Post 60 – Light The World Week Four – Light Your Faith
Dear Family and Friends
How have you each been doing with your opportunity to light your family this past week? For the next week we are asked to Light our Faith.
I got the following from the website:
“As we reach out to give as Jesus gave, we can ultimately fan the flame of our own faith. This week, reflect on ways following Jesus Christ has brightened your life and discover a few more ways to light your faith.”
“You can strengthen your faith however you’d like, or you can begin with these suggestions: Attend a religious service in your area; turn some of the daily #LightTheWorld ideas into New Year’s resolutions; Turn off your phone foe a little while and take some time to reflect; Take some time today to memorize a scripture verse.”
This is from the calendar for this year you can find it here: https://www.mormon.org/bc/content/assets/pdf/christmas2018/Calendar%20and%20Family%20Home%20Evening/LTW%20Calendar%202018.pdf?download=true
Attend (or invite someone to) a special Christmas worship service—you’re invited to one of ours on December 23. Make a goal to offer a kneeling prayer every morning this week. Visit a temple or other religious site.
Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier for scripture study. Read the account of the Savior’s birth (Luke 2:1-16). Share an experience on social media when prayer helped you carry a burden.
These are more from the 25 Ways in 25 Days https://www.mormon.org/2016/christmas/in-25-ways-over-25-days/jesus-cared-for-his-mother#
December 17: Jesus Cared For His Mother and So Can You.
December 18: Jesus Honored the Sabbath and So Can You.
December 19: Jesus Calmed the Storm and so can You
December 20: Jesus Saw Potential in Others and so can You
December 21: Jesus Forgave Others And So Can You
December 22: Jesus Showed Gratitude and So Can You
December 23: Jesus Was a Peacemaker and You Can Be One Too
December 24: Jesus Cared for His Loved Ones and So Can You
December 25: Jesus’s Disciples Followed Him and So Can You
To review all four weeks of the Light The World Campaign for 2108
WEEK ONE: LIGHT THE WORLD: Focus on ways you can serve those in need globally.
Help people around the world through charitable
donations. Learn about some of the
problems in another country. How can you help? Listen to a refugee’s story. See
if there are ways you can help.
Sacrifice the cost of your favorite meal and feed the
hungry. Donate your old phones, watches, or other electronics to a charitable group.
Share on social media about someone who is an example of Christlike service.
WEEK
TWO: LIGHT YOUR COMMUNITY Find ways you can reach out and serve your
community. (For more ideas visit JustServe.org)
Volunteer to help a friend move. Help clear off an elderly neighbor’s
driveway. Share your family’s heritage. Invite a friend to participate in a
family Christmas tradition.
Donate a toy to a children’s hospital. Eat lunch with
someone new at school or work. Ask an elderly person about some of their life
experiences. Invite a widow or widower over for dinner.
Call (not text) your parents. Have a family prayer. Take each of your children on a one-on-one activity. At dinner, tell each person why he or she is loved.
Is there a family member you haven’t talked to lately? Call
him or her. Write a handwritten note to your parents or in-laws. Do chores with
your family around your parents’ home
Attend (or invite someone to) a special Christmas worship service—you’re invited to one of ours on December 23. Make a goal to offer a kneeling prayer every morning this week. Visit a temple or other religious site.
Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier for scripture study. Read
the account of the Savior’s birth (Luke 2:1-16). Share an experience on social
media when prayer helped you carry a burden
I wanted to
share this story with you. I was inspired by what I read, and I wanted to find
a way to brighten someone’s day. I hope that you do as well. The story is
called “Who needs Christmas”?
Who Needs Christmas?
by Elder Hugh W. Pinnock of the First Quorum of the
Seventy
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We all need Christmas, because it can bring us closer to the Savior, and he is the only source of lasting joy. It also gives us a unique opportunity to express our love to our family, friends, and those in need.In a crowded department store one December afternoon, I watched a salesclerk become frustrated as customers besieged her with requests. Finally she turned with a gasp of irritation and said, “Christmas! Who needs it?”
The question and the surroundings took me back to my senior year in high school. I was also a salesclerk, selling men’s clothing part-time.It was Christmas Eve day. Snow was falling gently, and there seemed to be more shoppers than usual. They were weaving in and out of the displays, picking up last-minute gifts.A few days earlier, several friends had called me asking, “Could you come to a party on Christmas Eve? We’re planning to meet up the canyon. It will be beautiful. Get a date and be with us.”I was delighted with the prospect of being with a group of friends and enthusiastically looked forward to that social event. I had asked a lovely young woman to go with me, and she seemed to be as excited as I was.As the time approached for the store to close and for me to leave for the party, a subtle uneasiness disturbed my positive feelings.
