Righteous Traditions

I recently found some Relief Society lessons I taught back in 2008-2009 when I was in a BYU Young Single Adult Ward, and I figured rather than just leave them in a notebook, I'd go ahead and post them. So, here's the first, from around July 2008.

Righteous Traditions—Cheryl C. Lant

I.            What is a tradition? What do you think of when you think of traditions?
Tradition:

1.       The handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc. from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice

2.       Something that is handed down

3.       A long-established or inherited way of thinking or acting

4.       A continuing pattern of culture beliefs or practices

5.       A customary of characteristic method or manner

The first thing that I think of is my family’s Christmas traditions. I asked around a little bit this week, and it seemed like most of the answers I got were those types of answers—big holiday things. But traditions don’t have to be something big. They just have to be something that we do repeatedly, whether they’re done yearly, monthly, weekly, or even daily. They even include the way that we do things.

Another thing that I thought of for traditions was my brother-in-law, Scott, who is perhaps one of the most frugal people ever. He doesn’t spend money that he doesn’t need to spend. He is a coupon master, and he and my sisters have even started a new tradition called “Find of the Week” where they post on their blog some cool find, like when they got $110 worth of stuff from Sears for $14. This is something that he learned from his dad, and its’ something that I’m sure he’ll pass onto his kids.

Another tradition: in my family, when someone leaves, pretty much everyone who is at home goes to the window nearest him or her and signs “I love you” as the person drives away.

II.            Do traditions matter?

Alma 36:6-7

Sister Lant says, “Are the traditions that we are creating in our families going to make it easier for our children to follow the living prophets, or will they make it difficult for them?”

I think it’s important to think about how we will affect not only our children but also our friends, our siblings, even people we might not realize we’re affecting.

What are some ways that we might make it difficult for our children to follow the prophets?

This makes me think of Kareena’s talk, when she quoted from Michael Wilcox, about cows and fence. It’s the full-grown cows who kick holes in the fence, but it’s the babies who go through and get stuck outside.

“I noticed while taking care of the cattle as a boy that more often than not the cows did not go through the holes they had created in the fence, but they calves did. Often it would be half-starved and bawling to get back inside the fence next to the mother. The calves seemed to know how to escape through the holes the older cattle had made, but rarely did they know how to step back through those holes. If they were not found, sometimes they died.

“This is the true tragedy of grass licking obedience to the standards and counsels of the Church. Parents must be careful in their own pushing of the limits not to create holes that their children will slip through. Compromising, for example, on the types of movies we watch maybe create a hole that our children will crawl through to their own destruction. One generation’s exception becomes the next generation’s rule, as standards of behavior deteriorate. If the cows had stayed in the center of the meadow, no calf would have ever been lost.” (S. Michael Wilcox, Don’t Leap with the Sheep, and Other Scriptural Strategies for Avoiding Satan’s Snares)

Here’s a negative example: Before my parents got divorced, my family didn’t watch General Conference and attending stake conference was hit and miss. I don’t think I was aware of the message that was sending me, but looking back, it certainly wasn’t telling me that General Conference or listening to the prophets was important.

What are some ways that we might make it easier for our children to follow the prophets?

My mom taught me, though what she did, that you accept callings and you do your best. If anyone had an excuse to turn down a calling, I think it was her. The bishop was even reluctant to call her to be the YW president because she was a single mom, working to be able to provide for her family, she taught seminary, and she was just plain busy. And maybe you could guess this from having met me, but we were not an easy bunch of kids to rear. But she did it—she was in YW longer than I was.

III.            Where do traditions come from?

Who here has a tradition that you don’t even remember how it started? (the “I love you” sign as someone leaves home—no idea how that started)

Has anyone ever accidentally started a tradition? (I had to speak at my high school graduation and I didn’t like the traditional opening for the speeches—it thanked a bunch of men and no women—so I changed the greeting; 8 years later at my little brother’s graduation, my greeting was the one being used.)

Does anyone have a tradition that you’ve deliberately started?

Sister Lant says, “What kinds of traditions do we have? Some of them may have come from our fathers, and now we are passing them along to our own children. Are they what we want them to be? Are they based on actions of righteousness and faith? Are they mostly material in nature, or are they eternal? Are we consciously creating righteous traditions, or is life just happening to us? Are our traditions being created in response to the loud voices of the world, or are they influenced by the still, small voice of the Spirit?

There are two things in that paragraph that really stand out to me. First, “Are we consciously creating traditions?” I think it’s fine that some traditions happen accidentally or we just sort of drift into them. But some things, the most important things, probably need to be deliberate. It’s by small and simple means that great things are brought to pass, and with our traditions, most of which are probably pretty small, we have an opportunity to bring about great things. At the same time, I think Satan knows the potential for good in our traditions, and since he knows our greatest happiness is found in family life, he is very deliberately seeking to destroy our families. And he tailors it to each of us, to each of our families. If we are going to fight against him and not let him win, shouldn’t we be even more deliberate and conscientious about what we will and will not do?

The other thing that stood out to me was, “Are they influenced by the still, small voice of the Spirit?” As we are trying to help our families to establish righteous traditions, as we are fighting against Satan, we need to be following the Spirit. The Spirit will help us take the principles we’re taught and turn them into reality in our families. The way that my family does something may not be the same way that someone else’s does, and maybe we’ll even get frustrated sometimes because we want to do something that another family or another person is doing and it just doesn’t seem to work for us. But if we will listen to the Spirit, we will receive help and guidance and know what to try for our families.

IV.            What’s the practical application? Where do we even start?

The Family Proclamation says, “Happiness in family is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”

This gives us a guideline for the types of traditions we need to try to have in our families. We need to deliberately, and through the guidance of the Spirit, figure out traditions that will teach these principles.

Sister Lant says, “I would invite all of us to take a moment to reflect on the traditions in our lives and how they might be affecting our families. Our traditions of Sabbath day observance, family prayer, family scripture study, service and activity in the Church, as well as patterns of respect and loyalty in the home, will have a great effect on our children and on their future.”

We don’t need to wait until we have children to do these things. We can think about the things that we want for our families; we should think about them now. None of us will magically get married and be a perfect spouse or mother. But we can learn now, we can practice now. If I want my kids to attend church, I should make sure I attend church. I need to be living what I want them to live. And we can start now to think about what we want for our children and how to incorporate that into our families.

I was thinking last week about how I’d like to put together a collection of my favorite talks for each of the members of the First Presidency and the Apostles. And then I was thinking that I’d like my children to love the General Authorities and how I could help them do that, and I thought maybe for FHE, we could spend a month studying teach of them and then try to work on our collections of talks that are meaningful to us. And then this week, I decided to try it out. I asked a friend of mine to do this with me, so we’re starting with President Monson for the month of August, and each week of the month, we’re going to find a talk of his that we enjoy and share them. And I don’t know how well it will work, and maybe after one week we’ll want to change how we do it, and I’ll probably have to adjust it again when I actually have kids, but in the meantime, I’m trying to do what I can to prepare.

V.            Testimony

I know that Satan is real and that he is fighting against us. But I also know that God is real and that He has given us ways to fight against Satan, and establishing righteous traditions is one thing that God has given us to help us and our families and our friends. The Lord wants us to succeed and He will help us. There were certainly be discouraging times along the way, when we feel like things aren’t working or our family isn’t getting what we’re trying to each anyway, and we’ll wonder if it matters anyway. It does matter. We are daughters of God, and we have a special role to play on this earth, and we, who are blessed to have the Gospel in our lives, have the responsibility and the ability to share those blessings with our families and with the world. Let us conscientiously and deliberately follow the Spirit and make sure we’re passing along the habits and messages and traditions that we want to be passing along.

Keep Going

In October 2001, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin gave a great General Conference talk, One Step after Another. I recently found a little Family Home Evening message I'd put together for a singles ward back in 2008, and thought I'd post it here.

