by Autumn Dickson

I really like Ecclesiastes. It’s like the Eeyore of books of wisdom in the bible. Where Proverbs encourages man to follow after wisdom and do well; Ecclesiastes starts its lecture on wisdom by pointing out futility and vanity of life. Where Proverbs expresses the idea that it’s worth following wisdom; Ecclesiastes likes to show us how useless it is to follow anything else. Proverbs liked to show how good patterns of living often bring good results. Ecclesiastes likes to point out that this is not always the case; sometimes you live well but find bad ends. While Proverbs holds a lot of truth, Ecclesiastes likes to question the oversimplification found therein.

And though Ecclesiastes often takes a more pragmatic (and sometimes, bitter) route to get there, it teaches the same great truth: purpose in life is found in following after God no matter what happens. After going through the rounds of discussing the nothingness of man (even when does follow after wisdom), it comes to this great conclusion.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

As members of the church, we are taught to do good. We are taught to be leaders but then get released and follow after someone else’s leadership. We are taught to keep spiritual records that may never be enjoyed by posterity after us (or, in the very least, never be read past the first one or two generations). We are taught to try and make the world a better place, even though we know the end of the world is not known for being righteous.

We are taught to show up day after day, year after year, contributing and giving and striving, without any guarantee of visible progress.

The only guarantee is God’s.

Conner and I recently had a conversation about this. We were discussing what it looks like to be truly successful. At the end of our lives, what is going to really matter to us? At what point, do we look at our lives and feel that we’ve “made it?”

This conversation was a result of my husband working really hard on projects only for them to completely fall apart and amount to nothing. I’ve watched him build incredible things and spend countless hours developing machines that could be a blessing to people, only to hit a dead end and watch those hours fade away into a resounding halt. This has happened more than once despite his incredible inventions. Even great products need more than just good engineering and material.

A lot of these projects were starting to eat away at him. Despite his great success in the most important parts of life and despite his success in being able to provide for our family, I could see the feelings of futility. Why even bother anymore? He constantly jokes of being jaded. He often encourages entrepreneurs to turn back and try a different path; he does this as a joke but also with some truthfulness. You can work forever on something only for it to completely fall apart because of random bad luck. We often love to espouse that working hard can bring success, and I do believe that in a lot of ways. However, it’s never guaranteed.

So after watching these feelings of futility spring up in Conner, I wanted to try and get him to see where he had done well. I wanted to try and shift his perspective to a goal that he could be successful in regardless of anyone else in the world making decisions. I wanted him to see the work he had put in and celebrate how much he had learned and grown instead of only viewing failure.

In the midst of this conversation, I learned that success in life meant two things: an actual ability to make something happen and joy. Let’s look at a couple of different measures of success that Conner and I talked about.

Having a product take off and do well: Even with the best tools and materials, there is no guarantee that we can force this kind of success to happen. Even if this kind of success happens, it doesn’t automatically turn on joy.

Being able to provide for the family: There is no guarantee of this. Everything could explode tomorrow. No matter how we save or prepare or build, we cannot guarantee the ability to provide for our families. Not to mention, it doesn’t automatically turn on joy.

Having a happy, healthy, whole family: There is no guarantee of a happy family. You can’t force others to do what’s right or find happiness. Heavenly Father was a perfect parent, and yet, a good portion of His children decided to follow Satan instead. You can’t force this outcome. However, despite the fact that you can’t force this measure of success, we are getting closer to the overall principle of Ecclesiastes. We may not be able to guarantee a happy family, but having a happy family is much closer to ensuring joy. I suppose there are exceptions, but I know of no other lot in life that brings more five star reviews. A happy family really does bring joy.

Talking through each of these success measurements led us to the same conclusion as Ecclesiastes. Nothing is guaranteed in life. We can work hard to build something good, and we may find it, but there are no promises in that regard. This led us to finally discuss our true measure of success.

We simply try to follow God, love Him, and change.

Interestingly enough, part of the Plan of Salvation was that we didn’t even have to be perfect at it. We just had to try. We had to be diligent in our days at trying to build something worthwhile, but at the end of the day, the true measure of success is whether we let that diligence change us into something worthwhile. We are our end product. Our character is the final project that we turn in.

The great conclusion is to follow God; this is the whole duty of man.

It’s the only way we can have a goal that is 100% within our ability to reach. Our ability to follow and love God rests on us alone regardless of circumstances. We can reach that goal with opposition, but no absolute roadblocks that stop our progress forever. That goal is completely in our hands.

