Role Models

Now, if ever, is the time to emulate the example of these heroes, saints and martyrs. Now is the time to pour out one's substance as copiously and as readily, as the Dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age of the Faith have shed their life-blood in the path of this most precious Cause. No more befitting tribute can be paid to the memory of these luminous souls, by those who carry the torch of Divine Guidance after them, than by a corresponding manifestation of solidarity, self-abnegation, zeal and devotion, which will impel them to forsake their homes, sacrifice their treasure, brave every danger, endure every hardship, expend every ounce of energy, that the Plan which they have spontaneously and unitedly sponsored may, through its triumphant termination, carry them a stage further along the broad highway of their destiny.

Shoghi Effendi, Dawn of a New Day, p. 134

What needs to be appreciated in this respect is the extent to which young minds are affected by the choices parents make for their own lives, when, no matter how unintentionally, no matter how innocently, such choices condone the passions of the frivolous pursuits, its glorification of violence, and its obsession with self-gratification.

Universal House of Justice, 28 December 1010 to the Continental Board of Counselors