True Christianity

We are taught that humility is one of the most key ways in which we can become more Christ-like. In King Benjamin’s address, he talks about all the ways in which we can become more humility. What I found to be common throughout all that he spoke of was our need to have a Christ-like attitude.

He first addresses that parents are responsible for the welfare of their children. They are to first and foremost provide for the physical well-being of their children. Then they are to take care of their children’s spiritual needs and encourage their children to live the gospel and practice charity within the families. Verse 16 of Mosiah 4, indicates that parents are to teach their kids attitudes. A parent can make a child do whatever they want, by means of punishment or reward, but they are to “teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness”; they are also to love and serve one another. The word walk indicates that it is not just an action, but is a daily activity, just as walking is a daily activity; no one has to encourage it, it just becomes part of their character.

I really enjoy the next few verses, verses 16-19. Basically it says that we have no right to deny basic things to those who ask of us, especially when we have things to give. Oftentimes, we meet a homeless person and say that they brought it on themselves. This is not so; verse 19 reminds that we all rely on God and that we are all beggars in some way or another; just the fact that we are inferior to God makes us beggars.

Again, we are reminded that it is the attitude of giving that makes us become Christ-like. Even as I think this, my first instinct is to say that that is a cop-out and that what we do is most important. But as we learn in verse 24, those who deny the beggar because they have not, but truly would give to the beggar, God will know their hearts and base his judgments on that. This is a good reminder to those who have and give, but do it with a feeling of annoyance that we are to be humble enough to really want to serve, and not just go through the motions.