That Your Joy May Be Full

That Your Joy Might Be Full

By Jean B. Bingham

Relief Society General President

Lasting joy is found in focusing on our Savior, Jesus Christ, and living the gospel as demonstrated and taught by Him. The more we learn about, have faith in, and emulate Jesus Christ, the more we come to understand that He is the source of all healing, peace, and eternal progress.

As you study Christ’s life and teachings in a myriad of ways, your faith in Him will increase. You will come to know that He loves you individually and understands you perfectly. 

As we learn more about Jesus Christ, we develop greater faith in Him and we naturally want to follow His example. Keeping His commandments becomes our greatest desire. Our hearts yearn to relieve others’ suffering, as He did, and we want them to experience the peace and happiness we have found.

Why is trying to do as He did so powerful? Because when we put our faith into action, the Holy Ghost bears witness of eternal truth.20Jesus instructs His disciples to keep His commandments because He knows that as we follow His example, we will begin to experience joy, and as we continue on His path, we will come to a fulness of joy. 

Daily reading of scriptures and pondering the words of living prophets, engaging in meaningful personal prayer, mindfully partaking of the sacrament each week, giving service as the Savior would—each of these simple activities becomes a building block for a joyful life.

Articulate to Jennifer

Turn On Your Light

By Sharon Eubank

First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency

Let me quote a little of what President Kimball said:

“Finally, my dear sisters, may I suggest to you something that has not been said before or at least in quite this way. Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world … will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world.

“Among the real heroines in the world who will come into the Church are women who are more concerned with being righteous than with being selfish. These real heroines have true humility, which places a higher value on integrity than on visibility. …

“… It will be … female exemplars of the Church [who] will be a significant force in both the numerical and the spiritual growth of the Church in the last days.”3

....Being articulate means to clearly express how you feel about something and why.

Each of us needs to be better at articulating the reasons for our faith. How do you feel about Jesus Christ? Why do you stay in the Church? Why do you believe the Book of Mormon is scripture? Where do you get your peace? Why does it matter that the prophet has something to say in 2017? How do you know he is a real prophet? Use your voice and your power to articulate what you know and feel—on social media, in quiet conversations with your friends, when you’re chatting with your grandchildren. Tell them why you believe, what it feels like, if you ever doubted, how you got through it, and what Jesus Christ means to you. 

There is an energy that comes from happiness and optimism that doesn’t just bless us—it builds everyone around us. Any small thing you do to light real happiness in others shows that you are already carrying the torch that President Kimball lit.

Avoid Comparisons

“When you begin to compare yourself, one with another, it either leads to discouragement or it leads to pride. … Blessings come in the near-term. Blessings come in the long-term. Sometimes blessings are in store for us, I believe, after we pass through the veil. … Ultimately, we can be assured that the promise of eternal life is for everyone.”

—Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Cupcake eating Pigs and Holland

Find the Joy Heavenly Father Wants for You

By Elder Alan C. Batt

Of the Seventy, Idaho Area

From a devotional address, “Is This What You Want Your Life to Be?” given at Brigham Young University–Idaho on November 1, 2016. For the full address, visit web.byui.edu/devotionalsandspeeches.

One of my childhood friends had a pigpen behind his house. Sometimes we would sit on the fence and watch the pigs. This might seem like odd behavior, but it wasn’t really much different from watching reality TV today.

One day my friend’s father pulled into the yard with his pickup truck overflowing with doughnuts, bread, and cupcakes that had passed their expiration date. He backed up to the pigpen and shoveled his cargo into the muck. The pigs began to devour the food, wrappers and all. Each mouthful was filled with cupcakes and doughnuts, their plastic wrappers smeared with mud and manure. It was disgusting.

Each time we watched this happen over the next few weeks, it became less repulsive and more entertaining. One day I told my friend that if we could figure out a way to get some doughnuts and cupcakes out of the pigpen without the pigs attacking us, we could have free treats. We took a rake and pulled a large blob of mud, manure, and cupcakes from under the fence. We washed off the wrappers, climbed up on the fence, and ate away with the pigs.

Isn’t this exactly how Satan works? He serves up something that is dirty and disgusting, and over time we start to accept it as entertaining, desirable, and good. The next time you think of doing something foolish, imagine yourself sitting on a fence eating cupcakes with the pigs.

Another story ....

Emily Kingsley wrote an essay that compares her unexpected challenge, having a child with Down syndrome, to getting on a plane for a vacation to Italy, only to have the plane land in Holland. She has the following imaginary conversation:

“Holland? What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”

The flight attendant replies: “But there’s been a change in the flight plan. You’ve landed in Holland, and there you must stay.”

But then you meet others who are going to and coming from Italy. “And they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, ‘Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.’”

“But,” Kingsley concludes, “if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.”1

Youth Resources

@LDSYouth Instagram Account

This Instagram account shares inspiring photos, stories, and testimonies of youth around the world.

Check it out at the account @LDSYouth on Instagram.

LDS Youth Mobile App

This mobile app has videos, articles, and music.

Download the LDS Youth app at the Apple App Store or Google Play.

LDS Youth Facebook Page

The LDS Youth page on Facebook posts videos, photos, testimonies, inspirational messages, and much more every day.

Check it out at facebook.com/LDSYouth.

Youth Activities Website

Need ideas for a Mutual night? Or did you recently do an awesome activity that you’d like to share? On the youth activities website, you and the youth can browse through activities by topic, use online tools to plan an activity, and submit activity ideas to share with others. This is also where you’ll find an archive of past Face to Face event broadcasts.

