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TheDiscipleMD

I was in high school when on an extremely cold wintry day I arrived at my early morning religion class. That day my teacher taught me a valuable lesson that I never forgot. We opened with the customary prayer and then without any explanation he asked us to remove our shoes and socks. Then he said “Do not put your coats on and follow me!” With that he headed out the back doors into the freezing cold. I was never one to back off a challenge so I headed right behind him as did most of the students. Some however, stayed in the classroom.

The teacher started to run around the building with most of his bewildered class following behind. It didn’t take long for the cold pavement to begin to sting our feet. As we rounded the last bend of the building my feet were hurting and I was freezing. It was a great relief to see we were headed towards the back entrance in which we had begun our run. However, my heart skipped a beat when the teacher looked back at his now staggering class and yelled, “One more time!” I hesitated and thought about stopping but my competitive nature drove me onward. I couldn’t quite figure out what he was doing but I wasn’t going to be outdone by my teacher. As I followed him the second time around the building I glanced back to find that only a few were still running. Most had gone in after the first trip around. My feet were hurting at this point, I was freezing, and I didn’t have any idea what this teacher was doing. I was sure he had lost his mind!

After getting back to the warm classroom, he likened the experience of running around the building to the early saints being driven out of their homes and into the cold of winter. He said:

“Some wouldn’t start the cold trip and lost their faith. Others went part of the way and gave up. The most faithful followed the prophets and made the entire perilous trip to the “promised” land.”

I have been taught many lessons in my life, but none more powerful than the experience I call, “Running with the Bull.”

It is important to remember that the gospel didn’t come forth without the sacrifices of our ancient forefathers and those of the latter-days. We need to be reminded from time to time, lest we forget, that “royal blood” has been spilt on our behalf and on behalf of all mankind in bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world!