win him back to a righteous and a happy life.
I would not seek to force people to live up to my ideals but rather love them into doing the thing that is right.
I would live with the masses and help to solve their problems that their earth life may be happy.
I would avoid the publicity of high positions and discourage the flattery of thoughtless friends.
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.
I would overcome the tendency to selfishness and jealousy and rejoice in the successes of all the children of my Heavenly Father.
I would not be an enemy to any living soul.
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.
-“President George Albert Smith’s Creed,” Improvement Era, Apr. 1950, 262.

Thinking about this and other surprisingly exemplary people, I've been thinking about writing a personal creed for myself, some kind of Code of Honor, such as those paladins are known for living by and dying for. The 11 points of President Smith's creed would be a good starting point for my own creed, though I probably should have quite so many points, so it'll be easier to remember them all. The eighth point, "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," is certainly worth including, though perhaps not quite in those words. I may blend it with President Smith's fifth point, "I would not seek to force people to live up to my ideals but rather love them into doing the thing that is right."

Whatever I include in my Code of Honor, it will need to be points that are personally meaningful to me, phrased in ways that I can understand their meaning and apply them. And, knowing me, it would help if it were the kind of Code a paladin could live by. Looking online for a Paladin's Code of Honor, I found this:

The standard rules offer the following code of conduct for paladins:
Never commit an evil act.
Respect legitimate authority.
Act with honor (don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t use poison, and so on).
Help those who need help (provided they do not use the help for evil ends)
Punish those that harm or threaten innocents.

Good guidelines, except that last one. The first one is a little bit vague and all-encompassing. But the list is something that I can work with. It's short enough that I should be able to remember it all. It'll take some adapting to get it to work with gospel principles, but it'll be worth it.

Thinking about gospel principles, especially in relation to respecting legitimate authority, I was reminded of the 12th Article of Faith, and it occurred to me that many of the Articles of Faith, especially the last three, could be adapted into a Code of Honor - more like a Code of Righteousness.

And if those aren't enough resources, I can also pull from the covenant in the Sacramental Prayers, which, abbreviated, is that we are willing to:

Take upon ourselves the name of Christ,
Always remember Him,
And keep His commandments which He has given us.

Again, there's the problem of being too vague, but on my mission, I set personal goals based on those three ideals, giving specific ways to follow each of them. I should check my old Missionary Daily Planners and see if I can adapt those personal goals into a Code of Honor.

I think President George Albert Smith had the right idea when he wrote his creed. We all need a set of guidelines to follow, and the church provides several, but consolidating them into a short list of principles is a wise way to make sure you remember everything that you've pledged that you would do. In order to be effective, these creeds need to be personalized and specific to each person. It'll take me a while to write my creed or Code of Honor, but if it helps me to be more like a paladin, which will help me to be more like God, it'll be worth the time I invest into writing it.