one little word 2015

One Little Word 2015: Holy

Some time ago, I heard about a book called "What Would a Holy Woman Do?" written by Sister Wendy Watson Nelson, wife of Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

She started out by sharing an experience that happened in 2007.  She and Elder Nelson had gone to Tonga for the rededication of the Tonga Temple.  They had gone a little earlier to inspect the temple prior to the rededication.  Everything looked perfect and Elder Nelson was ready to sign off on the inspection.  However, when they were leaving, they noticed something very important was missing from the temple.  This missing item was so important that if it was not put in place, the temple rededication could not happen!

What was missing?  On every temple of the Church, in the local language, appear these words: Holiness to the Lord.  The House of the Lord.  On the Tonga temple, these words were missing!  Elder Nelson informed the appropriate people, those words were placed on the temple and the rededication occurred on schedule.

After returning to Salt Lake City, Sister Nelson thought about that experience.  She thought about holiness—the meaning of the word, the placement of those phrases.  She asked herself what she needed to change in her life so the words "Holiness to the Lord" could be placed upon her life.

Sister Nelson asked six friends (ages 26 to 65) to try an experiment.  She asked them, for three days, to choose one of their daily activities and try to "be holy" while doing it, or do it as a holy woman would do it.

Some of the examples she offered as suggestions (and some of mine):  How would a holy woman start her day?  What would be on her to-do list?  How would she read to a child?  Clean her kitchen?  Do laundry?  Scrub the toilets?  Balance her checkbook?  Deal with a difficult situation?  How would she dress?  What would she listen to?  Watch?  Read?  Look at?  How would she pray?  Read her scriptures?  Prepare a lesson she needed to teach next Sunday?  How would she prepare for the Sabbath day?  How would she fast?  If she were married, how would she greet her husband when he got home from work?  If she were single, how would she interact with her roommates?  If she worked outside the home, how would she do her work? 

Much of the rest of the book is the stories shared by those who agreed to participate in this experiment, as well as some others who also tried the experiment.

Sister Nelson also asked the reader, "What is the Lord teaching YOU about holiness?"  She mentions that D&C 46:33 says that "Ye must practice virtue and holiness before me continually". 

Also, in D&C 60:7, the Lord says, "I am able to make you holy".

The verse about practicing holiness continually comes at the very end of section 46.  Before that, in verses 7-12, we are commanded to ask God for gifts of the Spirit which can help us become more holy.  And verses 13-16 list some of the gifts of the Spirit that are available.  These are only SOME of the gifts available.  We can ask for ANY gift that will help us in our desires to become more holy, to become more like the Savior and to continue in our journey through life.

Well, that book really touched me.  So much so, in fact, that I used it as the text for my talk at the Relief Society Christmas luncheon.  Several sisters told me that they felt inspired too and were making their 2015 resolutions based on the concept of "What Would a Holy Woman Do?"

I decided that my word for 2015 would be Holy, as a shorthand version of "What would a holy woman do?"

In my next post, I will share some thoughts about how I can apply this word/question to my life.