Timely Reminder from the Past

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the General Young Women meeting of the April 2002 conference.

With Satan and his minions promoting sin so blatantly today Sister Sharon G. Larsen's counsel is appropriate: There are places where the Spirit would never be. You know where those places are. Stay away from them. Do not encourage a curiosity that ought to be stopped. Pay attention to what you are feeling so you will know when you are feeling unsure or uneasy. . . . Standing in holy places helps us to become holy, but that is an acquired virtue that takes practice. Practice listening to the Spirit and being obedient. Practice being morally pure. Practice being reverent about sacred things. . . . It is difficult to train your desires to want goodness and beauty when the opposite confronts you constantly and appears to be so much more enticing and fun and popular. . . . Identifying what is holy and educating our desires for that is vital to our happiness.

Too often we think of "talents" as simply the performing or athletic variety. Sister Larsen reminds us that being holy is a "talent" or skill that takes practice. 

This past Sunday there were some visiting families whose children were not quiet during the entire meeting. (Unfortunately the parents never took them out either.) I presumed that those children had never been taught at home to be still and quiet. It is a skill that is best taught and practiced at home, before the occasion arises to need that skill. And it takes years of practice to perfect that skill. The sad thing is, is that the parents of these young families were raised in the church by good parents and should have known better. But apparently not.

How will children, teenagers, and even adults know what spiritual feelings are unless they have experienced them regularly? How can parents help their children experience spiritual feelings without time to be still, reverent and listening? How will any of us be able to stand in holy places unless we have holiness within ourselves? 

It reminds me of what Viktor Frankl said: Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. He knew about standing in holy places.

Sister Larsen ended with this counsel: Once you understand what holy places are, then you know where to be. It may take sacrifice of our worldly tastes or popularity. It may require humility and forgiveness or complete repentance. It does require "clean hands and a pure heart" (Ps. 24:4). Do whatever you have to do to be able to stand in holy places and be not moved, to stand for truth and righteousness, regardless of shallow enticements and evils and designs of conspiring people (see D&C 89:4) and media.

As evil's darkness deepens across the world we will need the strength of the Spirit and a rich reservoir of holiness to stand firm and immoveable in righteousness.