More From Monson's Talk - Behavior Under Observation

When Jabari Parker, well-known basketball player, was asked to share the best advice his father had ever given him, he quoted his father as having said, "Just be the same person you are in the dark that you are in the light." President Monson shared that quote in the same talk I blogged about yesterday, but first, he shared a story about a young man that hadn't been the same person in the dark as he was in the light. In church, the young man "touched the hearts of the entire congregation as he spoke of gospel truths and of the joys of keeping the commandments." Just a few hours later, however, he was found "[walking] down the sidewalk dressed in scruffy clothes—and smoking a cigarette."

I've heard it said that a good way to judge a man's character is to see who he is and how he acts when he's alone and believes that no one is watching him. I think that the word "believes" in that sentence is very important, but I'll share more on that later. When we know we are being observed, we have more of a reason to be on our best behavior. Sometimes, we want to make a good impression. Sometimes we just want to not get in trouble. But if we thought that no one was watching us, if we felt like we could get away with doing whatever we wanted, our behavior might be different than what it's like when we know we're being observed.

President Monson has advised us to be the same people in the darkness as we are in the light - to be the same people when we're alone or with friends as we are when we're at church or at work. Basically, he encouraged us to always be on our best behavior, just as we would be if we knew the Savior was watching us. And guess what. He is.

One of my favorite hymns isn't in our hymnal. Nor, apparently, is it in our Children's Songbook. It's called "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," and it shares the message, "If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say/do the things I do?" The final verse goes:

He is always near me, though I do not see Him there,
And because He loves me dearly, I am in His watchful care,
So I’ll be the kind of person that I know I’d like to be
If I could see the Savior standing nigh watching over me.

In all honesty, we are always being watched by our Eternal Judge, so, even more so than with our friends or even at church, we have a very good reason to behave as well as we possibly can. Because, in reality, there is no darkness - at least, none that the Lord can't see through. We are always "in the light." So it makes perfect sense to follow the prophet's counsel and behave just as well in the darkness as we try to behave in the light.