The power and influence of One

In my scripture reading lately, I have been impressed by the power and influence one single person can have, for good or bad, over others. Let's start with Kind Noah. We call him Wicked King Noah, so he mush have been pretty bad. He was living a sinful life and encouraged others to follow his example. His life looked pretty great, he was King after all, so they followed. He got a pretty large group of followers, enough that there became a burden of taxes and work upon the people to support the king and his men in their lifestyle. Enough that a prophet, Abinadi, had to come and lecture him. So Abinadi preaches repentance and tell these people all the things they are doing wrong and they better change or else. Well, no one likes to hear this kind of stuff so they try to kill him but he runs away and hides. Then goes back because he has work to to do. He preaches some more and in that group of bad people is one who listens and believes the words of Abinadi, Alma. Abinadi is killed but Alma has been off preaching the teachings to a group of people in secret. So now Alma gets a big group of followers but his son is a pretty bad guy, teaching against the church and trying to destroy it. We know what happens to him. A while down the road of time, we have a guy named Amlici who decides he wants to be king. He stirs the people up, gets a bunch of followers and wages an actual war against the Nephites where thousands of people are killed. I am not and will not be a prophet, or even have enough acquaintances that I can influence to build my own army to attack people who I disagree with. But, I can have an influence on people around me in my little sphere. I have a husband and five children. I can lead them to good or to bad. What I do with my little circle of 7 can impact generations to come. Alma 4:10 reads,"... and the wickedness of the church was a great stumbling block to those who did not belong to the church; and thus the church began to fail in its progress." People are watching us and do judge the church according to our behavior. I do not want to be a stumbling block to anyone. So even with a very limited reach of influence, I choose to do good. To try to help others to do good, to lift up instead of drag down. One person can have a huge impact on those around them.