What Have You Done With Your Name?

One of the talks I really enjoyed that was given at General Conference was when Elder Mervyn B. Arnold spoke about respecting your name and holding to the faith, giving an example of Helaman explaining to his sons Lehi and Nephi where their names came from and why they were given to them.  He then went on to say that we can bring respect to our names by coming unto Christ and following his commandments. He developed ethos by talking about a life experience of his to explain why commandments are there for us. The one that really touched me was the story he gave about his childhood and working on the ranch. There was a cow that would continually stick it's head through the fence to eat the wheat and one day broke through the fence, became bloated, and suffocated to death.  He went on to say, "I was saddened by the loss of that cow.  We had provided her a beautiful mountain pasture to graze and a fence to keep her away from the dangerous wheat, yet she foolishly broke through the fence and caused her own death...The commandments and rules are for our own good."  With this, he shows how truly important it is for us to follow the commandments and stay on the straight and narrow path.  He shows the commandments as the fence, the disobedient cow as ourselves, and the wheat as the temptation to break those commandments. He is able to more fully get his point across to the audience this way, by first of all catching their attention with his story and secondly, helping them realize how stupid it seems for someone not to not keep the commandments.  This comparison also helps explain and prove to the audience that the commandments are not there to keep us from having fun or restrict us from having a good life: they are there to keep us safe and out of harms way.  There are good intentions behind the commandments.  Elder Arnold was able to successfully explain to the audience with the use of his own personal life experience the importance of keeping the commandments. They may seem like guidelines, but they should be taken seriously.