Sister Carol F. McConkie asked women across the globe to “choose to serve a righteous cause as valiant emissaries of our Lord Jesus Christ."
“Whatever our circumstances, wherever we are along the path toward salvation, we unite as one in our commitment to the Savior,” she said during the General Women’s Meeting on Sept. 26. “We sustain one another in His service.”
Speaking on the topic, “Here to Serve a Righteous Cause,” Sister McConkie, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency, said she was grateful to gather together with faithful women, who are “pure in heart, who love the Lord and serve Him, even amid their own trials.”
“Whether we are age 8 or 108, each of us is ‘precious in [His] sight' (Isaiah 43:4). He loves us. We are daughters of God. We are sisters in Zion. We have a divine nature and we each have a glorious work to do.”
Sister McConkie recalled visiting, this summer, with a mother of daughters. “She shared with me her feeling that our young women need a cause, something to help them feel valued. She knew that we may discover our individual and eternal worth by acting in accordance with our divine purpose in mortality. … Through test and trial, even through fear and in the midst of despair, we have valiant hearts. We are resolved to do our part.”
Sister McConkie told the worldwide congregation that they “are here to serve a righteous cause.”
“In this cause we are all valued. We are all needed. The righteous cause we serve is the cause of Christ. It is the work of salvation.”
She said the Savior has marked the path and led the way.
“I testify that as we follow His example, love God, and serve one another with kindness and compassion, we may stand in purity, ‘blameless before God at the last day,’" (Doctrine and Covenants 4:2) she said.
The early Church leaders and pioneers of the past pressed forward with heroic courage and determined faithfulness to establish the restored gospel and build temples where ordinances of exaltation could be performed, she said. “The pioneers of the present, meaning you and me, we also press forward in faith. … We join with faithful sisters of the past, the present, and of the rising generation when we join together in the work of salvation.”
Sister McConkie told the congregation that before they were born they accepted their Heavenly Father’s plan. “We went into a partnership with the Lord. The working out of the plan became then not merely the Father’s work, and the Savior’s work but also our work.”
Here in mortality, Latter-day Saints have again covenanted to serve the Savior in the work of salvation, she said. “By participating in sacred priesthood ordinances, we pledge that we will embark in the service of God with heart, might, mind and strength. We receive the Holy Ghost and seek His promptings to guide our efforts.”
Righteousness emanates out to the world when God’s children understand what He wants them to do and then they do it, she said.
Church members honor the Father’s plan and glorify God when they strengthen and ennoble those relationships in the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. We choose to live pure and virtuous lives so that when the opportunity comes, we are prepared to make and keep that sacred covenant in the house of the Lord.
“We all experience times and seasons in our lives,” she said. “But whether we are at school, at work, in the community and especially in the home, we are the Lord’s agents and we are always on His errand.”
In the work of salvation there is no room for comparison, criticism or condemnation, she said.
“It is not about age, experience, or public acclaim. This sacred work is about developing a broken heart, a contrite spirit and a willingness to use our divine gifts and unique talents to do the Lord’s work in His way.”
sarah@deseretnews.com @SJW_ChurchNews
