heroes

• man profoundly influenced by character of his

92:7.12These in­ter­me­di­ate stages of idol­a­trous hes­i­ta­tion in the trans­fer of ven­er­a­tion from the hu­man and the vis­i­ble to the di­vine and in­vis­i­ble are in­ev­i­ta­ble, but they should be short­ened by the con­scious­ness of the fa­cil­i­tat­ing min­istry of the in­dwelling di­vine spirit. Nev­er­the­less, man has been pro­foundly in­flu­enced, not only by his con­cepts of De­ity, but also by the char­ac­ter of the heroes whom he has cho­sen to honor. It is most un­for­tu­nate that those who have come to ven­er­ate the di­vine and risen Christ should have over­looked the man—the valiant and coura­geous hero—Joshua ben Joseph.

• help children choose

140:5.14It is easy to teach this ad­mo­ni­tion even to a child. Chil­dren are nat­u­rally trust­ful, and par­ents should see to it that they do not lose that sim­ple faith. In deal­ing with chil­dren, avoid all de­cep­tion and re­frain from sug­gest­ing sus­pi­cion. Wisely help them to choose their heroes and se­lect their life­work.

• thief on cross saw a true hero

187:4.5This young man, the pen­i­tent brig­and, had been led into a life of vi­o­lence and wrong­do­ing by those who ex­tolled such a ca­reer of rob­bery as an ef­fec­tive pa­tri­otic protest against po­lit­i­cal op­pres­sion and so­cial in­jus­tice. And this sort of teach­ing, plus the urge for ad­ven­ture, led many oth­er­wise well-mean­ing youths to en­list in these dar­ing ex­pe­di­tions of rob­bery. This young man had looked upon Barab­bas as a hero. Now he saw that he had been mis­taken. Here on the cross be­side him he saw a re­ally great man, a true hero. Here was a hero who fired his zeal and in­spired his high­est ideas of moral self-re­spect and quick­ened all his ide­als of cour­age, man­hood, and brav­ery. In be­hold­ing Je­sus, there sprang up in his heart an over­whelm­ing sense of love, loy­alty, and gen­uine great­ness.