Brightening My Light

 ldsmediatalk.com  On the Church Web site, at the bottom of the home page and on the right sidebar, are featured videos called Mormon Messages. They are short clips from General Conference talks with music, photos, and background videos added to them. My favorite is the one entitled " Prayer ." Mormon Messages is a great way to share short and uplifting stories, testimonies, and counsel with family and friends, whether they are LDS or not. Above the featured video on the Church Web site is a toolbar allowing you to post the video or link on various social networking sites, such as Facebook. Mormon Messages also has a channel on YouTube, with videos in Spanish, to which you can subscribe. Share the light! Sharing Time: Which Mormon Message is your favorite?

"I have learned that the difference between happiness and misery in individuals, in marriages, and families often comes down to an error of only a few degrees," said President Uchtdorf in General Conference April 2008 . To illustrate this point, he explained that if your course flying around the world were just one degree off, by the time you got back around, you would be 500 miles (800 km) off course. It almost seems unfair that a small mistake can have such a negatively dramatic effect on our lives. However, it is not one small error that does this, but many "small errors and minor drifts away from the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is therefore of critical importance that we become self-disciplined enough to make early and decisive corrections to get back on the right track and not wait or hope that errors will somehow correct themselves. "The longer we delay corrective action, the larger the needed changes become, and the longer it takes to get back

It is no coincidence that light is symbolic of Christ, the light and life of the world (Mosiah 16:9). Every characteristic of light is also characteristic of the Son of God: All life requires light for survival and growth. Light dispels darkness. Light makes everything visible and clear (also used in the forms of lenses and mirrors) and is used to lead the way. Light provides warmth and happiness; its absence leads to cold and depression. The brightest light is white. The solar system revolves around a light source (and isn't it interesting that sun and son are homophones in English?). Light signifies knowledge (light bulb ideas, the word enlightenment , D&C 93:36). Light comes from above. The scriptures reveal how light has been used to symbolize the Savior: Before the Savior was born, the Nephites experienced a day and a night and a day of full light (3 Nephi 1:15, 19). On His day of birth, a new star--the brightest and only constant star--appeared (3 Nephi 1:21, Matthew 2:

The fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath day holy. In order to do so, we must first examine our motivation for doing certain activities. Are we reading our biology textbook because we love to study about God's creations or because we procrastinated our homework all weekend? We must be sure that the reason we do something we normally wouldn't do on Sunday is that it is necessary or unavoidable. President Kimball wrote in an Ensign article , "The Savior knew that the ox falls in the mire, and one must pull the ox from the mire when necessary. But no one deliberately puts the ox in the mire every week, or lets him get in the mire with no effort to keep him out." This may seem hard when we want to play all weekend. President Kimball noted, "Sometimes Sabbath observance is characterized as a matter of sacrifice and self-denial, but it is not so. It is merely a matter of scheduling and choosing seasons. There is time enough, particularly in our era of the world’s

I am so excited for the new Gospel Principles manual! I have always felt strongly about focusing on the basic principles of the gospel. Elder Nelson expressed the same in the January Ensign : "All Church members will benefit by a return to the basics. A careful study of core doctrines . . . will help members strengthen their understanding of the fundamental teachings of the gospel." As time goes by, we often forget the simple aspects of the gospel and tend to only study deeper doctrine. But our understanding of deeper doctrine will increase when we understand the foundational principles upon which the deeper doctrine is built. To bake a cake, every little ingredient is important in producing the delicious dessert. So it is with developing knowledge and a testimony: every little principle is important in producing a strong understanding of the gospel. Some members may fear there will be some redundancy. Elder Nelson said, "Of course there will! Isn't it wonderful tha