This goal of following God is also the only way we can guarantee a happy ending, even if not in this mortal life. He has promised joy, and He can deliver. Learning to find happiness in Him is not a fruitless endeavor.

I testify that Ecclesiastes knows what it’s talking about. The philosophy found therein is sound and true. Life passes away. The things we build will one day crumble. The work we put in can get undone so quickly in the next generation. The bellies we fill become empty again. The fields we sow will need to be sown again. It can be argued that it all comes to naught. Even immense fame and legacy doesn’t benefit the person who died. It doesn’t even necessarily dramatically affect tons of people from here on out.

I testify that following God is worth it no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. I testify that joy is found therein even when everything else is falling apart miserably. I testify that the gospel of Jesus Christ takes all of your earthly success and failures and turns it into something eternal. When it comes together or when it falls apart, it has the ability to change you if you turn to Christ and therein, you find true success.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.

The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Proverbs 1–4; 15–16; 22; 31; Ecclesiastes 1–3; 11–12 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

Download Print-Friendly Version

Before he bravely gave his life helping people escape the World Trade Center, Welles Crowther helped his father clean the fire truck. 

Welles’ mother remembered him going to the station on weekends with his father. Welles was small enough that he could get to parts of the truck that the adults could not. 

So he would come help shine up the truck for parades. The adults gave him meaningful work. And as a teenager, he trained to fight fires. 

Welles chose a career in equities trading. But on September 11, 2001, when the South Tower of the World Trade Center, where he worked, was hit, he got to work. He led strangers out of the building and helped the injured down the stairs. He carried one injured woman down several flights of stairs, then ran back upstairs to help others. 

He died when the tower collapsed on top of him. 

Those he helped rescue remembered that he carried a red bandanna, a habit he learned from his father.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Welles Crowther’s sacrifice, and the sacrifices of hundreds of other heroes like him. His courage still moves me. But perhaps just as important as the hero he would become was that little boy at the firehouse.

A Person of Character

We usually discover heroes at the crucial moment of their heroic action. The danger arrives, they act, and we marvel. 

Who raised these kids, and how did they do it?

Talat Hamdani remembered her son Salman Hamdani as a 12-year-old. He brought sick pigeons home to nurse them back to health. As he grew older, that instinct turned into capability. He was trained as a New York City Police Department cadet, then decided to try to attend medical school. He began work as an EMT while he studied. Salman developed a habit of following up with the patients he brought to the hospital. 

On September 11, he was likely traveling to work on the elevated No. 7 train when he saw the burning towers. He never reported to work that day. Because he was a Pakistani Muslim, suspicions began to grow after he disappeared that morning. But those who knew him never wondered. Officials identified Salman’s body months later. He had gone to the North Tower, and he was found clutching his medical bag. 

A Child Who Has Something to Contribute

There is something important about children being given useful jobs among adults. The children can admire the work of the adults. They can discover that their contributions matter, that other people depend on them, and that becoming more capable will allow them to do more good. 

Each of these seemingly ordinary moments gives children an opportunity to care for others. 

But as parents, we can accidentally ignore or undermine those opportunities.

It is often faster to just do the job ourselves. Teaching a child how to do the dishes is, in my experience, more difficult than doing the dishes by several orders of magnitude. 

We may prioritize our children’s individual pursuits to a degree that leaves little room for the people and communities that need them. We may not ask a teenager to help us cook dinner for a neighbor recovering from surgery when doing so would upend the entire schedule. 

Or we may reach for rewards, giving children an answer to “What’s in it for me?” before they even ask, in turn denying children the opportunity simply to serve those around them. In a small experiment with 20-month-olds, children given material rewards for helping subsequently helped less when rewards stopped than did children who had received praise or no reward. Our incentives can sometimes interfere with a willingness already present. 

Heroism and Personal Fulfillment

So, with this in mind, how can we create a family and a culture (or perhaps even a society) that produces self-sacrificing heroes in an environment seemingly obsessed with personal fulfillment at the expense of everything else?

Even when we explain the reasons for sacrifice and service, we can keep the attention on the self. Volunteering can strengthen a college application. Generosity makes us feel better. Church will provide a good social environment. God will reward sacrifice with greater blessings.

Instead, we can cultivate the belief that another person’s need is itself a sufficient reason to act. We can explain to them why the tasks we give them matter, and they can watch us work alongside them. They can observe us keep our commitments when it is no longer in our own narrow self-interest.

