In a family night many years ago, we coined a phrase as a family: Stand tall or sit small. Standing tall means you are willing to stand for a principle, a value, or a standard of truth. Sitting small means you follow the crowd and cower to peer pressure. Sitting small means you abandon a belief or idea sacred to you because everyone else does. Sitting small is a state of weakness, while standing tall is a state of spiritual strength.

In the Book of Mormon there is a fascinating invitation to the righteous Nephites from Giddianhi the Gadianton robber. Giddiahni, an extremely wicked man, says, “yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us” (3 Nephi 3:7, emphasis added). Here is a wicked man saying, “Be like me.” I am certain Lachoneus, the governor, thought, “You are a cheeseball, I have no desire to be like you.” Giddianhi only echoes the sentiments of the wicked today: come and do what we do; think as we think; live how we live; follow our social obsessions, fads, fashions and trends; and be like us. I hope this invitation of the wicked will be rejected more and more frequently as faithful people stand up and stand out.