Holding up the Light of Christ

As I was studying some articles and scriptures about patriarchal blessings, I was reminded of how our patriarchal blessing inspires us to bring light into the world. I came across several articles that help me to better understand how we can do that.

The first is "You Have a Noble Birthright" by Sister Julie B. Beck and she says that, "your patriarchal blessing will help you know that you have a noble birthright...The Lord has important and exciting things for you to do. This is your time to “arise and shine forth, that [your] light may be a standard for the nations.” “Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”"

Then I noticed a link at the bottom of the page to the article just before it in the issue called "I Am the Light Which Ye Shall Hold Up" by Sister Susan B. Tanner. She referenced a scripture where Christ himself explains to the Nephites that the light that we should hold up is his light and the things they saw Him do. I decided this should be my scripture for today.

3 Nep 18:24 "Therefore hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up- that which ye have seen me do."

Sister Tanner goes on to elaborate on what the Nephites had seen Him do. "He had compassion upon them and lingered with them. Then He healed them, prayed with them, taught them, wept with them, blessed their little children one by one, fed them, and administered and shared the sacrament that they might covenant to always remember Him. His ministry among them was about teaching and caring for each individual, and about completing the work His Father had commanded Him to do. There was no thought for Himself."

As we each think of Christ's example and how we can hold up that light to the world, we need to consider how we can be more selfless, especially in our homes. Sister Tanner goes on to talk about how it not easy to be selfless in our homes and that it is basic human nature to seek praise and attention for our good deeds, but that our good works should not be done for that purpose.

She talks about how it can be hard to transition from youth years to young motherhood, because we often receive so much recognition, awards, honors, and trophies for our accomplishments as youth, but then there is very little commendation as we move into motherhood. She then asserts that "in no other capacity is there more opportunity to serve selflessly as Christ would do by taking care of hundreds of daily physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. You will bring the light of the gospel into your homes—not to be seen of others, but to build others—men and women of strength and light...As you share your light, others will find greater light too. Is there anyone who needs your light as much as your families?"

I am excited to be a wife and soon a mother, and to have the opportunity and responsibility to follow Christ's example each day in my home by giving and serving selflessly and building up my husband and children. I have many things to improve on. But, I know from my patriarchal blessing, the scriptures, and the words of our good leaders that these promises are real, and I want to hold up the Light of Christ!

Meeting Elder L. Tom Perry

Today Micah and I both were able to meet Elder Perry, greet him, and shake his hand. He held a special stake conference for our stake since he was in the area for a leadership training and we were the stake who had gone the longest without a visit from an apostle. It was a really neat experience. So, my scripture for today comes from some of his words that I was studying before the meeting, a little bit of modern scripture. But it is just as important as the ancient scriptures and will be a good thing to have memorized and written in my heart...

"We can’t predict all the struggles and storms in life, not even the ones just around the next corner, but as persons of faith and hope, we know beyond the shadow of any doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the best is yet to come."

(from his Oct 2008 conference talk)

Greater Charity & Virtue = Greater Confidence before God

The scripture for today comes from my studies for Individual Worth value #3, which is centered around building others up and helping them to feel their great worth, particularly by noticing and acknowledging their good qualities and attributes. In this scripture, we are promised that if we strive for greater charity and virtue, we will have greater confidence to stand before God.

D&C 121:45
"Let thy ^abowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let ^bvirtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy ^cconfidence wax strong in the ^dpresence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the ^edews from heaven."


I like this promise and I know this is something I can improve on, because I will often think a good thought about someone or notice something great they have done, but then never share it with them. So my goal is to increase my charity, particularly, by sharing either verbally or in writing the good things I notice about others.

Our Great Worth

I decided to start on the Individual Worth experiences as well, and really enjoyed studying passages that teach and remind us of how Heavenly Father knows each of us personally as his children and how much he loves and cares for us... This knowledge makes all the difference in my life and helps me be happier and feel more meaning and purpose in life. I can't imagine going through life without knowing and feeling those simple truths. My favorite passage of scripture about our individual worth is found in D&C 18:10, let's see if I can type it without looking it up...

D&C 18:10 "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. For behold, the Lord your Redeemer, suffered death in the flesh, wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto Him."

I must remember that Christ is MY Savior and that he suffered and died for ME, that I might come back unto Him and my Heavenly parents. How grateful I am for such a knowledge. These are some of the anchoring truths of my faith.

A November Challenge and Personal Progress

So I've decided that I want to take two challenges that were given to me recently, one that my sister Annie and her friend Michelle are doing for the month of November, which is to post a verse of scripture each day and memorize it, and the other was given by our Stake Young Women's Presidency at our recent training meeting, which is to complete again the YW Personal Progress Program as a Leader. There is a whole new value, Virtue, which is a new part of the program from the one I completed. So I am really excited and have decided to kinda put these two things together and work on them at the same time. From my daily studies for the value experiences, I hope to have a scripture stand out to me that I can post and memorize. That way I am making progress towards completing the required experiences, my studies will become more meaningful, and I will be memorizing scriptures that will help me to really become familiar with the program and be able to better help and relate to the young women I am helping to motivate as well.

Along with posting the scripture I have chosen for the day, I will probably also often post a discussion question about the values I am working on. I would love to hear all of your experiences and feelings, which will help me to learn more and also complete the experiences.
Also, one of the coolest new things that the church has done, is made the whole Personal Progress program available online. It is really neat and convenient. Here is the link, if anyone wants to check it out... https://beta.lds.org/young-women/personal-progress?lang=eng ...I got online yesterday and got all setup to begin. I really like it because all the scriptures that you read with the experiences are links that you can just click on and most other sources that you would study from are available a couple clicks away. Also, you can type in all your journal entries and when you have completed the entire program, they will print and send you your journal as a hard bound book. So anyways, its really amazing.

As for today's scripture and question, I began with Faith value experience 2...

"Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true (Alma 32:21)."

Question: What qualities do you feel a woman needs in order to teach children to have faith and learn to base decisions on gospel truths?

As I was pondering on faith and how I learned to have it, my mom immediately came to mind, because of her example of faith. I still haven't quite figured out how to put into words as a quality what it was about her example, but I do feel that she is always positive about things, always sees the good in life, and instilled in us the overall mentality that "everything happens for a reason" and that if we trust in our Heavenly Father "everything will work out for our good." So I am grateful for my mom's example, and hope that I can live up to that faith by instilling those same things in my children. I'd love to hear all of your thoughts and feelings too...