Religious life is a particularly rich arena for children to learn this lesson. King Benjamin teaches that parents should teach children “to love one another, and to serve one another.” A congregation gives them people to practice with, including those who are inconvenient. It provides them with a community and obligations they can show up for. And it provides a structure for putting these lessons into practice.

We should expect our service to bring us joy. We should believe that God will bless us for our sacrifice. And we should learn to act for others without making those benefits the reason we act. “What do I get out of it?” cannot be the organizing question of a life that we hope could lead to the kind of heroism displayed by Welles and Salman. 

Ordinary Courage

Children need adults in their lives who model useful service that they can admire. Adults who have learned skills and use them to fulfill their responsibilities and to serve others. Welles had firefighting experience. Salman had medical training. They both had compassion, cultivated by thoughtful, purposeful, and loving parents, that caused them to put those skills to work.

Every single parent reading this article wishes that those two young men had come home that day. And thankfully, most of the service and sacrifice our children and we perform will go quietly, leave no public record, and end with us back with our families. 

On this anniversary, we can tell the stories of those who didn’t. Then we can turn to our own children and invite them into the work waiting around us, so that they can grow into the same kinds of people. 

Long before anyone knew that Welles Crowther was a hero, a boy went with his father to the firehouse, and the men there found a job for him to do. 

The post How Heroes Are Raised appeared first on Public Square Magazine.

In July, ward and stake leaders were encouraged to plan musical experiences to bring youth together in worship and celebration of their faith. Resources for youth music experiences are now available at youth.ChurchofJesusChrist.org under the heading “Walk with Me Music Experiences.”

• Youth music devotional: music, lyric videos and a suggested program.
• Youth concert: best practices, tips, a playlist, music tracks and lyric videos.
• Faith walk: guidelines, materials needed, a playlist and recorded audio tracks or scripts for each station.

Learn more about these youth music experiences in the article “Youth Music Experiences for 2026.”

Additional ticket reservations for the Salt Lake Temple Tour will become available on September 15 and October 1, both at 6 p.m. MDT. These upcoming reservation releases are part of the planned approach to accommodate as many visitors as possible.

More tickets mean more opportunities for people around the world to enter this house of the Lord and learn about Jesus Christ. The first wave of 1 million reservations was claimed in less than 24 hours on September 1.

Visitors are encouraged to visit TempleSquare.org, download the Temple Square app (available for Apple and Android) and subscribe to the Temple Square email list for updates about the Salt Lake Temple Celebration, including reservation opportunities on September 15 and October 1 and additional ways to participate in person and online.

Learn more in the article “Additional Salt Lake Temple Open House Tour Reservations Available September 15 and October 1.”

Download Print-Friendly Version

In Disney’s “Up,” the quiet love story of Carl and Ellie captures the essence of fidelity and integrity within marriage. Their journey—from childhood friendship to lifelong partnership—is a testament to enduring love, mutual commitment, and shared values.

Integrity and fidelity are central to flourishing marriages. In fact, the virtues of integrity and fidelity were recently described by one research team as the “twin virtues” of marital commitment that represent not only sexual exclusivity but also emotional devotion, honesty, and accountability. The American Families of Faith project—a qualitative study exploring exemplary Christian, Jewish, and Muslim married couples across diverse races—sheds light on how these values are cultivated, sustained, and lived out in everyday life. 

Drawing on findings from this study, the present article explores how these racially and religiously diverse couples define and practice integrity and fidelity, offering four insights into how these principles strengthen their marriages.   

Integrity and Fidelity Matter in Marriage

For many American Families of Faith participants, fidelity involved more than refraining from extramarital relationships—it included emotional and spiritual unity. In “Up,” Carl and Ellie’s life together showed that fidelity encompasses more than sexual exclusivity—it also includes emotional devotion, honesty, and alignment in life’s core vision and goals. Their shared dream of visiting Paradise Falls, while never realized in the way they envisioned, symbolized their mutual commitment to one another.

 Similarly, Ron (pseudonyms are used to protect participant’s identity), a white Jewish husband from the American Families of Faith study, reflected on how honesty shaped his marriage:

I don’t hide anything from her, and that means that I can’t do anything that I need to hide from her, ’cause I won’t hide anything from her. … That influences every moment of my marriage. How many times a day [do I think], “Is this something I would not want to tell her?” … It’s really part of my consciousness all the time.

