“Holy Places in Your Life,” New Era, Jan. 2013, 7
Holy Places in Your Life
This year’s Mutual theme invites you to step out of the world and into the kingdom of God. As President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has taught, we live in enemy territory.1 “Stand ye in holy places” is the key to survival.
This theme invites important questions: What is a holy place? Where is a holy place? How can we stand in holy places? How do we make places we regularly inhabit more holy? As you seek answers to these questions, your answers will guide your associations, your choice of activities, and your dress, words, and actions.
You have committed to strengthen your home and family. Strive to make your home a holy place, filled with the Spirit of the Lord. You can support family prayer and scripture study.
Your room can be a holy place that invites the Spirit. If the prophet were to see your room, would he view it as a holy place? Do you?
We can stand in holy places as we go to church. The scriptures teach that the wards and stakes of Zion are holy places that will “be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm” (D&C 115:6).
The most holy place on earth is the temple. President Thomas S. Monson has said: “My young friends who are in your teenage years, always have the temple in your sights. Do nothing which will keep you from entering its doors and partaking of the sacred and eternal blessings there. I commend those of you who already go to the temple regularly to perform baptisms for the dead.”2 Always be worthy to have a current temple recommend, even if a temple is far away.
Anywhere you are where the Spirit is present can be a holy place. President Harold B. Lee (1899–1973) taught that holy places have more to do with how one lives than where one lives.3 If you live worthy of the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, then you stand in a holy place.
Every temple has the inscription “Holiness to the Lord.” Seek to always stand in holy places. As you live the standards, pray daily, and read the scriptures—especially the Book of Mormon—you will feel the companionship of the Holy Ghost. The Lord Himself promises you, “For verily I say unto you, that great things await you” (D&C 45:62). I agree and testify that this is true!