Create Reality

I was studying 1 Nephi the other morning where the angel is teaching Nephi the meaning of his father's vision of the tree of life. When I got to the part about the great and spacious building, this phrase struck me..."And the large and spacious building, which thy father saw, is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men." The word 'imaginations' really stuck out to me, so I looked up the cross-reference in Jeremiah 7:24, which reads, "They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward."

We know that the great and spacious building represents the world. We also know that everyone sets foot in that building at one time or another, because we are all imperfect people- and we know that when we are in the building, we are going backward and not forward. From this scripture we learn that one of the ways we can enter the building is by not living in truth....following after our own or someone else's vain imagination. Imagination- make believe- something that is not true! The Savior warned of the deceptive power of the adversary many times.... "Jesus andswered, and said unto them: Take heed that no man deceive you;...And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived" (Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:5, 37).

President Brigham Young once said that if he could do only one thing to bless the Saints, he believed it would be to give them "eyes with which to see things as they really are."(Journal of Discourses, p. 3:221) In Jacob we learn that the Spirit "speaketh the truth...of things as they really are, and things as they really will be..."(Jacob 4:13), and in the Doctrine and Covenants we learn that truth is "knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come" (D&C 93:24).

So our spiritual safety, and our happiness here on earth is only guaranteed when we live in truth. There is so much confusion in the world and so many people who claim to know truth, as well as people who claim that there is no absolute truth. I think there is a special amount of confusion and chaos aimed specifically at women. There are so many ideas about what it means to be a woman. There are so many voices shouting at us that the noise is almost deafening.

Thankfully, we can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to help us live in reality every day. Elder Bednar said, "Obedience opens the door to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. And the spiritual gifts and abilities activated by the power of the Holy Ghost enable us to avoid deception- and to see, to feel, to know, to understand, and to remember things as they really are." I am so grateful for the mercy and kindness of our Heavenly Father who loves us so much that He has given us the gift of the Holy Ghost to give us power over the adversary so that we can live in truth and not be deceived! I am thankful for my responsibility as a woman to create an environment of reality for my family in our home. Heavenly Father truly does give us a way to accomplish everything He has asked.