Sebastian, a Hispanic Christian husband, similarly emphasized the ripple effect of fidelity:

[One] thing that is very important in marriage is fidelity. When you’re not faithful, it doesn’t matter what [else] you can do or how sweet you can be or how loving you can be. … [If you are] cheating on your wife or vice versa, no matter what you do, it’s hard to put the pieces back together. For me, I have to know how to be faithful [while I’m] … at home and [when I am] not … at home. So, fidelity, integrity has a lot to do in the relationship of the couple. Also, in the relationship of the children, if they see [your faithfulness to each other], they will want to emulate the example, they will want to live it—because they will see that regardless of the challenges and problems, there was fidelity.

Integrity as a Core Marital Value

In their in-depth interviews, American Families of Faith participants repeatedly described integrity as essential to the health of their marriages. Beatriz, a Hispanic Christian wife, succinctly stated, “Loyalty, fidelity, integrity are key.”

Couples discussed a wide array of challenges related to stress in their work or personal lives, in-laws, conflict, parenting, illness, and even family deaths. However, their ability to navigate these hardships together demonstrated the resilience that fidelity helps foster. Idris, an African American Christian husband, said:

Character and integrity in a marriage is everything. [They are] … the most important source of strength [to our marriage]. ’Cause if you really don’t have that, you don’t really have a relationship. … You [could] just be an aimless wanderer [and] be blown in the wind anywhere when something comes along. When you have character and integrity in a relationship, then you’re trustworthy. Then your mate, your spouse, has no worries, no hang-ups about where you’re at, what you’re doing. …[T]rust is crucial in a relationship.

The Role of Religion in Teaching Fidelity and Integrity

For most of the wives and husbands interviewed, religious faith reportedly played a critical role in shaping their understanding of fidelity and integrity. Many couples, for example, emphasized that their religious beliefs and practices motivated them to remain faithful and honest with each other. Tanner, a white Orthodox Christian husband, explained how his faith helped him resist temptation. Discussing his job, he said, “I spend two weeks a month on the road. There are temptations out there that I’ve never succumbed to, and one of the reasons is my faith gives me the strength not to do that.”

Enoch, a white Presbyterian husband, elaborated on the promises he made with his wife:

We made vows to be a couple, to be true to each other, so I have a commitment to monogamy and fidelity. I think it would be easy to rationalize out of that if a person didn’t have some beliefs to base that on.

For other participants, fidelity was tied directly to accountability to God. Fu, a Chinese Christian husband, shared, “To keep your marriage holy is your responsibility to God; otherwise you are ashamed to face God. Betray[ing] your spouse is betraying God.”​

One white Latter-day Saint couple described the role of a covenant with God and each other as follows:

Evan: When we were married, we covenanted with each other that we would be faithful to each other and that we would also look to God … and remember Him, and so a covenant is a very vital part of our relationship.

Tara: It’s … a three-way partnership, with God being … a party to making this marriage work.

Coming together by remembering the promises that they made to each other before God reportedly put fidelity and integrity at the forefront of these couples’ relationships. 

Challenges to Integrity and Fidelity

While the majority of participants described fidelity as a source of strength, some acknowledged challenges. Orlando, an African American Christian husband, noted the pressures of living up to marital vows in a world filled with distractions and said:

This world … has a way of testing if you mean what you said [when you got married] or were you just sitting up there ’cause everything was rosy that day … Are you going to hold your sacred vows [when it gets hard]?

The question posed by Orlando does stimulate reflection within marriage—including (and especially) when the challenges come. If marital fidelity is defined by one question, perhaps Orlando nails it with Are you going to hold to your sacred vows when it gets hard?

Imperfect But Striving

The animated story of Carl and Ellie in “Up” illustrates how integrity and fidelity create a foundation for enduring love. However, the American Families of Faith project documents the experience of hundreds of couples who view these virtues as essential for marital stability and satisfaction in their own marriages. These couples have been married for an average of more than 20 years.

In a touching moment from the film, Carl says, “You’re my best friend, Ellie.” Similarly, a father in our project said of his wife’s integrity and fidelity, “She was married to marriage long before she was married to me.” The same father also wrote of his wife of more than four decades, “I can imagine no heaven without her … and with her, even hell would be tolerable.” 

The insights from the imperfect but exemplary marriages studied in the American Families of Faith project reveal that fidelity and integrity are not just ideals but lived virtues that sustain many strong marriages through a sacred sense of shared purpose. For many couples, these virtues are deeply intertwined with their religious beliefs and practices, which provide both motivation and practical tools for navigating challenges.