“What’s wrong?” I asked myself. Then reality struck. I did not want to be with my friends on this special night. I wanted to be with my family as I had been for the previous 16 or 17 Christmas Eves. Even though there were still customers shuffling about, I hurried to the telephone and called my friend.“Don, I, er … well, I don’t know how to say this, but don’t count on me this evening. I’m going to spend Christmas Eve with my family.” I think he understood.I quickly called my date. We agreed to spend time together during the holidays but not on that particular evening.Suddenly a burden had been lifted. I had made the right decisionIt is so important for each of us to learn how the Holy Ghost speaks to each of us. Then once we have learned how the Holy Ghost speaks to us, we must listen and do whatever we are prompted to do. You can never go wrong doing something that is good and right😊
Christmas is for families. It is their love that makes the season so bright. They fill us with gratitude for the Redeemer, who made it possible for us to live with them forever.And yet, while we enjoy Christmas in the warmth of our families, we should remember that many are not so fortunate. Homeless men and women walk the streets of our cities, far from family ties. Someone we know has lost a loved one to death this year. Another cannot afford the travel expense to join his family. Some are too ill to take part in the festivities. For these people, Christmas is not always a “season to be jolly.” It can be a time of depression and loneliness.Surely these people have a right to ask, along with that frustrated salesclerk, “Who needs Christmas?”We all have complaints about Christmas—the hustle and bustle, the added expense (a special burden for many who don’t even have a job), the commercialization. Besides, many Christmas traditions have their roots in pagan customs, and Jesus really wasn’t born in December anyway.I think it is a grand thing when we do our best to keep our focus on Christ during the Christmas season and then all year long as well. We need to teach our children about our Savior, even Jesus Christ. They need to know that He died for their sins as well as for ours.They need to know that He came into this world to provide the way for us to be able to return to live with Him and our Heavenly parents. The other traditions are fun but staying focused on Jesus Christ is an important tradition. We can make our traditions to focus on Christ.
So who needs Christmas? We do! All of us! Because Christmas can bring us closer to the Savior, and he is the only source of lasting joy.We need Christmas because every December millions of people open the Bible to Luke’s account of one of the greatest events in history, and we hear again what the shepherds heard: “For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).The world was never the same again after the angel spoke those words. How could it be? Christ was born, fulfilling centuries of prophecy. And much of that prophecy was to his brothers and sisters in the Americas.We need Christmas because it helps us to be better people, not only in December but in January, June, and November.I believe that if we each try hard, we can keep the Christmas Spirit with us all year through. We should each challenge ourselves to Light the World all year long. We need Christmas! And not just in December, we need to focus our thoughts and out actions on Jesus Christ. His life and His ministry. We need to try to follow His example in all we do and in all we say – every day.Because we need Christmas we had better understand what it is and what it isn’t. Gifts, holly, mistletoe, and red-nosed reindeer are fun as traditions, but they are not what Christmas is really all about. Christmas pertains to that glorious moment when the Son of our Father joined his divinity to our imperfect humanity. It is about his 33-year ministry of teaching mankind how to live, and his journey to the garden and then to the thorns and the cross. It is about a rocky hill where he died that we might live with joy.It is about a garden tomb promising a new world in which death has no dominion. It is about his ascension and subsequent visit to the Nephites and Lamanites, his other sheep. It is about a new life for those who will accept his gift. Christmas is not just about a baby in a manger. It is about a loving older Brother who came down to be with his brothers and sisters in the world. It is about the eternal difference that his ministry has made. It is about all the manifestations of his love since that day, including the glorious visions in the Sacred Grove and the Kirtland Temple.
Did you just learn something new in that last paragraph? Did you realized that Christmas encompassed all of those things mentioned? Did you just say, ‘wow!?’ I did not realize that Christmas encompassed so much. I knew of His birth and that it was the focus of Christmas, but I did not realize that Christmas focused on the Saviors life and ministry while He was on the earth.And what about those who are lonely or lost, for whom Christmas is a burden? Why do they need Christmas? Because, hopefully, we will reach out to them at this season and help to heal their wounds. Perhaps the greatest challenge and opportunity we face at Christmastime is to make Christmas real to people such as these.So, who can you visit tis week? Who can I visit? If you can not make a visit – who can you text, call, or sent a quick note too? There are so many ways to lift someone’s spirit. You can give someone a sincere compliment, it will usually go a long way to help make their day. I know it does wonders for me when I receive a compliment out of the blue😊I firmly believe that the only way to make Christmas real is to imitate the Master. We need to form living links with people everywhere whose loneliness needs brothering or sistering, whose hurts, physical and emotional, need healing, whose poverty cries out for bread and understanding. Jesus spent his life rescuing us all from ourselves. Shouldn’t we rescue others from loneliness and discouragement? Several teenage friends of our family have lost a parent this past year. A death of someone close always makes Christmas more difficult. They are on our list of holiday party guests. For a few hours we hope to lift some anxiety or pain from these good people. On the other hand, if we wish to make Christmas no more than a winter holiday or a week-long celebration, we can sit on our hands and do nothing.
