Sometimes, doing the right thing isn't easy. Often, doing the right thing carries a price.

But always, doing the right thing is right just because the integrity gained takes mortals one step closer to God.

The cost to Cody was a new and prized possession: his helium-filled balloon.

Cody's cousin Marianne had just been sealed to her parents. After leaving the temple, the extended family went to a nearby restaurant, where the children were given balloons.

As the family left the restaurant, Marianne's balloon slipped from her hand and sailed skyward. Instinctively and immediately Cody said, "Here Marianne, you can have mine."

For Jean Valjean the price was much greater: his freedom.

In Victor Hugo's noble tome of redemption and hope, Les Miserables, Jean Valjean had been unnecessarily imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. But now, having more than paid his debt to society and having learned of repentance from a most Christlike bishop, Valjean, under the assumed name of Monsieur Madeleine, spent his days blessing others.

But he was never at rest. An unforgiving police office named Javert was determined to find and re-imprison Valjean.

Imagine Valjean's surprise when he learned that someone else, who police believed to be Valjean, would soon be condemned to prison. With someone else imprisoned in his name, Valjean would be free.

At last, Javert's hounding could end.

But then came the hounding — and the rationalization — within.

Said Valjean to himself: "Now I am safe. (Javert), that terrible bloodhound, . . . will leave me in peace. . . . And all this is accomplished without me, and I had nothing to do with it! . . . Providence has done it all. . . . Have I the right to change what (God) arranges?"

But Valjean soon realized that what "he had been arranging in his mind was monstrous . . . (and) to lend himself to it by his silence, to do nothing, was ultimately to do everything! It was the last degree of hypocritical wrong! It was a base, cowardly, lying, abject, hideous crime!"

As Valjean resolved to confess his true identity, he concluded that, for him, it was "the greatest sacrifice, the most poignant victory. . . . He could only enter into holiness in God's eyes by returning to infamy in men's!"(See Victor Hugo, Les Miserables; New York: The Penguin Group, 1987; pp. 225-227.)

For the people of Ammon the price for doing the right thing was even greater: their lives.

These Lamanites had, upon hearing Ammon's preaching, embraced the gospel and, in repenting of "the many murders (they) committed," swore an oath to never take up arms again.

That noble commitment was threatened — but unaltered — by cowardly Amalekites, Amulonites and Lamanites whose hate destroyed their reason and impelled them to murder unarmed neighbors.

Seemingly not bothered by their impending death, the people of Ammon instead rejoiced in their coming unto Christ. Said their leader, Anti-Nephi-Lehi:

"And I also thank my God, yea, my great God, that he hath granted unto us that we might repent of these things, and also that he hath . . . taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son.

"And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish . . . he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, . . .

"Oh, how merciful is our God!"

As the murderous band approached, the people of Ammon "prostrated themselves before them to the earth, and began to call on the name of the Lord; and thus they were in this attitude when the Lamanites began . . . to slay them."

One thousand and five innocent souls perished that day — having done what they knew to be right.

"And there was not a wicked man slain among them, . . . and we know that they are blessed, for they have gone to dwell with their God." (See Alma 24.)

The cost of doing what is right will certainly vary. The eternal reward, however, is sure.