Defending our Father's Name

I just got the Jenny Phillips CD for Young Women that is called "Strong and Courageous". I especially love the song "Virtue". One of the other songs I was listening to had the words "defend our Father's name" and that made me think a little. If I heard someone say something about my dad or a family member, I would just not let it go. I would stick up for them and say something encouraging about them. It would be the same for my Father in Heaven. If someone made a disparaging comment about my Heavenly Father, I would feel a duty to defend Him or stick up for Him. I wouldn't just think "Oh, everyone is entitled to their own opinion." This is a family member!

Also, in thinking about names, I gave a talk at my nephew Brody's baptism last Saturday and that talk was about names. I talked about the great significance that we put on the names we give each other. We talk about bringing honor to our family name and not doing anything that would reflect badly on the name we share. (I got the idea of names at baptism from a talk my neighbor, Kathie MacKay, gave.)

Then I talked about the fact that when we get baptized, one of the promises we make is to take Jesus' name upon us. We try to bring honor to that name, we defend that name, and we try to make sure there is nothing in our conduct that would reflect badly on His name.

I will defend our Father's name. He doesn't really need us to stick up for Him, but it does something for us when we do, and we become more committed to sticking with Him.