Another beautiful, still morning has come, and yet another inspiring experience has accompanied me on my morning run. I started out down the road thinking to myself which route I might take today. Within just a few moments the road split and I quickly chose to turn left, knowing that I would be passing the view of the temple. I just love to see the temple! It is a symbol of love and peace in my life. As I was running down the road I decided to turn on my headphones to a conference talk given just days ago by Elder David A. Bednar. His talk was comparing personal revelation to how light enters our lives. At times the light enters immediately, like when we turn the light on in a dark room. Other times, the light enters gradually, like the sun rising over the skyline in the morning. So it is with personal revelation. Sometimes things come into our minds immediately of things that we learn or things that we should do. But more often times, things come to us little by little until we are led to know of gospel truths. As my mind was reflecting on these teachings, I came upon the view of the temple and my mind immediately saw the stark contrast of this magnificent building of light against the black canvas of the night sky. I then thought to myself how this holy temple is just that. A beacon of light in a world that often times can seem dark and confusing. The light of the gospel shines constantly whether in the light of noon day or the darkness of night. At this point in my run, I had to cross a busy road and the only way to do so was to go up an elevated sky bridge that will get you safely to the other side. As I ran up the switch backs and reached the highest point, the illuminated temple was even clearer to my view because I was above everything else. While there are many spiritual applications to this scenario, the next thing I saw made me feel overcome with gratitude for the time and place in which we live. Standing on the top of this bridge, I turned in a circle to see the view around me, when to my pleasant surprise, I could see yet another, and then another bright beautiful temple lit up against the night sky! 3 temples in my view from just one simple place! I tried to take a picture of what I saw, but the temples were too far away and the light didn’t carry to my camera. Then I thought to myself, “I guess this is just like life. If you want to be able to see the light, you have to be standing in the right place. Someone can’t carry the light for you and give it to you, but you have to go and see it for yourself.” Next, as I decided to turn around and follow the same route back home, I kept on listening to the conference talk. As I did so, I kept on listening and learning simple little truths. I felt so happy and good inside when suddenly I had to jolt quickly out of the way of a broken tree branch that was hanging down from a tree next to the side walk. It was still very dark at this point and I did not see the branch at first but I could almost feel it as I quickly approached it. I got out of the way just in time and quickly got back on course without getting hit by the branch. Then just a few short steps later, yet another branch was in my path and so I quickly got out of the way. This time I noticed the branch a little sooner so I didn’t feel as threatened. After this brief little experience I thought to myself, “Having the gospel light inside of me and the gift of the Holy Ghost to warn me, I was able to see the danger ahead of me, even in the darkness of night.” I continued running home noticing anything with light that I passed. –Headlights on cars, streetlights on the road, and porch lights on houses. They were all giving off light, and all the while, the sky was beginning to get lighter, little by little – just like how my mind had been receiving spiritual light while I had been out on my run. Then, as I came around my last corner which brought me back to the road that my house was on, I had one more important thought enter my mind about light. I passed a tree that was right next to a street light and as I passed the light and then the tree, I found myself running through a shadow of tree branches where the light had been broken up and cast itself into many places. My mind immediately thought of a prism and how when light enters a prism it disperses the light into many different places and can reflect an even more beautiful light both in darkness and in a room that is already completely filled with light. Then I thought to myself, “We are like those prisms. We have the light inside of us and when we share that light, it can go to many different places and reflect an even more beautiful light that can be shed on all those around us.” Then, with my mind full of personal thoughts and revelation, I had the distinct thought to go inside and write it down so that I truly might be like that prism and share this light with others. I don’t ever want to forget these wonderful thoughts and impressions of light because that is what they give to me…light, and the ability to see things more clearly.
