followers of my faith [Mormon Monday 06]

Check out this cool analogy by Sister Mary N. Cook, at the 2011 BYU Women's Conference. Her talk was entitled "Becoming Women of God." I'll be paraphrasing because copy-pasting is too much work, and so is typing everything verbatim.

Three objectives a young woman must achieve on her way to becoming a woman of God:

• Identity: She must understand her identity as a daughter of God.
• Testimony: She must strengthen her faith in and testimony of Jesus Christ.
• the Spirit: She must be worthy to receive, recognize, and rely on the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

In order to create fire, four elements are required: oxygen, fuel, and heat, which, when combined, produce a chain reaction.

• Oxygen is life-giving. Our Heavenly Father is the giver of life. We are His spirit daughters, created in His image. We are here on earth to experience mortal life. And the gift of eternal life is made possible through the Atonement.To know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going is key to understanding who we are -- our identity.
• Fuel is something that sustains. Our knowledge of the plan of salvation and the Atonement sustains us through mortality. A testimony is the fuel that will sustain us through life's challenges.
• One definition of heat is "intensity of feeling." In Galatians 5:22-23 we are taught that the fruits of the Spirit are feelings: "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
• A chain reaction is a series of events in which each one influences the next. Example is key to helping others recognize their divine nature and destiny. We are the models, the mentors, and the teachers to help them define their identity, strengthen their testimonies, and have experiences with the Spirit.

Want to know more about these objectives? Read her talk! It's a good one.