Valiant people are clear, as pure water is clear. The valiant person’s life echoes Shakespeare’s words, “I love the name of honor more than I fear death.”
“Trustworthy,” “loyal,” and “honorable” are words well applied to people who prove themselves valiant in supporting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Their behavior refreshes the soul, as clear water refreshes the body.
One of my favorite scriptural images is that found in James:
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
“For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was” (James 1:22-24).
James’ message here is more than “Just do it.” I think James wants us both to do and to understand that doers of the word see themselves in a spiritual mirror, not just a physical one. Indeed, for the valiant, what we see is what we get, for valiant behavior is a show of internal character, just as a mirror is a reflection of who looks into it.
On a birthday several years ago, I returned home to my condo to find that my small patio garden was filled with favorite flowers. Geraniums and columbines joined other varieties in gorgeous array. When I saw this beautiful gift, I wept. I knew who had planted these wonders, a woman in my ward with whom I served in Young Women. Weeks before at a meeting we had talked gardens, and I had said something about wanting flowers but not knowing what to plant in my small, shady spaces.
Without a word, the right flowers appeared. Nothing she could have done or said spoke more of love than the gift she chose. Her actions also bespoke that she was valiant in acting upon what she professed to believe. I learned a great lesson from this thoughtful pledge of friendship given by a woman whose actions are as clear and clean and valiant as pure water.
While Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail, he pled with the Lord for the Saints who were suffering greatly. The Lord’s answer, of which the following is part, fills the soul:
“For there is a time appointed for every man, according as his works shall be.
“God shall give you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed since the world was until now;
“Which our forefathers have awaited with anxious expectation to be revealed in the last times, which their minds were pointed to by the angels, as held in reserve for the fullness of their glory;
“A time to come in which nothing shall be withheld, whether there be one God or many gods, they shall be manifest.
“All thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, shall be revealed and set forth upon all who have endured valiantly for the gospel of Jesus Christ” (D&C 121:25-29).
So here we are, in the fulness of times, when “nothing shall be withheld”; in fact, all “shall be revealed and set forth” upon the valiant.
The prophets have usually used the word “valiant” in talking about heroic soldiers. People, like my garden-gifted friend, are valiant too. They do well what they can where they are, and what better can anyone do?
A few verses later in D&C 121, the question is asked, “How long can rolling waters remain impure” (D&C 121:33). For the valiant, those who act on what they believe, the answer is, “Not long.” My observation has been that valiant people often run over some rocks, yet they hurry on, anxious to get about the Lord’s work.
Those obstacles polish rough edges as they purify. Rolling waters and valiant people press forward in all weather, over all obstacles. Thus, the valiant, like pure water, become clear. Thus, the trustworthy, honorable, valiant souls of the earth refresh us.
