Let There Be Light!

Here it is, December 31, New Year’s Eve. My computer is back and feeling better, I’m feeling better and had a very lazy day of watching the marathon of the Twilight Zone. I am enjoying my time off from school and I have been able to catching up my scrapbooking album, something that I enjoy doing at nights and miss since being in school. To be honest, I have to keep my hands busy doing something, besides, it keeps me out of the kitchen from either eating or cooking something that I don’t need to eat. Now I’m sitting here blogging, watching a murder mystery movie and waiting for the New Year to come.

“In our increasingly unrighteous world, it is essential that values based on religious belief be part of the public discourse” (Elder Quentin L. Cook).

Our discussion on Sunday was given by Vickie Erickson on Let There Be Light, a talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. If you didn’t have your conference Ensign with you on Sunday, make sure you take some time and read it. Other wise, if you’re reading this blog, go and get your Ensign and follow along. I’ll wait! … Got it! O.k., we’re on page 27.

Vickie started off the discussion with us listening to a song called “When the Lights Go On Again (All Over the World).” This song was sung by a famous British singer named Vera Lynn who inspired many listeners during a time of darkness and uncertain, a world at war with each other, WWII. Cook’s wife gave him a CD of many songs of hope and faith, this being one of the songs on this CD. The reason why this song is so special to Cook is because during the time of WWII, there was a bombing that took place in London in September of 1940. This day was the day before Cook was born. While in the hospital, Cooks mother was listening t the radio in her room on the account of the London Blitz and still needing a name for her new born son, decided to name her son Quentin, which was the name of the radio’s announcer. Quentin, the radio announcer is now 93 years old. This song brought up two thoughts for cook: first, the prophetic words by a British statesman “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time” and second, the bombing raids conducted over British cities like London. To make things harder the bombers to find targets, blackouts were instituted. Windows were draped and lights were turned out. Cook says, “Freedom and light have never been easy to attain or maintain. Since the War in Heaven, the forces of evil have used every means possible to destroy agency and extinguish light” (pg 27). We need to do our best to protect and preserve the light in our families.

Protecting Family:
What are some of the things that can destroy our families that we need to look out for? We have pornography. “Pornography is a weapon of mass moral destruction. Its impact is at the forefront in eroding moral values” (pg 28). We have drugs, gambling; Internet, which allows us unlimited assets to everything we can put out, hands on, especially pornography and gambling. These are very addicting sites that pull you in and destroy your mind, your spirit, your family and even your marriage. So how can we protect our families from these evil forces? We must have knowledge and be educated! We must have weekly family home evenings, reading of scriptures daily if possible. We have family prayer, eat together as a family too. I know these are a lot of things for us to do in a world that is so busy. What do you do if you work full time, or are a single parent, or living with a spouse is in active or even a non-member. Coming from the other side of the road, it’s hard to do all of these things. Sometimes we have to find creative ways in accomplishing these things. I know for me, living with a non-member, having family home evening, family prayers and reading of scriptures was “weird” to my husband. And even though he was always invited to join us when I did try to have it, he always declined and, well, it pretty much became “taboo” in my house. So, I did a lot of my teaching in my car while driving to places. Even though I never actually had an actually lesson and was not actually on Monday nights, I looked for teaching moments through my children questions and conversations and taught them that way. The reading of scriptures that I believe I mentioned before in another blog, we would read and listen to the scriptures in my car going back and forth to my parents house, especially when my son lived out there for four years. And on Sunday, my daughter and I would spend the day out there and we would read the scriptures out there. Granted, it was every day, but we read them. We also wanted the Living Scriptures movies. Family prayers, well, we really didn’t have much of that but individual prayers, both of my children learned to pray in their bed so not to offend David, my husband. For me however, I usually pray in my bathroom/closet (there connected) and even in the shower. I know it crazy, but I am sharing this with you because I want to you know that it is possible to accomplish the things that we are asked to do. It may be the perfect way but any way is better than nothing. In fact, Janet Carbine made a really good point; she mentioned that when she has her children in her car, she turns the radio off, leaving the opportunity open for conversations between her and her children. This is a great way for conversation for start. Something that I’ve done with my kids for years because it seems to be the only way and the only time that I can teach my children and my children can talk about gospel principles openly. Working moms can apply these same things while in the car.

Protecting Community:
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (pg 28). Many people don’t believe in God. They don’t practice good moral behaviors or have ethics anymore. Like the simple practice of being honest in everything they do. A cashier gives a person too much change, they keep it thinking, it’s a blessing from a God that they don’t believe in rather than returning the change. Being honest to many stores seems to involve an awful lot of paper work and irritation. We have cheating in our schools because of our technology, cell phones. We can now get the Internet on our cell phones. Vickie relays a story about her son Caleb and a class that he is struggling in. Two students in this class are getting straight A’s because they cheat on their exams by goggling the questions for answers. That’s daring! Cook says, “We find the majority of people are still respectful of basic moral values. But make no mistake: there are also people who are determined to both destroy faith and reject any religious influence in society. Other evil people exploit, manipulate, and tear down society with drugs, pornography, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, robbery, and dishonest business practices. The power and influence of these people is very large even if they are relatively small in number” (pg 28). In Mosiah, it says, “It is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right.” He continues to warms them “If the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come” (pg 29). Religious values must be a part of the publics discourse.

Honest Conduct Motivated by Accountability to God:
“The thirteenth article of faith begins, ‘We believe in being honest.’ Honesty is a principle founded in religious belief and is one of God’s basic laws” (pg 29). Cook tells a story of a man who had taken material from a client’s work site and rationalized it as a surplus. Later, when he became a member of the church, realized what he had done and wrote a letter and in that letter had the sum of money including interest to cover the cost of what he has stolen. This client who received the letter was impressed by this person’s action. That is something that most people don’t see everyday. When they do, they seemed stunned and shocked which is very sad that we have come to this point in our world. Honestly is such a rare quality in many people nowadays. We as LDS have this faith that we are accountable to God if we are not honest. In Cook’s talk, he relays the following incident: Clayton Christensen, a Harvard professor and a Church leader share a story of a true account at a commencement address of a colleague from another country who had studies democracy. “This friend was surprised at how critically important religion is to democracy. He pointed out that in societies where the citizens are taught from a young age to feel accountable to God for honesty and integrity, they will abide by rules and practices that, while unenforceable, promote democratic ideals. In societies where this is not true, there cannot be enough policemen to enforce honest behavior.” Moral values and honesty plays a significant role in establishing light and truth and improving our society. They should be valued taught to everyone especially people who do not have the faith.

Treating All of God’s Children as Brothers and Sisters:
A second example of how we can contribute light to the world through religion is by treating all of God’s children as brothers and sisters. William Willberforce, the great British statesman is a great example, a man who outlawed slave trade in Great Britain. In 1833, Joseph Smith received a revelation stating, “It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another” (pg 30). Our voices need to be heard in public squares. We need to support people who value integrity and help them to keep those values. These values in the end will bless our community as a whole. “We look forward to that beautiful day when ‘free hearts will sing when the lights go on again all over the world’” (pg 30), in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this discussion. We would love to hear from you. You just might uplift someone who may need to read about your experiences. Next week, we meet at 9:00am and it will be another new year, 2011. Our Relief Society Presidency, Shelley Fowler, will give our discussion. Until that time, have a safe and happy New Year. Thanks for joining me and reading, until next time…

Kelly