{"id":9723,"date":"2018-07-16T20:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T02:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ldswomenofgod.com\/?p=9723"},"modified":"2018-07-16T10:04:40","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T16:04:40","slug":"the-light-we-wield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reliefsocietywomen.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/16\/the-light-we-wield\/","title":{"rendered":"The Light We Wield"},"content":{"rendered":"

General Conference Odyssey reporting on the Saturday afternoon session of October 1980.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

The world is becoming more and more polarized, isn\u2019t it? While the world teaches everyone to be tolerant of all races and species of humanity, God preaches to love one another. In the process, the world waxes colder and colder while God\u2019s people are given the power of light to warm the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to focus on Elder Ballard\u2019s talk, but I just want to mention one important note from Elder Packer\u2019s:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe want our children and their children to know that the choice of life is not between fame and obscurity, nor is the choice between wealth and poverty. The choice is between good and evil, and that is a very different matter indeed.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Our good shows in the light we\u2019ve been given? And there is power in wielding this light.\"\"<\/a> This is something that ought to be discussed in Sunday School, Family Home Evening, personal prayers, etc. The war rages on and we have all been called to the battlefront. Is our light engaged to illuminate or is it being snuffed out?<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading Elder Ballard\u2019s talk made me think more about ministering. Many of us are worried about how this new ministering thing is going to work. I think the thing we need to realize is that having the light of the spirit with us will literally be the only thing that saves us out of this world. Where the world teaches self-absorption, the Lord wants us to rely on the spirit for direction. Where the world encourages us to stay too busy, the Lord is asking us to create downtime and listen for the spirit to speak to us. The question isn\u2019t \u201cHow do we do this?\u201d The real question is \u201cAm I willing to use my light for good?<\/span><\/p>\n

So, Elder Ballard offers some great, motivating type stories<\/a> to help you feel the spirit of ministering. We love hearing these stories, but do we experience them ourselves? Enough? More than once? Each time we reach out? Paraphrasing something Elder Ballard said, \u201cAre we the light of the Lord willing to touch someone who needs it desperately?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course! But we all struggle with how to use the light we have been given. Consider these ideas:<\/span><\/p>\n