The Responsibility to Follow and Set Good Examples

Last night, I participated in a ceremony in which four young men, boys really, bridged over from Cub Scouts into Boy Scouts, with me as their new Boy Scout leader. (Actually, one of the boys who bridged that night is actually part of a different group, but there was a fourth boy who should have bridged into our group, but he couldn't make it that night, so the total numbers of boys bridging and boys joining our patrol are the same.) Owing to the fact that the patrol I was in charge of had no members until that point, I had already been working with those boys for a month or two (it might have been longer, but it hasn't felt very long), and a parent of one of those young men came up to me after the ceremony and told me that the boys look up to me. When I was called to this position, I had been warned that they would, but it was at that point that I received confirmation that it had already begun.

In the Priesthood session of this last General Conference, President Eyring gave a talk about examples. He spoke of how he follows the examples of Priesthood leaders that helped him as a child, and how we all need to follow - and be - good examples now. He said:

Each of you will be a model of a priesthood man whether you want to be or not. You became a lighted candle when you accepted the priesthood. The Lord put you on the candlestick to light the way for everyone who surrounds you. That is especially true for those in your priesthood quorum. You can be a great model, an average one, or a bad model. You may think it doesn’t matter to you, but it does to the Lord.

I have become, whether I ever wanted to be one or not, an example of a Priesthood-holding, Boy Scouting young man to those four boys in our new patrol. This is an awe-inspiring responsibility, but one that I, as a Paladin, must become used to shouldering. Paladins in fantasy stories are often portrayed as living examples of righteousness to those who are around them. They inspire others to be brave and true. If I want to be a Paladin, or at least a person who's very much like a Paladin in many ways, I need to set a good example to all those in my sphere of influence, including those young men. They already look up to me, or so I've been told, so it is my responsibility to be someone they can look up to.

President Eyring suggested that some people in his audience might not have taken their responsibility to be good examples very seriously, but that's not true of me. I know the importance of being a good example to my scouts, and it almost scares me. I'm not yet the kind of person that I want to be - that I know I should be. I have yet to become as righteous or as perfect as a Paladin, to say nothing of hoping to become like Jesus Christ! I am an example to my scouts, but I'm not a perfect one.

I can, however, still be a good example to my patrol, despite not being perfect. One does not need to be perfect to set an example that's worth following. Paladins aren't perfect. They're probably much too violent and judgmental for Jesus' taste, as well as being so caught up in the strict rules of their unbreakable code of honor that they don't recognize moments when the rules need to be bent or changed or simply ignored to serve the greater good. When Jesus was presented with the woman who had been taken in adultery, He showed mercy to her, whereas a Paladin might have had her stoned. I don't want to be a Paladin in that sense, just as there are a few traits that I have that I hope not to pass on to my scouts or future kids, but Paladins are good enough that most of the example they set is worth following, and I hope that will be true for me as well.

We each set examples for our fellow beings to follow, whether we want to or not. Whether our examples are good ones or not is completely up to us and how we act around others. I want to set a good example, so I want to be a good role model, especially to those recently-bridged Boy Scouts. It's a responsibility I never asked for (or maybe I did, without realizing it), but one that I'll bear nonetheless. And actually, I'm glad I'm being set as an example to those boys. Hopefully, it'll help motivate me to be the kind of person whose example I'd want them to follow. It makes me want to follow good examples, knowing that those boys may follow mine.