The other day I was shopping at our local thrift shop when I noticed a woman watching us. I was with my granddaughter that I am raising. Every time we moved to another isle, so did she, I asked her how her day was going and if she too was shopping for Christmas or for household things. She seemed very lonely, we talked for a few minutes, then my granddaughter called me, so I went to see to her needs. Still the lady was right there at our every turn as we shopped. She bumped into a shelf and books fell, so I helped her pick them up and we talked again for a few minutes then went on shopping, my cart getting fuller but hers not so much, but she stayed close by us looking at things around the store – and at us. She continued to watch us as we talked about this and that and joked around with each other.And let’s be sure that our reaching out is not marked with any feelings of superiority. I will always remember the first time I went subbing for Santa. We had collected a number of toys, small Christmas trees, and baskets of fruit. Being high school seniors, we felt we finally understood the importance of giving at Christmas.She only had a few things and we had two heaping baskets, but she went behind us in the line and waited very patiently, so we visited a bit more. It seems that her children do not live too far that they could not visit, but maybe they are estranged from one another right not, as the look on her face seemed to indicate when I asked about them spending Christmas with her. So, I met a new friend that day and at the end of our shopping trip, I gave her my address and phone number and told her that if she was alone for Christmas that she would be very welcome to join us.
You know what? Just a couple of days ago I received a very nice card from her saying how much she appreciated watching us shop and enjoying the good relationship that I had with my granddaughter, she said we made her day and she was very appreciative of that opportunity n that day. She was happy that we didn’t mind her watching us as we shopped. She said that she enjoyed watching us so much. She said that we had a very good relationship –my granddaughter and I, which was a god thing for me to hear as I often wonder.We went into one particular dark and dingy home. Several broken chairs were the only furniture. There was no food on the shelves. The children obviously would not have had any toys for Christmas had we not been there. I looked around the darkened living room, and there sat a television set. I thought to myself, “Why are we giving gifts at Christmas when these folks have spent their money on a television?”After subbing for Santa that night, I went home and asked my father, “Dad, why would those people have a television set when they didn’t even have food or furniture?”My father looked at me as if I really needed to understand. He said, “Hugh, that is all those people have. Perhaps for an hour or two a day it gives them some of the happiness you feel with your family and friends so much of the time.”I think I grew up a little that Christmas. At least I was never again critical of what other people did when it came to those types of decisions.
We all need to be very careful not to judge someone else no matter what because we do not ever really know their circumstances beyond what they may choose to tell us. And oft times people are not quick to come forth with sad information about themselves. Most people do not like to admit that they cannot do things on their own. Judging is such an easy habit to form and such a hard habit to brake, so it is best not to begin judging anyone in the first place, because most often we will be wrong in our judgments unless we have “walked a mile in their shoes” so to speak.At Christmastime no gift that we wrap will mean as much as the gift of ourselves. Several years ago some of the General Authorities were hurrying to leave the building during the Christmas hustle and bustle time. As we drove home, I noticed Elder Bruce R. McConkie leaving at the same time. It was several weeks later that I learned that instead of going home as most of the rest of us had done, he had gone to the LDS Hospital and there had gone from room to room blessing people, holding their hands, telling them that the Savior and others loved them. And so during that precious time when the rest of us felt we needed to be home, he took a few minutes to bring light into those people’s lives.Elder McConkie understood something it takes many of us years to learn—that a simple expression of love can heal and bless the lives of others. So often we are not skilled in expressing love.Satan does not approve of the kind of openness that it takes to say “I love you” because it brings happiness to both the giver and the receiver.Well, I say that simply because Satan does not approve, that is the best reason for us to do that very thing, don’t you agree? That must mean that it is a good thing for us to be doing if Satan does not approve, because he will not approve of the things that draw us closer to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. So, who’s life can you take a few minutes today to bring some light into their lives?
