To keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred groove,

Along which all their lives they move;

But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,

Who saw the first primeval calf.

In Alma's teachings to the people in Gideon, he perceives not only that they are in the paths of righteousness, but that they "are making his paths straight." This is crucial, for we know that the Lord "cannot walk in crooked paths" (Alma 7:20). For "his paths are righteous … (for) the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him" (2 Nephi 9:41). For the Holy Ghost "showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter" (2 Nephi 31:9).

When man walks in his own path, it will be crooked. When he walks in the path that God has laid out for him, it will be straight.

Joseph A. Cannon is editor of the Deseret News.

E-MAIL: cannon@desnews.com