Who do you count as your spiritual heroes?  What basis or criteria do you have for that selection?

When I was younger I was  partial to Alma the Younger.  Here's a guy whose life was clearly not in order for a significant chunk of his life.  He wasn't simply disobedient.  He was actively opposed to the church.  But once he has this amazing experience with the angel knocking him or a loop he comes around and becomes a fabulous leader and missionary.

I suppose I used to admire him so much because his life was evidence for the possibility to change in a big way.  In my 20's and 30's that was very important for me to hang on to as I was making some substantial changes of my own.

Now, however, I find myself relating more to Alma Sr.  The fact of the matter is most of us are not going to get struck down by an angel.  So these days I find I can relate more to those who were able to catch the vision of the gospel and make significant changes under more ordinary circumstances.  Alma Sr. turned his life around based on hearing the words of a prophet and recognizing the truth of those words.    I can just see Alma in the courts of King Noah listening to Abinidi.  Once he recognized the truth of what Abinidi had to say, Alma took it as a call to action.  Even though it wasn't popular, even though it required great sacrifice and put himself at substantial risk, he stuck by the guns of his convictions and became a spiritual giant.  I find that pretty impressive.  Also, as a parent and grandparent, I admire this man who never gave up on his knucklehead son.  It was largely through Alma's faith and entreating the Lord on his son's behalf that the intervention experience with Alma the younger occurred at all.  That gives me hope for my own family members who have gone astray.

So there's a couple of my examples.  How about yours?