Once at a zone missionary conference in Philadelphia, I discussed the importance of expressing love. Later that day a missionary told me, “President, I have never told my father that I love him.”I said, “Elder, pick up that telephone and call your father and let him know you love him.” Ordinarily we don’t encourage missionaries to call home, but I felt inspired that this young man should.He said, “I can’t. My father works in a steel mill out on the slag pile, and he can’t be reached during the day. But I will call him tonight, I promise.”I responded by saying, “Elder, after you call your father, please call me at the mission home. I would like to know what he saLate that night the telephone rang. It was my missionary. He said, “President, I did it.”- I replied, “Tell me about it, elder.”And this is what he said: “Mother picked up the phone. She was worried that something had happened. I assured her that all was well and that I wanted to speak to Dad. She handed the telephone to my father. He was still groggy because he had been asleep for a while, and he said, ‘What is it, son?’“I said, ‘Dad, I love you.’ He started to cry and handed the telephone back to mother.“She said, ‘What did you tell your father?’“‘Mom, I told dad that I love him, and I want you to know how much I love and appreciate you.’”Well, that missionary had many good days in the mission field, delightful times, but the greatest day of all, I suspect, was the day that he expressed love to his parents.You can give a wonderful Christmas present just by telling someone you care.
I agree with this counsel, we should always take the opportunity when it is given us to tell those we love, that we love them, those that we care for, that we care for them. I have raised my children to make sure that in conversations that their last words to each other is ‘I love you,’ and giving a friend a hug is always a good way to let them know that you care about them if you are too shy to say the words, or if you are in a place where you feel uncomfortable telling them out loud.Of course, the power to bless others is not in Christmas, but in doing what Christ would have us do. Christmas can focus our minds on the Savior’s mission, however, and help us discover ways in which we can be of use to him. Let us invite him into our lives.Is there any better way of inviting Christ into our lives than by helping our fellowmen?I can not think of any better way of not only inviting Christ into our lives by doing what He would do if He were here, but in doing so, we are also showing our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we love Them. That we are willing to bear one another’s burdens and to lift their spirits, to share with one another the truths of the gospel that we have been taught. Those things that have truly brought joy into our lives.
- You and I can make our Christmas joy filled and meaningful by reaching into the life of another whose heart may be aching, whose body may be tired or filled with disease, or someone who is confused and misdirected. Shouldn’t we, who have been blessed with the fullness of the gospel, share our joy? Shouldn’t we stop asking, “Who needs Christmas?” and start asking “Who needs my help?”And yet, while we enjoy Christmas in the warmth of our families, we should remember that many are not so fortunate. Homeless men and women walk the streets of our cities, far from family ties. Someone we know has lost a loved one to death this year. Another cannot afford the travel expense to join his family. Some are too ill to take part in the festivities. For these people, Christmas is not always a “season to be jolly.” It can be a time of depression and loneliness.Well, I have come to the end of the story for today, let’s recap for a minute: WEEK ONE: LIGHT THE WORLD: Focus on ways you can serve those in need globally. WEEK TWO: LIGHT YOUR COMMUNITY Find ways you can reach out and serve your community. WEEK THREE: LIGHT YOUR FAMILY This week, show love to those closest to you. WEEK FOUR: LIGHT YOUR FAITH Use this final week to increase your own faith in Jesus Christ.Then in the story I shared, we need to learn or remember what the true meaning Christmas is and share that with others. We need to remember that Christmas is for families and whenever possible we should spend Christmas with our families. We also need to remember that there are others who are struggling during the Christmas season – those who have lost a loved one, who have separated or recently divorced, those who are lonely, or those who for one reason or another do not have a family to spend Christmas with.
- Remember, it is the love of our family and our friends that make the season bright and a happier time for all of us. It is a time for forgiveness and for caring and sharing what we Have with others less fortunate. Christmas it the tie to remember our Savior’s birth and all that He has done for each one of us.To show our gratitude to our Savior, who made it possible for each one of us to live with Them again, we can be aware of those in need and do our best to fill those needs. We should always choose to spend time with our families over other, seemingly more fun activities, during this Christmas season.I love what he said in his story here this part:” I firmly believe that the only way to make Christmas real is to imitate the Master. We need to form living links with people everywhere whose loneliness needs brothering or sistering, whose hurts, physical and emotional, need healing, whose poverty cries out for bread and understanding. Jesus spent his life rescuing us all from ourselves. Shouldn’t we rescue others from loneliness and discouragement?”
We need to remember to say ‘I love you’ to those we love. To remember that a gift of ourselves is so much better than any wrapped present we could give to someone. We need to remember, that as we are blessed with the things that we need in our lives – shouldn’t we share our joy and abundance with those around us?We should share our knowledge of the gospel with others so that their lives may be blessed too. We should ask ourselves “who needs my help today” and “Who can I share my talents with today?” or even as simple as “who can I share my smile with today?” You might be surprised at how much a genuine smile can help a person out who may be struggling for one reason or another. we need to remember not to judge others.Remember that Jesus Christ is the reason for the season! we need to remember what Jesus taught us and follow Him. I guess that is enough of my rambling for today. So, until my next post, remember to Light the World this week by lighting your faith. Merry Christmas everyone! Let’s all finish up this new year with a full -blown act of service for someone. Let’s make it a great last week of 2018.
