Light Up the World

I can’t remember the exact phrasing, but in his talk this morning, President Henry B Eyring said something like “within every child born to this world shines the light of Christ.” I was thinking about this phrase and also about how many couples, when they consider whether or not they should have children, come to the conclusion that they would rather not have any children because they don’t want to bring a child into this dark and crazy messed up world. But this is completely backwards. I’m not trying to make any kind of value judgment on whether or how many children a person ought to have, nor do I want to try to make light of the hard and carefully thought out decisions that individuals make regarding the shape and size of their families. But I think it’s important to realize that the total quantity and quality of light in the world goes up every time someone is born into this world, because every new birth brings with it a radiant new source of the Light of Christ. And this applies just as much for Spiritual births as physical births. Every one of us whose personal light of Christ has become dim or even invisible by the mists of darkness and the blots of sin that surround us when we wander off the path, when we forsake our sins and repent and are born again, that light of Christ is able to shine out as brightly as the day we were born. To look at all of the darkness in this world, to comprehend all of the evil and depravity with a clear eye, it is perfectly natural to then give way to a sense of apathy and nihilism. It can seem like one more light won’t make much of a difference amidst all of the darkness. But it isn’t just one more light, is it? When we clean ourselves up and repent and are born again and shine with the pure light of Christ, others will be drawn to us. They will remember what it is like to walk in the light. They will clean themselves up and repent and be born again and shine with the pure light of Christ. The darkness in this world can only exist for as long as we fool ourselves into believing that it is more powerful than the light of Christ. If we are hesitating to bring a new life into this world, or to reach out and help an old life be born again because we are worried that all of our efforts will be in vain and the darkness will win just the same, then we need to stop getting distracted by the darkness and keep our eye single to the glory of God and trust that the light of Christ will shine out the brighter with every new birth - physical or spiritual - and will light up the world.