10 Sept 2009: Kindling my passion for LIGHT

How can I cultivate my passion for LIGHT?

James Marrie said, “Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.”

David O. Mckay echoed this concept: “Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other man. He cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character, this constant weakening or strengthening of others. Man cannot evade the responsibility by merely saying that it is an unconscious influence.

This radiation …comes from what a person really is, not from what he pretends to be. … Life is a state of radiation and absorption. To exist is to radiate. To exist is to be the recipient of radiation.” (16 May 1948)

At Women’s Conference, Elder Uchtdorf identified another way that we can cultivate our personal light. He encouraged all of us to be CREATORS. With the light that is IN us, we are prepared with powerful potential to emulate our Heavenly Parents - the most creative people of the entire universe!

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Our Heavenly Father wants us to know him. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ in order to open the way for us to progress. He has prepared a way to share light and knowledge by prophets so that we can all personally learn truth and develop a relationship with Him through SCRIPTURES.

It is a blessing to have the words of God available for us to read – to own personal copies of the scriptures, to read in our own homes, in our own language. God has allowed intense illumination at this time. My dad has gotten my whole family to read “Fire in the Bones,” a book about William Tyndale.

As a child in England during 1580, Tyndale only heard the words of God through a Catholic priest reading in Latin. Tyndale went to Oxford to learn English and Greek and Hebrew so that he could translate the Bible into the English tongue.

He believed that truth – and LIGHT - should not be kept in the hands of a few, but that a common ploughboy may have as deep a knowledge and relationship with God as the clergy man. People who read the first copies of the Bible in English were killed. It was treason to read the Bible in anything but Latin.

It was still the DARK ages – and, besides, Catholic priests and indulgences were no longer necessary if people started connecting with God directly. Tyndale himself was caught and burned at the stake for translating the Bible.

Today we have free access to this light. We can freely own and read a Bible. Do I honor this light and knowledge?

Another powerful way that I cultivate my personal light is through PRAYER. Prayer is a principle of power, but it sometimes takes courage to pray.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve seen several of my friends leave the church. One friend, a returned missionary, said he doesn’t believe God will really answer his prayers. He wonders if God even cares. He finally agreed that, at the very least, prayer is an outward expression of humility. It’s a real form of submission. Hymn 172 expresses the hopes of the prayerful soul: “Let [my] prayers find access to thee, In thy Holy Courts above.”

But, I KNOW that, when I pray on my knees and out loud, I feel the world around me pause. I feel an alignment with the universe. I feel God listening to me. Sometimes, in the thick of a hard time in life, I offer a simple prayer, “Heavenly Father, do you know who I am? Heavenly Father, do you care about me?” I ask Him, and then I wait for an answer.

I have felt His response as a rush of LIGHT. That light communicates with my soul and spreads feelings of love, of warmth, of energy. I know my Heavenly Father knows me because of a lightness in my soul – the heaviness disappears when there is light; the cloudiness disappears when there is light.


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I believe we can also cultivate our light through BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE. I have never much liked the popular church art or pop music. I learn more about God when I look into the eyes of other people. One late night I was walking through the underground tunnel of Downtown Crossing all alone. It had been a hard day and I was hating my job and hating Boston.

An echo down the corridor grew louder as I walked, “Jesus on the mainline. Pick it up and tell Him what you want.” A toothless musician was smiling at me and playing the guitar: “Jesus on the mainline. Go on and tell Him what you want.” I burst into tears, sat down by him, and we sang together. I felt closer to God because I felt love for this Alabama homeless man. He recognized and testified of Jesus Christ’s role in helping us connect to our Heavenly Father.

God communicates with us through light – which is manifested through His Holy Spirit. When light enters us, we experience feelings of joy, peace, clarity, calmness, security, direction, confidence, and love. The spirit in us resonates with the spirit of God through raw connections with God’s creations – people, plants, even places.
God is in the sunrise over the Atlantic. In South Africa, Desmond Tutu calls this the “spirit of Ubuntu.” My humanity is tied together in your humanity. Together we strengthen and lift each other to God.

Not long before he passed away, I heard President Faust speak in a Stake Conference for the east coast region. He taught about “believing blood.” Because we emanate from light, we are wired to be attracted to it. The blood which pumps through our veins is believing blood filled with Godly energy.

We are all deserving of God’s love. We are all worthy to inherit the blessings He has for us.

Talmage notes, “We will inherit according to our willingness to receive, enjoy and utilize.” Because God respects our agency, He lets us choose to come unto Him. If we desire to be close to God, He will be there. We can choose light or darkness.

We are commanded to kindle and to share our light. Ancient scriptures teach of an eternal principle called “the spark.” Once we have light (or knowledge), we are commanded to share it.

Adam and Eve were commanded to teach all their posterity about the Kingdom of Light and the Worlds of Light – also referred to as “the land of brightness.”


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I know the power of the light. Becoming a mother is a daunting task. I pray daily for guidance – for illumination – of how to act, particularly of how to balance my time. I am strengthened by the innate goodness and brightness of this innocent soul.

Our son, Timshel, is drawn to light. He can find it, wherever he is. Whenever he awakes, his first instinct is to look to the light. Timshel is truly an ambassador of light, “trailing clouds of glory.” He radiates light, he illuminates our world, he kindles kindness and love.

Whatsoever thing is light is of God. Where there is sunshine, where there is brightness, where there is warmth, where there is illumination. (Moroni 7:12) Whatsoever is light is good. (Alma 32.35) This is universal knowledge. In his inauguration speech, Mandela said: “It is not our darkness, but our light that frightens us.”

Father in Heaven has promised, “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24). It is my prayer that each of us will heed Mormon’s invitation to understand and obey that light within, to “search diligently in the light of Christ … and lay hold upon every good thing” (Moro. 7:19).

“Namaste,” they say in India. “Namaste,” they say in Nepal. “Namaste,” literally means, “I salute the light in you that is also in me.” A billion people daily acknowledge the light in all of us that connects us to our Creator. “Namaste” I say to you today.

Let us celebrate the Son of God and his light. Let His light and knowledge that He lives kindle a brighter light in each of us. Let us recognize our potential as children of God and beings of light. Let us radiate our corner of the world. Let us kindle lightning as we build the Kingdom of God with our own passions and creativity.