Finally, be a light to the people where you live. When my wife and I were starting out as a newly married couple in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-1960s, the Latter-day Saint population was relatively small. In addition, the San Francisco Bay Area had become a magnet for drug abuse and all manner of promiscuous and sinful conduct. A concerned stake president back then asked the leadership of the Church if leaders should encourage Church members to remain in the San Francisco Bay Area.
President Harold B. Lee (1899–1973), then a senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was assigned to address the issue. He met with a group of priesthood leaders and told them that the Lord had not inspired the construction of a temple in our area only to have the members leave. His counsel was to:
Create Zion in our hearts and homes.
Be a light to those among whom we live.
Focus on the ordinances and principles taught in the temple.
If we will follow President Lee's counsel today, we can successfully be in the world but not of the world. However, we must each determine whether we will look to the world or focus on the temple.
Over our lifetime we will face many worldly challenges. One of these challenges is that we will find that the Church and its teachings are not understood and are sometimes misrepresented. A few years ago Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles called on Church members to let their voices be heard in defending the faith and correcting false information. He pointed out that it is particularly important for us to participate in the "'new media,' made possible by the Internet."12 In a world with diverse communications and with members spread all over the globe, there is a need for Latter-day Saints to respond to and defend against irresponsible and inaccurate descriptions of the Church when they occur. We are grateful for what has transpired since Elder Ballard's article, and I reiterate his challenge.
I am confident that we can attain the happiness we desire and that God wants for us. It is my prayer that as we pursue the true path to happiness in our families and professions, we will use our knowledge and influence to bring greater righteousness, peace, understanding, and freedom to people all over the world.
I assure you that the joy, love, and fulfillment experienced in loving, righteous families produce the greatest possible happiness we can achieve.
Be involved in the world in a positive way and be a powerful force for good.
Photo illustrations by Robert Casey, Welden C. Andersen, and John Luke
Frederic W. Farrar, The Life and Work of St. Paul (1902), 1:535–36.
Jim Holt, "A Word about the Wise," New York Times Book Review, Mar. 14, 2010, 12.
David Brooks, "The Sandra Bullock Trade," New York Times, Mar. 30, 2010, p. A23.
Joseph Smith, in History of the Church, 5:134–35.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, trans. Bayard Taylor (1912), 1:28.
David O. McKay, in Conference Report, Apr. 1969, 9.
David O. McKay, Apr. 1969, 8.
Mortimer B. Zuckerman, "Family-Unfriendly Policies," U.S. News and World Report, Oct. 5, 2007, 72.
David Brooks, "The Sandra Bullock Trade," p. A23.
Joseph Fielding Smith, in Conference Report, Oct. 1916, 70.
Thomas S. Monson, "Invitation to Exaltation," Tambuli, Sept. 1993, 4; Ensign, June 1993, 4.
M. Russell Ballard, "Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet," Liahona, June 2008, N1; Ensign, July 2008, 60.
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