What is happening to our world today? Do we feel it? A great shift toward wickedness is happening right before our eyes. The scriptures have offered us everything we must know in order to prepare for this moment, and spiraling moments to come. Are we spiritually prepared for now?
As usual, our General Conference Odyssey talks seem to correlate well with what we are experiencing today. In the Women’s Meeting of October 1988, Sister Barbara W. Winder, the Relief Society General President at that time, gave a great talk on Becoming a Prepared People. I’m simply going to quote her talk because she says it best.
Sister Winder shares the experience of one woman who realized too late what the best kind of preparedness is. This was her lesson learned:
It is because of our spiritual preparation that we can find answers to our everyday challenges. It is because of our spiritual preparation that we can find joy in enduring and overcoming our trials. It is because of our spiritual preparation that we can feel the greatest joy of all, a nearness and closeness to our Savior and Father in Heaven.
Her own testimony is made clear when she testifies how we must prepare. Sister Winder says:
We prepare by developing a strong relationship with our Heavenly Father through prayer, scripture study, and obedience to the commandments; by knowing our own worth; and by sustaining the priesthood.
Often, we are reminded to obey our prophet? He knows the way! (Children’s Songbook #110) She continues: “Often the advice that is given by our prophets is so simple and practical that we overlook it and fail to heed it.
Today, we are being sent mixed messages of empowering women only to take their virtue away. Sister Winder reminds us: “We are taught that we have great worth in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. The Primary children sing, “I am a child of God.” The Young Women recite their theme which begins, “We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us,” and the prophets have declared that virtuous women are more priceless than rubies.”
Concluding her talk with these inspiring words, I hope we are all inspired to stand strong and holy:
As we work daily to attain righteousness and a spiritual way of life, we have a responsibility to elevate others, to help them realize their divine potential, and to be an instrument in the hands of God.
We need to put God first and balance our spiritual and temporal preparations, that we might become virtuous women, righteous daughters, instruments in his hands to help prepare the way for his coming.
I pray that we will not be discouraged and not be led away, not be deceived—but “cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God. (D&C 123:17.)