Gather Round the Standard Bearers

In Elder Soares' talk, he shared the story of a young man who stood firm in his beliefs, even though it seemed like he would have to stand alone. When his friends were looking at pornography on their cell phones, he had the courage to warn them to stop or it would addict them. most of them didn't listen, but remarkably, one of them did. In his talk, Elder Soares mentioned that he was sure that the two of them face ridicule as a result of their decision. I would add that I think it's likely that the two of them were able to support each other during the times when they were mocked.

Later in the talk, Elder Soares gave us this counsel, which concludes with an encouraging promise:

My dear brethren, because of the wave of confusion and doubt spreading throughout the world today, we must hold ever more tightly to our testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then will our ability to defend truth and justice greatly increase. We will win the daily battles against evil, and, rather than fall on the battlefields of life, we will rally others to the Master’s standards.

As we stand firm in defending the Lord's doctrine, we will undoubtedly make a few enemies, and we may lose some fair-weather friends, but Elder Soares seems certain that we will also make friends - friends which I believe will help us stand up for our beliefs.

As we uphold our standards, we may have to stand alone (in terms of earthly friends) briefly, but we won't always have to. If we boldly take a stand, others will stand with us. The other side of this coin is that, when we see other people standing up for their beliefs, we should support them in doing so. We may not agree with them on every point of doctrine, but we can at least respect their moral courage. As we stand up for our beliefs, we will find that there is more than one person who's willing to hold on to the iron rod, and we can all hold on together.