I talked with a young man recently returned form the war.  He too had walked the jungle patrols, his heart pounding with fear.  But reluctantly he admitted that the greatest fear he had was the fear of ridicule.
    The men of his company laughed at him, taunted him, plastered him with a nickname that troubled him.  They told him the things they reveled in.  Then on one occasion when the going was rough, he faced them and quietly said, "Look, I know you think I'm a square.  I don't consider myself any better than any of the rest of you.   But I grew up in a religious home and a religious town.  I went to church on Sundays.  We prayed together as a family.  I was taught to stay away from these things.  It is just that I believe differently.  With me it's a matter of religion, and it's kind of a way of respecting my mother and my dad.  All of you together might force me toward a compromising situation, but that wouldn't change me, and you wouldn't feel right after you'd done it."
    One by one they turned silently away.  But during the next few days each came to ask his pardon, and from his example others gained the strength and the will to change their own lives.  He taught the gospel to two of them and brought them into the church. - Gordon B. HInkley