I’ve been thinking about an incident in the young life of Joseph F. Smith. He was outside a camp gathering firewood when a group of Mormon-haters rode into camp and scattered all the men. Joseph F. considered running for a moment, but then decided to go confront them. He walked with his armful of firewood back into the camp, right up to an armed man who was cursing the Mormons.
The man bellowed at Joseph F.: “Are you a Mormon?”
Joseph responded: “Yes siree; dyed in the wool, true blue, through and through.”
The man was so disarmed that he grabbed Joseph F.’s hand and told him he was the “pleasantest man I ever met!” (with a few obscenities mixed in.)
I like that story. I consider myself a “true blue, through and through Mormon.” Despite that, I know we have problems and many flaws. The scriptures foretell our many deficiencies. But human weaknesses and shortcomings are no impediment to the Divine origin of Mormonism; nor its ultimate destiny.
I think it is an error to have an unreasonably high opinion of ourselves. Conversely, it is an error to conclude that all is lost because of our shortcomings. We are full of sins and errors, slogging along making institutional and individual errors daily. But we are also, institutionally and individually, called to be involved in God’s work to redeem His children. He loves us all, with a love which can overcome our many failures.