Check it out at lds.org/youth/activities.

Youth Website

The Church’s youth website has videos, articles, and (perhaps most popular of all) music for youth. In addition, it’s your portal to the Come, Follow Me lessons for youth, the youth activities website, and programs such as Personal Progress and Duty to God online.

Check it out at youth.lds.org.

Teaching the Proclamation to Children Part 9

This Month’s Selection

“We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

“We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

How to Explain This to Children

Heavenly Father knows how we treat our family. People who hurt their family members will have to answer to Him one day. Many prophets have taught that families are important. Families make neighborhoods and countries stronger. We should tell our government leaders that we care about families and ask them for help making our families as healthy and happy as they can be.

Activity Idea

Learn about who your local government leaders are. Write them a letter asking for something that would help your family or thanking them for something that already does. For example, you could thank them for a park near your home, or ask them for more family-friendly community activities. What have you learned about the family proclamation this year?

Spiritual Eclipses

With so many appropriate and inspired uses of technology, let us use it to teach, inspire, and lift ourselves and to encourage others to become their finest—rather than to portray our idealized virtual selves. 

Let’s now address the age-old stumbling block of pride. Pride is the opposite of humility, which is a “willingness to submit to the will of the Lord.”14 When prideful, we tend to take honor to ourselves rather than giving it to others, including the Lord. Pride is often competitive; it is a tendency to seek to obtain more and presume we are better than others. Pride often results in feelings of anger and hatred; it causes one to hold grudges or to withhold forgiveness. Pride, however, can be swallowed in the Christlike attribute of humility.

Relationships, even with close family and loved ones, especially with close family and loved ones—even between husbands and wives—are fostered in humility and are stymied by pride.

In my experience in the Church as well as throughout my professional career, some of the greatest, most effective people I have known have been among the most meek and humble.

If you discover anything that seems to be blocking the light and joy of the gospel in your life, I invite you to place it in a gospel perspective. Look through a gospel lens and be vigilant not to allow insignificant and inconsequential matters in life to obscure your eternal view of the great plan of happiness. In short, don’t let life’s distractions eclipse heaven’s light.

Spiritual Eclipse

By Elder Gary E. Stevenson

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Push Back the Darkness

 “Unless you are fully engaged in living the gospel—living it with all of your ‘heart, might, mind and strength’—you cannot generate enough spiritual light to push back the darkness” (“Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light,” Ensign, May 2002, 71; Liahona, July 2002, 78). 

Lean Not

The warning comes in the words “lean not”—“lean not unto thine own understanding.” In English the word lean has a connotation of physically listing or moving to one side. When we physically lean toward one side or another, we move off center, we are out of balance, and we tip. When we spiritually lean to our own understanding, we lean away from our Savior. If we lean, we are not centered; we are not balanced; we are not focused on Christ.

May I suggest three ways to increase our knowledge of and trust in the Savior.

First, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him as we “feast upon the words of Christ;

More scriptures enlighten our minds, nourish our spirits, answer our questions, increase our trust in the Lord, and help us center our lives on Him.

Second, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him through prayer. 

Third, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him as we serve others. 

I share the following story with permission from Amy Wright, who came to understand the principle of serving even amid a terrifying and life-threatening illness. Amy wrote:

“On October 29, 2015, I found out I had cancer. My cancer has a 17 percent survival rate. The odds weren’t good. I knew that I would be in for the fight of my life. I was determined to give it everything I had not just for myself but, more important, for my family. In December, I began chemo. I was familiar with many of the side effects of cancer-fighting drugs, but I did not know that it was possible for someone to be so sick and still be alive.

“At one point, I declared chemotherapy a human rights violation. I told my husband that I was done. I quit! I was not going back to the hospital. In his wisdom, my sweetheart patiently listened and then responded, ‘Well, then we need to find someone to serve.’”

What? Did he miss the fact that his wife had cancer and couldn’t take one more bout of nausea or one more moment of excruciating pain?

Amy goes on to explain: “My symptoms gradually worsened to where I generally had one or two ‘OK’ days a month [when] I could somewhat function as a living, breathing human being. It was those days when our family would find ways to serve.”

On one of those days, Amy’s family distributed chemo comfort kits to other patients, kits filled with items to cheer and to help relieve symptoms. When Amy couldn’t sleep, she would think of ways to brighten someone else’s day. Some ways were big, but many were just small notes or text messages of encouragement and love. On those nights when her pain was too great to sleep, she would lie in bed with her iPad and search for ordinances that needed to be completed on behalf of her deceased ancestors. Miraculously the pain would subside, and she was able to endure.

“Service,” Amy testifies, “saved my life. Where I ultimately found my strength to keep moving forward was the happiness I discovered in trying to relieve the suffering of those around me. I looked forward to our service projects with great joy and anticipation. Still to this day it seems like such a strange paradox. You would think that someone who was bald, poisoned, and fighting for [her] life was justified in thinking that ‘right now it is all about me.’ However, when I thought about myself, my situation, my suffering and pain, the world became very dark and depressing. When my focus turned to others, there was light, hope, strength, courage, and joy. I know that this is possible because of the sustaining, healing, and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”

Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us … as we walk uprightly. … There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us.”

Trust in the Lord and Lean Not

By Bonnie H. Cordon

Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency