Years ago as a young mother, I attended a family reunion. My Uncle Jim, as the family patriarch, gathered us all together and took the opportunity to provide some counsel to us. He spoke of the things we allow to influence our lives, the things we allow to enter our homes, the things we allow to demand our time & attention. Then he gave us a benchmark question. "Does it uplift?" He told us that if we would measure those influences and our decisions regarding our lives, our homes, our time against that question we would find ourselves with more peace in our lives and more confident of our path back to our Father in Heaven. We came home from that reunion and promptly put a sign above our TV that read "Does it Uplift?". It was a simple reminder, but yet a powerful motivator to us and our children.
I was thinking about that sign the other day. Years of moving and changing TV equipment - the sign was long ago lost - but the message stayed with us. The more we seek to invite the Spirit into our lives, the stronger our filters of the junk in the world becomes.
Last week the sister missionaries came for dinner and afterward showed us a Mormon Messages video. As I watched that video, I was again reminded of how precious our time is - of how many good choices there are - of all the relationships we can strengthen. We are truly blessed with good, better and best options. The Church is doing wonderful things in offering us those options. If you aren't familiar with
Mormon Channel, it is a great place to find uplifting media.
Here is one of my favorite Mormon Messages videos. If you can't view it on your device - the direct link is below the embedded video frame.
https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/moments-that-matter-most-2
-Lorie Pierce
