Today in Relief Society, 27 June 2010

Sis. Carol Heintz (who is NOT stranded in England!!) gave our lesson, based on Jeffrey R. Holland's October 2009 General Conference talk "Safety for the Soul."

When you read this talk at lds.org, the very first line says " I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world . . . that the Book of Mormon is true." I love it! I think it is amazing that we have an entire church full of people willing to stand up and declare such things. I love that we live in a country where we have the freedom to do so. I love that this man, and many others like him, is such a fine example of bravery, devotion, and spirituality.

Elder Holland states that prophecies regarding the "end of days" always focus on natural disasters including floods, earthquakes, and famine. "But there is one kind of latter-day destruction that has always sounded to me more personal than public, more individual than collective—a warning, perhaps more applicable inside the Church than outside it. The Savior warned that in the last days even those of the covenant, the very elect, could be deceived by the enemy of truth. If we think of this as a form of spiritual destruction, it may cast light on another latter-day prophecy. Think of the heart as the figurative center of our faith, the poetic location of our loyalties and our values; then consider Jesus’s declaration that in the last days 'men’s hearts [shall fail] them.' (Luke 21:26.) "

We are given protections against this "enemy of truth." We have the Book of Mormon, we only need read it. We have the voice of our Prophet, we only need head it! Elder Holland continues; "The encouraging thing, of course, is that our Father in Heaven knows all of these latter-day dangers, these troubles of the heart and soul, and has given counsel and protections regarding them. In light of that, it has always been significant to me that the Book of Mormon, one of the Lord’s powerful keystones3 in this counteroffensive against latter-day ills, begins with a great parable of life, an extended allegory of hope versus fear, of light versus darkness, of salvation versus destruction—an allegory of which Sister Ann M. Dibb (Second Councilor in the General Young Women's Presidency) spoke so movingly this morning." The story he refers to is told here,
"A number of years ago, a one-inch article in my local newspaper caught my attention, and I have remembered it ever since: “Four people were killed and seven workers were rescued after clinging for more than an hour to the underside of a 125-foot-high [38-m] bridge in St. Catharines, Ontario, [Canada,] after the scaffolding they were working on collapsed” (“News Capsules,” Deseret News, June 9, 1993, A2). I was, and I continue to be, fascinated by this brief story. Shortly after reading this account, I called a family friend who lived in St. Catharines. She explained that the workers had been painting the Garden City Skyway bridge for about a year and were two weeks short of completing the project when the accident happened. After the accident, officials were asked why these men did not have any safety equipment. The answer was simple: they had the equipment; they just chose not to wear it. After the scaffolding gave way, the survivors held on to a one-inch lip of steel girder and stood on an eight-inch ledge of steel for over an hour until rescue teams could reach them. One survivor related that as he clung to the bridge, he thought a lot about his family. He said, “I just thank the Lord for me being here today. … It was pretty scary, I tell you” (in Rick Bogacz, “Skyway Horror,” Standard, June 9, 1993). There are many lessons to be learned and comparisons to be made from this incident. While most of us will never face such a dramatic, life-or-death situation, many of us feel that we are going through a scary time in our personal lives."

Our Heavenly Father has given us all of the safety equipment we need in order to make it through this mortal probation. Are we using it to it's full capacity, or are we barely holding on to that one-inch lip after a major incident? We have the chance to make full use of that equipment at any time, even if we are hanging on by a ledge. As the lyrics to one of my favorite songs go "First ya gotta read it, then ya gotta head it, never know when you're gonna need it! Just as old Elijah said to Jezebel, You better start to learn your lessons well!" (Learn your lessons well, Godspell) Are you reading and heading? Dede B.