Elder Wirthlin said:

"Recently, I read about Erik Weihenmayer, a 33-year-old man who dreamed of climbing Mount Everest, a feat that defies many of the world’s most expert climbers. In fact, nearly 90 percent of those who attempt the climb never reach the summit. Temperatures sink lower than 30 degrees below zero. Besides extreme cold, 100-mile-per-hour winds, deadly crevasses, and avalanches, the climber must overcome the challenges of high altitude, lack of oxygen, and perhaps unsanitary food and water. Since 1953, at least 165 climbers have died in the attempt to scale the 29,000-foot-high summit.
"In spite of the risks, hundreds line up each year to make the ascent, Erik among them. But there is an important difference between Erik and every other climber who had attempted to ascend before: Erik is totally blind.
"When Erik was 13 years of age, he lost his sight as a result of a hereditary disease of the retina. Although he could no longer do many of the things he wanted to, he was determined not to waste his life feeling depressed and useless. He then began to stretch his limits.
"At age 16 he discovered rock climbing. By feeling the face of the rock, he found handholds and footholds that allowed him to climb. Sixteen years later, he began his ascent up Mount Everest. The story of his climb, as you might imagine, was filled with many harrowing and life-threatening challenges. But Erik eventually scaled the south summit and took his place with those who had gone before him, one of the few to stand on top of the highest mountain on the face of the earth.
"When asked how he did it, Erik said, “I just kept thinking … keep your mind focused. Don’t let all that doubt and fear and frustration sort of get in the way.” Then, most importantly, he said, “Just take each day step by step.”
"Yes, Erik conquered Everest by simply putting one foot in front of the other. And he continued to do this until he reached the top.
"Like Erik, we may have obstacles that would hold us back. We may even make excuses why we can’t do what we want to do. Perhaps when we are tempted to justify our own lack of achievement, we can remember Erik, who, in spite of having lost his sight, accomplished what many thought was impossible simply by continuing to put one foot in front of the other."

When I read that, it made me think that sometimes we put limitations on ourselves that God never did. Erik could have said, "I'm blind so I can't climb Mount Everest." But the only limitation God put on him was that he was blind. We need to be careful not to limit ourselves in ways that God never would. He gives us obstacles to overcome, of course, but sometimes we invent obstacles that we don't need to have. Take what He gives you and make the most of it.

Elder Wirthlin also said, "Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.
"The same principle applies to how you and I can climb to higher spirituality.
"Our Heavenly Father knows that we must begin our climb from where we are. “When you climb up a ladder,” the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them.”
"Our Heavenly Father loves each one of us and understands that this process of climbing higher takes preparation, time, and commitment. He understands that we will make mistakes at times, that we will stumble, that we will become discouraged and perhaps even wish to give up and say to ourselves it is not worth the struggle.
"We know it is worth the effort, for the prize, which is eternal life, is “the greatest of all the gifts of God.” And to qualify, we must take one step after another and keep going to gain the spiritual heights we aspire to reach.
"An eternal principle is revealed in holy writ: “It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize.”
"We don’t have to be fast; we simply have to be steady and move in the right direction. We have to do the best we can, one step after another."

In spiritual growth, as well as in school and work and everything we do, it's easy to put unrealistic expectations on ourselves. But the Lord didn't tell us we have to do everything perfectly. A friend shared a story about a friend's niece: she fell asleep while on her knees praying and her mother thought, "Oh isn't that precious? She tried so hard." So often we fall short of hat the actual goal was, but God is there, looking down at us and thinking, "Isn't she precious? She tried so hard." We are a lot harder on ourselves sometimes than He would be. I read a quote once that I absolutely love: "One must be a god indeed to tell a failure from a success without making a mistake." So often we get discouraged because we feel we failed, but really, there are so many good things that can come from our "failures". Give your best and let the Lord make up the rest. He provides ways for us to move forward, with prophets and scriptures, personal revelation, and often, the friends He puts into our paths. 
Elder Uchtdorf said, "There will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Church. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose." Christ wants us to succeed and He knows that we can. Every time we get discouraged and want to say, "But I'm not..." and "I can't," He is there assuring us--"I AM" and "I can" and with, "We are" and "We can." Whatever our limitations are, He can help us overcome them. Whatever the righteous desires of our hearts are, He can help us achieve them. He is there, helping is in ways we don't even realize. He is there, applauding our efforts, encouraging us, and loving us. And with Him, as we take one step after another, we will be successful.

Developing Charity

The visiting teaching message for October is “Divine Attributes of Jesus Christ: Filled with Charity and Love.”

In a recent Relief Society Presidency meeting, my R.S. president shared one of the scriptures mentioned in the visiting teaching message: John 13:34 (A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.) and mentioned that Jesus love EVERYONE.  If we are striving to love as Christ loves, we need to not only love HOW He loves, but we also need to love WHO He loves—and that’s everyone, not just those of us who are “easy” to love (if there even are people who are easy to love).

I think it’s certainly easier to develop charity for some people than others; some people just rub us the wrong way, while others we just click with instantly. However, I like what President Monson said in the message, and I like the longer quotation this was taken from. He said:

“I consider charity—or “the pure love of Christ”—to be the opposite of criticism and judging…I have in mind the charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient.

“I have in mind the charity that impels us to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful, not only in times of sickness and affliction and distress but also in times of weakness or error on the part of others…

“Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others…

“Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they really are…

“Life is perfect for none of us. Rather than being judgmental and critical of each other, may we have the pure love of Christ for our fellow travelers in this journey through life. May we recognize that each one is doing her best to deal with the challenges which come her way, and may we strive to do our best to help out.”

“‘Charity never faileth.’ May this long-enduring Relief Society motto, this timeless truth, guide you in everything you do. May it permeate your very souls and find expression in all your thoughts and actions.”

This reminds me of a beautiful talk from Elder Marvin J. Ashton, “The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword,” in which he talks about charity. He said:

“Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.

“None of us need one more person bashing or pointing out where we have failed or fallen short. Most of us are already well aware of the areas in which we are weak.”

Even if we don’t naturally click with someone, or have some instant love for someone, we can try to develop charity by doing the things President Monson and Elder Ashton suggested—refrain from judging, not being easily offended, not categorizing each other. As we do those things, then other elements of charity will come as well. 

How Jesus Christ Empowers Us

The visiting teaching message for September is “Divine Attributes of Jesus Christ: Powerful and Full of Glory,” and it talked about how the Savior “uses His power to reedem and empower us”—and the way that He empowers us is through covenants As Sister Linda K. Burton said, “Covenant keeping strengthens, empowers, and protects.” It’s interesting to think about covenants being empowering because there are probably a lot of people who would consider them restrictive—a big list of things you can and can’t do. However, when we remember that there are two sides to every covenant—both what we promise and what God promises—it becomes more apparent how keeping our covenants brings power into our lives. A few specific examples: with the baptismal covenant, we are promised to “always have His spirit to be with” us. With the endowment, we are endowed with power from God. With the sealing covenant, we are promised kingdoms, thrones, principalities—all things which are associated with power. Additionally, as we work toward having an eternal family—as we keep the covenant we make at our sealing—incredible power comes—because it’s through our families that we experience the most growth. The family is designed by God to help us become like Him—so as we keep our covenants, especially as they pertain to our family, we become more powerful and more like God is.

“Making and keeping covenants means choosing to bind ourselves to our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ.” In one sense, that means we are committing to do what They want us to do. And when we think about covenants, each has a specific list of things that we are promising to do. However, besides just binding us to THEM, it binds them to us.

D&c 82:8-10 says, “I give unto you a new commandment, that ye may understand my will concerning you. Or, in other words, I give unto you directions how ye may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation. I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say.” If Christ is bound to us, which happens as we keep our covenants, we are completely empowered—because all of His power works for our good.

 True to the Faith talks about some of  the other ways we are empowered through keeping covenants: “You will be inspired by the Holy Ghost, and Christlike conduct will be part of your nature…you will “receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal” (D&C 42:61). Your greatest hope should be to enjoy the sanctification that comes from this divine guidance

In the talk referenced in the VT message, Sister Burton mentioned that “keeping covenants is essential for true happiness.” Thinking about how that relates to power, I couldn’t help but think how much stronger and more capable I am when I am HAPPY than when I’m sad or angry; at those times, I’m more likely to think I can’t do something, or to give up, or to just have a bad attitude and not care. But when I’m happy, I feel more powerful. So, keeping covenants makes us happy, which in turn makes us more powerful.

She also said, “As we keep our covenants, we also receive courage and strength to help us bear one another’s burdens.” Our capacities are increased—we are more powerful.

The VT message shares 1 Nephi 14:14: “I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended…upon the covenant people of the Lord,…and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.” That made me think of Ephesians 6:14, which talks about the “breastplate of righteousness.” Looking at the Bible Dictionary, it pointed it out that the breastplate is used in “protecting the vital organs against the evil things of life”—and I think the most important thing it protects is the heart. So, if we keep our covenants, our HEARTS are protected—as we keep our covenants, we love God more, we love our fellowmen more, we have a better perspective and our hearts aren’t led away by the things of the world, etc. When our hearts are turned to Him, the evil things in life lose their power over us.

Final thought: What is the breastplate of righteousness—or what is righteousness? Well, interestingly enough, I have a son named Zedekiah, and I chose that name because according to the Bible Dictionary, it means “The Lord is righteousness.” So, being armed with righteousness could be changed to “being armed with the LORD” or the breastplate of righteousness could be “the breastplate of the Lord.” When we keep our covenants, we invite the LORD into our lives—and there is nothing and no one more powerful than He is.

How Meekness and Humility Relate to Power

The visiting teaching message for August is “Divine Attributes of Jesus Christ: Meek and Humble.” One thing that really stood out to me as I was reading through the message is the connection between meekness and humility and power. Elder Ulisses Soares said, “Being meek does not weakness, but it does mean behaving with goodness and kindness, showing strength, serenity, healthy self-worth, and self-control.”

Digging a little deeper into the meaning of being meek, I found that meekness can mean being “gentle, forgiving, or benevolent” (footnote to Matthew 5:5). Harold B. Lee said “A meek man is defined as one who is not easily provoked or irritated and forbearing under injury or annoyance. Meekness is not synonymous with weakness. The meek man is the strong, the mighty, the man of complete self-mastery. He is the one who has the courage of his moral convictions, despite the pressure of the gang or the club.”

I also found a Christian website that said the Greek word is “praus” and that it has been:

a. Used to describe a soothing medicine. 

b. Used by sailors to describe a gentle breeze. 

c. Used by farmers to describe a broken colt. 

That website went on to ask, “What do all these definitions have in common? They all describe great power under control.” (http://www.christianlibrary.org/authors/Grady_Scott/matt5-5.htm)

Putting those together, it seems that a meek person is strong because he or she has self-control; meekness isn’t the absence of power or strength but rather the ability to control the power that one has.

Looking then at humility and how it relates to power:

One of the additional scriptures suggested in the message is Helaman 3:35, which says, “Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in their faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.” I thought it was interesting to note that it says they “did wax stronger and stronger in their humility”; I’ve always thought that meant they became more and more humble, but Richard G. Edgley, when he was serving as a member of the Presiding Bishopric, said, “Humbly submitting our will to the Father brings us the empowerment of God—the power of humility. It is the power to meet life’s adversities, the power of peace, the power of hope, the power of a heart throbbing with a love for and testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ, even the power of redemption.” So that made me think that the scripture isn’t just saying that they became more and more humble; it’s saying that they became stronger because of their humility.

So, the message that I took away from this is that as we are humble and submit to Heavenly Father, that gives us strength and power, and as we exercise self-control, we are meek. Some of the definitions of meekness that I looked up on the internet made it sound pretty wimpy—easily imposed on, unresisting, like a lamb to the slaughter, submissive, yielding, compliant, biddable, etc” But when we think about it, it takes some pretty serious strength sometimes to be able to submit, to be able to trust that God wants what is best for us and to accept what He gives us—or what He doesn’t give us. There are times when it is MUCH easier to protest something than it is to accept it. I think a perfect example of this is when Christ Himself went like a lamb to the slaughter, when He didn’t use the power that He had to defend Himself and to do miracle after miracle to convince His accusers that He was truly the Son of God—or when He DIDN’T use His power to save His own life. As Richard G. Edgley said, “The Savior is our supreme example of the power of humility and submissiveness. After all, His submitting His will to the Father brought about the greatest, and even the most powerful, event in all of history.”

