General Women's Conference
2015 - Highlight Notes
Cheryl Esplin – Filling
Our Homes with Light and Truth
When
filled with the Spirit and with gospel truth, we have the power to
withstand the outside forces of the world that surround and push
against us. However, if we are not filled spiritually, we don’t
have the inner strength to resist the outside pressures and can
collapse when forces push against us.
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| https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/filling-our-homes-with-light-and-truth?lang=eng |
Satan
knows that in order for us and our families to withstand the
pressures of the world, we must be filled with light and gospel
truth. So he does everything in his power to dilute, distort, and
destroy the truth of the gospel and to keep us separated from that
truth.
...we
will have to do our best to hold on to whatever light and truth we
currently have, especially in difficult circumstances. The answers to
our prayers may not come dramatically, but we must find quiet moments
to seek greater light and truth. And when we receive it, it is our
responsibility to live it, to share it, and to defend it.
Carol
M. Stephens - The Family Is Of God
(Lists
the challenges of many right now which she has not had.)
So
right now some of you are thinking, “Well then, Sister Stephens,
you just don’t understand!” And I answer that you may be right. I
don’t completely understand your challenges. But through my
personal tests and trials—the ones that have brought me to my
knees—I have become well acquainted with the One who does
understand, He who was “acquainted with grief,”6
who experienced all and understands all. And in addition, I have
experienced all of the mortal tests that I just mentioned through the
lens of a daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend.
God
wants us to be one. God needs us to be one—covenant-keeping
daughters, united in the diversities of our individual lives,11 Elder
Russell M. Nelson taught, “Heavenly Father has but two desires
for His children … : immortality
and eternal life, ‘which means life with Him back home.’”14
Bonnie
Oscarson -Defenders of the Family Proclamation
One
of the hardest challenges in this life is to have faith in the Lord’s
timing. It’s a good idea to have an alternative plan in mind, which
helps us to be covenant-keeping, charitable, and righteous women who
build the kingdom of God no matter which way our lives go. We need to
teach our daughters to aim for the ideal but plan for contingencies.
Everyone,
no matter what their marital circumstance or number of children, can
be defenders of the Lord’s plan described in the family
proclamation. If it is the Lord’s plan, it should also be our plan!
Let
us be defenders of marriage as the Lord has ordained it while
continuing to show love and compassion for those with differing
views.
I
would hope that as we encourage our children to reach for the very
best in this life that we also teach them to honor and exalt the
roles that mothers and fathers play in Heavenly Father’s plan.
The
last principle we need to stand and defend is the sanctity of the
home. We need to take a term which is sometimes spoken of with
derision and elevate it. It is the term homemaker.
All of us—women, men, youth, and children, single or married—can
work at being homemakers. We should “make our homes” places of
order, refuge, holiness, and safety. Our homes should be places where
the Spirit of the Lord is felt in rich abundance and where the
scriptures and the gospel are studied, taught, and lived. What a
difference it would make in the world if all people would see
themselves as makers of righteous homes. Let us defend the home as a
place which is second only to the temple in holiness.
Pres.
Henry B. Eyring - The Comforter
One
of the attributes of the Savior we most appreciate is His infinite
compassion. Tonight
you have felt He knows you and loves you. You have felt His love for
those seated around you. They are your sisters, spirit daughters of
our Heavenly Father. He cares for them as He cares for you. He
understands all their sorrows. He wants to succor them.
My
message to you tonight is that you can and must be an important part
of His giving comfort to those who need comfort.
“And
now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and
his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that
they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit
cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.”6
I
have seen that miracle time and time again. We lighten the loads of
others best by helping the Lord strengthen them. That is why the Lord
included in our charge to comfort others the command to be His
witnesses at all times and in all places.
The
father and the mother of the little boy bore witness of the Savior
that evening in my living room. The Holy Ghost came, and all were
comforted. The parents were strengthened. The burden of grief did not
disappear, but they were made able to bear the sorrow. Their faith
increased. And their strength will continue to grow as they ask for
it and live for it.
The
scripture tells us this truth: “Charity is the pure love of
Christ.”10 His
love never fails, and we never will cease to feel in our hearts the
urge “to mourn with those that mourn … and comfort those
that stand in need of comfort.”11
Nor will the peace He promises ever leave us as we serve others for
Him.
