“A Lamp to Our Feet,” For the Strength of Youth, Aug. 2022.
Objects from the Scriptures
Come, Follow Me
Psalms
A Lamp to Our Feet
A common object for ancient Israelites can teach us how the Lord guides us.
Facts
In Old Testament times, people used oil lamps to carry light with them in the dark. Most of these lamps had three basic features:
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1. A clay bowl to hold olive oil; usually small enough to hold in the palm of a person’s hand
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2. A flax wick to be lit after it absorbed the oil
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3. A spout or nozzle to hold the wick
Simple oil lamps with just one wick would cast light for just a few feet around them. If used while walking around, they would cast just enough light to see a step ahead of yourself so that you could get around carefully in the dark.
What We Can Learn
Used with permission. Lead, Kindly Light, by Simon Dewey. Courtesy of altusfineart.com © 2022.
The word of the Lord can light our way through the darkness and confusion that surround us in the world.
The Lord has asked us not to cover our light but to carry the light of the gospel with us so that others can see it (see Matthew 5:14–16).
It is up to us to make sure that our lamps are filled with oil (see Matthew 25:1–13). We do this through prayer, scripture study, service, following the prophet, and other acts of faith and devotion (see Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 256).
If we exercise faith, the Lord sometimes lights our path just enough for us to take one more step (see Boyd K. Packer, “The Candle of the Lord,” Ensign, Jan. 1983, 54).