Faith and Virtue: Let Our Minds Be Firm

I was reading this morning about faith in Preach My Gospel, and how faith in Christ includes having a "firm belief" that He is the Savior of the world. In the scriptures, whenever people are talking about "firmness," they are talking about having firm minds. I love the description of the two-thousand stripling warriors:

Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually (Alma 57:27; emphasis added).

Thinking about how we can make our minds firm led me to the Doctrine and Covenants, which says the following:

Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven (Doctrine and Covenants 121:45; emphasis added).

Faith and virtue are united. Even Peter says, "add to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge" (
2 Peter 1:5). Our faith will increase when we learn to control our thoughts. Our entire being will be pointed toward Christ when we allow Him to be at our center. We have to let Christ change us. I love this summary of what we believe—as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—and what I believe:

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things” (Articles of Faith 1:13).