Making Personal Purity Our Priority

Sister Proffitt taught the first lesson of the year and laid out her plan for us to achieve our goal this year - to purify our lives. "Our personal holiness matters to Heavenly Father", she said. She encouraged us to take an account of where we are on the path to personal purity. She reminded us that it didn't matter where we were so long as we were on the path and moving forward.

She shared a poignant story of a man at BYU trying to get into his car with a frozen lock. He even went so far as to walk to someone's house and borrow a candle and matches to see if he could thaw the lock. This effort allowed him only to get his key into the lock but it still wouldn't turn. As the evening wore on, the parking lot slowly emptied and his frustration increased. Just as his frustration was reaching it's boiling point, he looked up and saw his car at the other end of the parking lot. He had been trying to get into someone else's car the whole time. Sister Proffitt admonished us to not squander our time doing things that are useless and unfruitful. Our time should be spent doing things that will help us return to our Heavenly Father.

James E. Faust said, "Holiness in part is achieved by conforming to God's will". Sister Proffitt also admonished us to zero in on holiness, to constantly elevate holiness to a daily priority. She quoted Neil A. Maxwell who said "Moments are the molecules that make-up eternity". To make the most of our moments, Sister Proffitt gave us a checklist to enable us to achieve our goal.

#1. Recognize the Voice of the Lord through (a) reading the Book of Mormon, (b) studying the words of the living prophets, (c) MEANINGFUL personal prayer.
#2. Temple Worship. Make the most out of our temple experience by first asking ourselves at the front door if we are worthy to enter and repenting if need be before our session. We need to take advantage of the oasis that the temple provides us.
#3. Consistent FHE. Even if you are a single sister, FHE is required. Sister Proffitt explained the minimum requirements for FHE (1) a song (2) a prayer and (3) a treat. Some days squeeze a lesson in between 2 and 3 and some days you can make it an activity but every Monday night do at least do 1-3.

She ended her lesson talking about the fox and the hedgehog. The fox is always around, lying in wait to attack. The hedgehog goes about it's business without too much care regarding the fox but when the fox does attack, the hedgehog immediately rolls into a ball and sticks out it's quills in defense. We need to be able to spiritually defend ourselves at all times. We can do this by making personal purity our priority.