Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
To me, this basically means that when we share our testimonies and help others or are kind to others, we show our faith and people then see a reflection of God through us. God requires us to take care of and help the people around us. We are also commanded to bring others unto him. When we follow these commandments, we glorify God.
Per the Mirriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of glorify is: a : to make glorious by bestowing honor, praise, or admiration b : to elevate to celestial glory.
Our action of following the teachings of God bring to light for other people the kind and loving nature God has for all His children. By helping others and showing kindness we are being an extension of God in that moment. It’s kinda crazy to think about. When someone asks God for help, He prompts us to do what that person needs. When we follow those promptings, we are acting in His stead, which makes us an extension of God. By following the promptings we get to assist other people or to say something specific to someone, we are being a living testimony to that person that God hears them and loves them. This glorifies God in that it shows that He hears and answers our prayers.
This is not to say that if God chooses not to answer your prayers at that moment that He doesn’t love you. It just means that He is using His wisdom to answer your prayer in the time and manner that He knows will be for your greatest benefit and growth.
I’ve been sitting here for several moments, contemplating all the things that qualify as good works. Seriously, just about anything that is kind of helpful would fall into the category of good works: carrying someone’s groceries, pushing a person in a wheelchair so they can attend a public event or just be outside, washing the dishes when your spouse/significant other is ill or tired, writing someone a kind note, helping a stranger change a flat tire, helping a child who is lost find their parents, giving someone directions, mowing your neighbor’s lawn, checking on someone who has been ill, providing meals for the sick or injured, helping someone move, visiting people in a nursing home or hospital, watching someone’s home and/or pets while they are out of town, letting someone else have the last cookie, encouraging someone to follow their dreams, being uplifting when someone is feeling down, listening when someone needs to talk. There are literally hundreds of thousands of things that would qualify as good works.
The other part of the scripture is to let your light shine that man may see your good works. This one, I think, is a bit harder to do. It’s easy to do kind things for people, but it’s sometimes a little harder to bring religion into it. At least publicly. I know that this is something I struggle with. I’m not a naturally assertive person. I don’t like to draw attention to myself or cause any type of stir. I find, though, that sometimes this is necessary.
A way to let our light shine is to let people know what we believe and what our values are and live those things. We need to be open about them. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes not.
When I lived in Virginia, it was a little harder to be open about being Mormon. Not that I was trying to hide it, I just got to a point where sometimes I dreaded the whole conversation. People would ask me where I was from and when I said Utah, the next question almost always was whether or not I was Mormon. Yes, I am. I’m not ashamed of it. I just got a little tired of the bad reactions. At a job I worked there were two girls who were very antagonistic and mean about it. They would sing songs about how Mormons were going to Hell and that they should all be burned alive. They would tell me to be careful walking out after work because anything could happen to me in the stairwell. Stupid stuff like that. I’m not a confrontational person, so I just didn’t say or do anything about it. I didn’t want to cause problems or make life worse. I just wanted to keep my head down, do my work and get out of there. There were other people who would make comments about how Mormons weren’t Christian and would tell me I was part of a cult. My response was usually to say as little as possible to avoid a religious argument and leave wherever I was as soon as I could. I got to a point where I just didn’t want to talk about religion with anyone. When people asked where I was from, I’d just tell them two hours north of Las Vegas.
It makes me sad now, to think about all those opportunities I had to share what I believe with people. There were a lot of misconceptions I could have corrected and people I could have enlightened with the truth about what Mormons believe and are about. But I didn’t. I was still in my super shy, insecure, ‘let me be a shadow on the wall’ phase and afraid of getting into arguments with people I’m still pretty shy and reserved, but I’m a lot more open about sharing what I believe and letting people know where I stand with stuff. There are people out there who genuinely want to know and there are people who are looking for a bible bashing session. It’s not for me to judge what people are looking for right off the bat. So I answer questions and try to explain as best I can what the truth about us is. If it goes into a bible bashing situation, I just say that I’m not looking to argue religion and either walk away or try to change the topic. Most of the time people respect that.
Something I’ve found interesting is that a lot of people base their opinions of a religion off how the members act. There was a guy I was friends with early in 2012 who said he didn’t like religion because most of the people he knows don’t practice what they claim to believe. I found that an interesting position to take. He said he believed in God, but he didn’t go to church or have much to do with religion because most of the people he knows are hypocrites. Just because someone is involved with religion doesn’t make them perfect. We are all human and we make mistakes. The great thing about the Mormon faith is that we believe we can be forgiven of these mistakes if we repent and ask forgiveness. This isn’t a license to freely engage in bad behavior, it just means that those who are sincere in their desire to be forgiven and ‘sin no more’ can do so.
Along the same line, though, is that there are a lot of people who judge religious organizations based on how the members act. Sometimes people will only run across a handful of Mormons in their lives. Do you really want to be the Mormon they meet and have a bad experience with, thus tarnishing their view of the whole church? Or any church, really. Do you really want to be one of the people who turns someone off to religion because you don’t live what you say you believe? This is a huge responsibility, but that is how the world is. It’s religious racism. That may not be the best way to put it, but that’s pretty much how it is. People will judge an entire group of people based on the actions of a few. We may not like it and we may not agree with it, but we can’t change it. All we can go is do our best to live what we believe and not be the ones who give others a bad impression of God or the Mormon church. Or whatever church it is you belong to.
There was a guy I dated after my divorce that had never met a Mormon before. He was Baptist and had many misconceptions about what Mormons are about. We actually dealt with each other on a daily basis in a business setting for several months before we developed a personal relationship and when we started discussion religion, he was very surprised and said he’d had an entirely different opinion of what a Mormon would be like. Over the course of our relationship he was able to meet other Mormons and get to know more about what we believe and how we take care of each other and those around us. It cracked me up one time during a storm when he said that as long as he lives near a Mormon, he will never worry about not having food or assistance during a disaster. When we broke up, he said he had a new view on what Mormons were about. He said he was impressed with how kind and helpful we are to those around us and the way we live our lives. He still thought our religion was totally bogus in regards to the Book of Mormon, but he said he couldn’t deny that we believe in God because of the way we live the gospel teachings from the bible.
So, in conclusion, the way we let our light shine and glorify God is to share what we believe with others and to live what we believe. Help those around us and follow the promptings we receive from God. We may not think people are watching us or care what we are doing, but they are and they do.
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