Light and Darkness - Walk in the Light

This probably isn't going to be the only Blog Post I write about Light and Darkness but I found a good talk by President Henry B. Eyring called Walk in the Light, and I figured this was a good place to start.

I think that I may have shared parts of this talk with you before, maybe when I was talking about examples of righteousness. In this talk, President Eyring gives a really awesome quote that would have done perfectly with that message.

When you walk in the light, you will feel at that moment some of the warmth and the happiness that will finally be yours when you are welcomed home again with the hundreds and perhaps thousands of others whom you will bring with you, who have walked in the light because you did.

Or might I have shared that in How to Change a Life? Or maybe I intended to, but never got around to it? Anyway, it's an awesome quote.

Yet, as good as that is, that's not what I was intending to focus on for this blog post. Long before he gave that quote, President Eyring said:

Every child of Heavenly Father born in the world is given at birth, as a free gift, the Light of Christ. You have felt that. It is the sense of what is right and what is wrong and what is true and what is false. That has been with you since your journey in life began. The fact that you were baptized and received the Holy Ghost is evidence that you chose to walk in the Light of Christ. 

When you were confirmed a member of the Church, you were given the right to have the Holy Ghost as your companion. The Holy Ghost is a powerful source of light to recognize truth, to follow and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to find your way back to God after this life. 

But the spirit who led the rebellion in the world before still opposes the plan and wants you to be miserable. He wants you never to find your way home again. That enemy of your soul knows you and your goodness. He knows that if he can turn you away from walking in the light, he can both capture you and stop you from helping others along the journey...

You make choices every day and almost every hour that keep you walking in the light or moving away toward darkness.

This confirms much of what I wanted to say about light and darkness. We all have some light in us, that light is meant to be a guiding influence in our lives, the Holy Ghost is a great source of light, Satan tries to pull us away from the light, but in the end, it's our choice who we follow, and every decision we make takes us either closer to or farther from the light.

This isn't all that I would like to say about light and darkness, and I'd love to break this all down and say it more clearly, but I have to get this blog post up in the next half hour, so I don't have enough time make this blog post just the way I'd like it. But I'll do what I can.

Essentially, there is a path of light. The specific details of this 'path of light' may be different for each of us, for example, one person may be inspired to become a doctor, and another might be inspired to become a firefighter. They both save lives, but in different ways. And we're not all doctors and firefighters. When we each follow God's plan for us, we're lead to different places in different ways, but all of us are lead to do good. Which leads me to my next point.

Even though the details of our paths may be different, the basics of our paths are the same. God wants all of us to do good and be righteous, and influence others to do good and be righteous. God wants all of us to keep the commandments, no matter what our individual callings are.

Another thing that's universally true is that the Holy Ghost wants to help us follow the path of light, so he nudges us and whispers in our ears. He respects our decisions, and He won't keep bothering us if we insist that we don't want His help, but if we do want His help, and follow His directions, He'll lead us down the right path and give us opportunities to do a lot of good.

On the other hand, the evil spirit doesn't want us to follow, or even find that path of light. He constantly nudges us and whispers in our ears things that he thinks will tempt us to follow other paths. All too often, he's successful at leading others astray, and misery always follows.

As President Eyring said, "Such choices are not always easy to see clearly." We need to be careful to make sure that we're following the light. A good way to judge whether we're walking in light or darkness is how we feel on the inside. The Holy Ghost, the messenger of light, tends to bring with Him feelings of peace and comfort. If you're not sure what the Spirit feels like, try this: Do something you know is good, and carefully examine your feelings afterward. Do this repeatedly and soon you'll have a pretty good idea what the Spirit feels like. Follow that, and you're well on your way to walking in the light.

Time's up. Not too bad for a start. More to follow.