The Savior Wants to Forgive

I had just finished skimming through Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s April 2011 General Conference talk, The Divine Gift of Repentance, when I decided to take a look at the visiting teaching message for July—which just happens to be, “ Divine Attributes of Jesus Christ: Forgiving and Merciful”. I read through that, and then I did a quick search on LDS.org about forgiveness—and one of the things that popped up in the search results was a link to “The Savior Wants to Forgive,” a General Conference talk by Elder Craig A. Cardon. And just that title hit me and I knew that sentence is something the Savior wants all of us to know—He WANTS to forgive. It’s not just that He is kind of willing to, or He’s honor-bound to do so if we repent because of divine law, or anything like that. He WANTS to forgive—so much that He was willing to pay the price for our sins so that we could repent. He doesn’t give forgiveness grudgingly; He gives it willingly, joyfully, eagerly. Indeed, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, He is standing, watching, and runs to meet us with open arms when we come to Him seek forgiveness. No matter how unworthy we may feel, or how frustrated we may get with ourselves as we sin again (does it drive you nuts that you’re an imperfect human being? It makes me absolutely crazy mad sometimes that I am! It would be so nice to perfect!), that is NOT how Jesus feels. He knows us and loves us and He rejoices in our repentance. He does make us go through the repentance process, which can definitely be painful, but that is a sign of His love for us. As Elder Christofferson said, “Without repentance, there is no real progress or improvement in life…Repentance is a divine gift, and there should be a smile on our faces when we speak of it.” Being able to repent—and then to receive the forgiveness that Christ so willingly gives us—truly is a gift. Let us remember that the Savior truly WANTS to forgive us—every single time, again and again and again.

Virtue

The visiting teaching message for June is about virtue.

This was kind of a difficult topic for me because I don’t feel like I even fully understand what we mean when we talk about virtue--it seems like there is a very narrow definition (virtue = chastity) and a very broad definition (virtue = every good characteristic we could ever hope to have). So, I had to start just by looking at what it is, and in the VT message, it quotes President Faust, who said that it “encompasses all traits of righteousness that help us form our character.”

Preach My Gospel says it “is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards.”

One of the scriptures mentioned at the end of the visiting teaching message is Psalm 24:3-5, which doesn’t directly mention virtue but talks about having “clean hands and a pure heart”.

And finally, I turned to a talk by Elaine S. Dalton, since virtue was a major topic that she addressed while she was the YW General President.  She said, “It encompasses chastity and moral purity. Virtue begins in the heart and in the mind...It is the accumulation of thousands of small decisions and actions.

So, having a basic understanding of virtue, I was intrigued by the question posed at the end of the visiting teaching message: “How does virtue empower and strengthen us?” I thought of just a few things, although I’m sure there are many others:

·         It qualifies us for the Holy Ghost and for God’s help

·         It, among other things, qualifies us to enter the temple and receive all of the blessings and power available there

·         It allows us to have a clear conscience before God, rather than being tormented by guilt

·         It helps us to see clearly (we are fixed on God and striving to do His will, which helps us to can see the temptations of the devil and the enticing of the world for what they truly are and to not be distracted or deceived)

·         It brings joy into our lives as we follow God’s plan for us

·         “Through virtue we find the power divine that can change the world”

·         The “From the Scriptures” section recounts the story of the woman with an issue of blood who touched Christ’s robe and was healed. Jesus said “virtue is gone out of me.”  The section goes onto call the woman “virtuous” and then says, “Through His virtue, Christ can heal, enable, strengthen, comfort, and cheer when we choose with courage and faith to reach out to Him.” To me, this seems to show a connection between the woman’s virtue and Christ’s virtue; by her living virtuously, through having clean hands and a pure heart and faith in Christ, she was able to reach out to Him and then have His virtue heal her.

I don’t know feel like I have a very strong grasp of this principle; it’s something I’ll have to study more. However, I want to close by sharing a song that really touches my heart. I don’t fully get the principle, but I feel the Spirit testifying that there is power in being virtuous when I listen to this song, and I hope you can feel it, too.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/music/2011/04?lang=eng&session=6&song=2&media=video#watch=video