My thoughts are based on the talk "Filling Our Homes with Light and Truth" given by Sister Cheryl A. Esplin of the Primary General Presidency in the April 2015 Women’s Session of General Conference.
I still remember Sister Esplin’s talk because it was the
first of the night and right off the start she had Monkey’s and my attention
with her visual of the empty and full soda cans. How full was my can? If I was
honest with myself, more often than not I felt like the can that was being
crushed into uselessness. It made me stop and think about what I was doing to
help fill my home with light and truth and why it was so important.
To first understand what I wanted and how I could improve I
wanted to better understand the ideas of light and truth and how these would
apply to myself and my home.
I’m still a Florida girl at heart – I love sunshine, it
brightens my day and feels like a great heavenly hug. It makes
things grow and allows life on our planet to exist. I may be a little prejudiced
but in my opinion light is the source of a beautiful and happy life. In the scriptures
sometimes Christ is referred to as “the light” we also have the idea of the “light
of Christ” according to the Bible Dictionary the light of Christ is enlightenment,
knowledge, and an uplifting, ennobling, persevering influence that comes upon
mankind because of Jesus Christ.
So now to truth - one of the things that sets apart the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that we believe that we have
been blessed with the fullness of Gospel Truth. I love the scripture from John
8:32 - “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” To me this means that through
the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the blessings of the restored gospel we are given
the truths we need to remain free and unhindered by the bondage of sin.
So how does this apply to ourselves, our homes, and our
families? After thinking about them and studying them it seemed to me a given
that these would be essential elements in finding and living a life of
happiness. Some of the specific blessings of light and truth that Sister Esplin
talked about are that we will be able to have the inner strength to resist
outside forces and pressures, we will more fully have the blessings of the Holy
Ghost with us, our spiritual knowledge will increase, we will know that our
prayers are answered, and we will have stronger testimonies that help us and can
have a lasting impact for good on our family members and those we meet. Sounds pretty ideal to me!
She also warned of some of the consequences of neglecting to
fill our lives and homes with light and truth. She said that we will be weakened
as Satan puts pressure on us to compromise and conform to things that are not
in keeping with Christ’s teachings and we may find ourselves collapsing. If are
not actively seeking to fill ourselves with light and truth Satan will try and
fill us with isolation, loneliness, confusion, doubt, and fear. Ultimately we
may find ourselves without testimonies sufficient to sustain ourselves or the following
generations that would look to us for support and guidance as they seek out
their testimonies.
So I knew what I wanted and why I wanted it but now I needed
to figure out how to make it happen. What were some of the things I could do to
improve? Thankfully Sister Esplin shared some ideas of how we can ensure that
we are strengthened and full. She counseled us to seek out inspiring music, pray,
study the scriptures, study the words of the living prophets, learn from our
family members, fulfill our responsibilities as part of our family, take time
to privately renew ourselves, continually seek after truth, live the truth we
know, share and defend truth, and probably most of all be patient but persistent
as we remember that it takes time and effort.
I think as women, we have been blessed with a great power in
our families to help create a home that is full of light and truth that can
bless ourselves and our families and untold numbers of others. It begins
with us though, we have been blessed with the truth and light of the Gospel, we
have been blessed with families, homes, friends, and neighbors. With all those
blessings comes the responsibility to do what we can to help serve and love
each other as Christ would do. We cannot allow ourselves to become empty and depleted
and weakened. We must focus on the things that matter most and move forward
with faith. For me it's still very much a work in progress but it's comforting to know that this is something Heavenly Father wants for each of us and I'm not alone in my efforts. Also, since this was a talk given to all the women of the church I'm guessing it's not just me that's still trying to figure it all out. That's pretty comforting too. Hopefully we can all work together as women and sisters and support each other and help to fill each other up when we do start to feel weak and empty!
