President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "The traditional
family is under heavy attack. I do not know that things were worse in the times
of Sodom and Gomorrah. … We see similar conditions today. They prevail all
across the world. I think our Father must weep as He looks down upon His
wayward sons and daughters." (“Standing Strong and Immovable,” Worldwide
Leadership Training Meeting, 10 Jan. 2004, 20, quoted by Elder Richard G.
Scott, “How to Live Well amid Increasing Evil,” Liahona, May 2004, 100–102)
Reading 1 – Doctrine and Covenants 101:1-5
Reading 2 – Doctrine and Covenants 132:29-32
Doctrine and Covenants 132:37
Reading 3 – Luke 17:28-32
Reading 4 – Doctrine and Covenants 133:10-15
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, " It is possible that
Lot’s wife looked back with resentment toward the Lord for what He was asking
her to leave behind. We certainly know that Laman and Lemuel were resentful
when Lehi and his family were commanded to leave Jerusalem. So it isn’t just
that she looked back; she looked back longingly. In short, her attachment to
the past outweighed her confidence in the future. That, apparently, was at
least part of her sin." (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Remember Lot’s Wife,"
devotional address at Brigham Young University, 13 January 2009.)
Joseph Smith said: "After a person has faith in Christ,
repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives
the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then
let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after
righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto
him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and
finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will
find his calling and his election made sure" (Teachings of the Prophet
Joseph Smith, p.150).
Reading 5 – Genesis 13:6-7
Reading 6 – Genesis 13:8-9
Reading 7 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell has written "We see
generosity of spirit in the life of Abraham when he and Lot, who was his
nephew, found their cattle grazing on the same land. There was strife between
the herdsmen of Abraham's cattle and of Lot's cattle. It is Abraham who took
the initiative and said unto Lot, 'Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between
me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not
the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou
wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the
right hand, then I will go to the left.' (Genesis 13:7-9.) The complete,
genuine willingness of Abraham to adjust to whatever Lot's decision was is the
mark of a generosity of spirit of that remarkable patriarch." (That My
Family Should Partake, pp92-93)
Genesis 13:12-13
Reading 8 – Genesis 14:22-23
Genesis 14:18-20
Reading 9: President Spencer W. Kimball said: “Our world is
now much the same as it was in the days of the Nephite prophet who said: ‘… if
it were not for the prayers of the righteous … ye would even now be visited
with utter destruction. …’ (Al. 10:22.) Of course, there are many many upright
and faithful who live all the commandments and whose lives and prayers keep the
world from destruction” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1971, 7; or Ensign, June 1971, 16).
Genesis 19:15-17
Genesis 19:24-26
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