I have been wanting to share this talk that I read in the Ensign which is a magazine that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints puts out each month. It was a great talk given by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf and it talked about the influence of a righteous woman. The entire talk was great, but I am only sharing one part that I particularly enjoyed. I know that I have areas in my life that need some help and sometimes I find myself slipping, but this talk was a good reminder. I love good talks! :)
He said:
As you live up to this mission, in whatever life circumstance you find yourself—as a wife, as a mother, as a single mother, as a divorced woman, as a widowed or a single woman—the Lord our God will open up responsibilities and blessings far beyond your ability to imagine.
May I invite you to rise to the great potential within you. But don’t reach beyond your capacity. Don’t set goals beyond your capacity to achieve. Don’t feel guilty or dwell on thoughts of failure. Don’t compare yourself with others. Do the best you can, and the Lord will provide the rest. Have faith and confidence in Him, and you will see miracles happen in your life and the lives of your loved ones. The virtue of your own life will be a light to those who sit in darkness, because you are a living witness of the fulness of the gospel. Wherever you have been planted on this beautiful but often troubled earth of ours, you can be the one to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees”
I love it & believe that what he has said is true. Wherever we find ourselves in life or on the earth, we can be a positive example to those around us and we can be that light to someone that may be struggling or in darkness. I feel that it is so easy to dwell on our weaknesses and our failures and get caught up in all of that, but if we can have faith and confidence in the Savior then we can be happy and lights to those around us. Great article. http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=4d5d1a01e8d43210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
4 comments:
What a great post! Thanks for sharing. It is nice to hear it again.
Julie,
I'm one of Jared's freinds from EFY, and I read your blog sometimes...it is so much fun to hear about your austrailia adventures.
I just read your latest post and it made me think of a talk by Bruce Hafen...
http://www.worldcongress.org/wcf2_spkrs/wcf2_hafen.htm
The section I think you would appreciate is blow:
Consider now, in summary, a true story from Australian history that illustrates the power of women’s moral influence as mothers of hope, women of fidelity, wives of commitment, and nurturers of human ties. In its early decades as a British colony, Australia was a vast wilderness designated as a jail for exiled convicts. Until 1850, six of every seven people who went “down under” from Britain were men. And the few women who went were often convicts or social outcasts themselves. The men ruthlessly exploited them, sexually and in other ways. With few exceptions, these women without hope were powerless to change their conditions.
In about 1840, a reformer named Caroline Chisholm urged that more women would stabilize the culture. She told the British government the best way to establish a community of “great and good people” in Australia: “For all the clergy you can dispatch, all the schoolmasters you can appoint, all the churches you can build, and all the books you can export, will never do much good without . . . ‘God’s police’-- wives and little children--good and virtuous women.”
Chisholm searched for women who would raise “the moral standard of the people.” She spent twenty years traveling to England, recruiting young women and young couples who believed in the common sense principles of family life. Over time, these women tamed the men who were taming the wild land; and civil society in Australia gradually emerged. Also, the colonial governments enacted policies that elevated women’s status and reinforced family life.[23] As one historian said, “the initial reluctance of the wild colonial boys to marry was eroded fairly quickly.” Eventually, thousands of new immigrants who shared the vision of these “good and virtuous women” established stable families as the basic unit of Australian society more quickly than had occurred “anywhere else in the Western world.”[24]
This striking story of women’s moral influence grew from a conscious design to replace “the penal colony’s rough and wild ways” with “a more moral civilization.” The reformers intentionally capitalized on women’s innate “civilizing” capacity. [25] These women made Australia a promised land that flowed with a healthy ecosystem of milk and honey. And the milk, literally and figuratively, was mother’s milk--the milk of human kindness. That milk nurtures those habits of the heart without which no civil society can sustain itself.
Enjoy!
Molly Zarbock
Thanks for this post, Julie! Isn't it wonderful to have these reminders?
Julie, you're such a great example, as always! I love how you document your amazing life, your darling family, and especially your wonderful thoughts. I still have the Christmas gift you made in HS, the cards on a ring noting the favorite scriptures and quotes of so many of the ladies. What a treasure. Love the sand drawing pic, too!!
Post a Comment