 The imperfect but striving women and men in the American Families of Faith project underscore that fidelity and integrity are more than individual actions; they are the cornerstone of enduring, meaningful partnerships. By striving to live out these ideals, couples create relationships that not only withstand life’s trials but thrive in their shared commitment to each other.

The post The Virtues That Sustain Marriage appeared first on Public Square Magazine.

The Interpreter Foundation and Redbrick Filmworks continues to release a new episode of their not-for-profit series of mini-documentaries titled Becoming Brigham each Monday. This week, they released the following episode:

Episode 33: “From Stolen Shirt To Open War?”

• How did a stolen shirt turn a mission to the Native Americans into two decades of war?
• What would Utah history have looked like if the Saints and the Utes had treated sharing and consecration as a conversation instead of a one-way religious task?

A relatively peaceful first two years in the Salt Lake Valley—which at the time was a buffer zone between Native American tribes—gave way to armed conflict as settlement pushed into Utah Valley. Fort Utah was built near the religious and economic heart of the Native lands. A clash over a stolen shirt ended with the killing of a Native American man. The Utes demanded the perpetrator be handed over. Brigham Young, unaware of the shirt incident, consulted non-Mormon officers from the Stansbury expedition and sent Daniel H. Wells and a few hundred Nauvoo Legion men south. He later said the Spirit had told him to be patient, but he yielded to a “show of force.” Historian John Peterson calls that decision nearly fatal to Mormon–Ute relations; serious fighting continued for about twenty years in Utah and longer across the West. Peterson quotes the John Turner line that Mormons paradoxically saw Indians as both religious kindred and savage enemies.

Why this docuseries? Many people are aware of Brigham Young as a pivotal figure in American religious and frontier history, but Brigham is also often misunderstood, seen as a larger-than-life caricature rather than as a man. Who actually was Brigham as a man, a father, a husband, and a prophet? The video web series Becoming Brigham debunks fictions and provides surprising new insights into the real Brigham Young. Learn more in the article “Becoming Brigham: The Video Series Premieres.”

Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah. She was the 2023 recipient of the John Taylor Defender of the Faith award.

The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Proverbs 1–4; 15–16; 22; 31; Ecclesiastes 1–3; 11–12 – Jennifer Roach Lees appeared first on FAIR.

The Church has announced that the youth theme for 2027 is “Rejoice in Christ” (see Philippians 4:4). This is also the theme of the Salt Lake Temple Celebration, creating a unified invitation for members around the world to focus on Jesus Christ and the blessings of His holy house.

To support the 2027 youth theme, resources including artwork, music, videos, activities, and invitation materials will be available by the end of October 2026 at youth.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and in the Gospel Library.

The Church encourages parents and leaders to use these resources throughout the year in lessons, devotionals, youth conferences, camps, activities, family discussions, personal study, and other opportunities to help youth deepen their faith in Jesus Christ.

by Autumn Dickson

Proverbs is full of little bits of wisdom that push us on to paths that can make life easier. Mortal life was never meant to be externally easy, but taking heed of some of these proverbs can help you to escape more difficulty than you would otherwise meet. It likewise puts your heart in a state where you recognize the reality of both your mortality and the eternities ahead.

One of those bits of wisdom is found here.

Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

When you respond with a soft answer, it can turn away the wrath that approached you.

There is wisdom here, but I want to discuss what it truly means to have a soft answer. I think sometimes people get mixed up in what it means to be Christlike. So before I delve into the definition of a soft answer, I want to give a disclaimer. There is truth in the promises offered by this verse, but it is not absolute. Sometimes we give soft answers and are still scorned and treated poorly. One needs only look at Christ to realize that the wisdom here does not always hold true. Sometimes, even when we’re perfect in our attitude and response, others will still give back hatred.

That doesn’t mean we failed.

I give this disclaimer because the soft answer that I want to talk about really only functions within a healthy relationship. Sometimes the righteous answer is to walk away from a relationship especially when it’s abusive, but only God can give you the answer as to whether that is your situation. So when we discuss these principles, it’s important to weigh them against your own situation and act accordingly. These are words of wisdom, not absolutes.

So what is a soft answer?

I want to look at a soft answer in the same light as a soft heart.

The Lord asks us to have a soft heart. This means that He wants us to be teachable, humble, willing to hear Him and learn about His choices. He wants us to be vulnerable with Him and lean on Him and trust Him and reach out to Him. He wants us to be willing to change. A hard heart is closed off, bitter, prideful, and insensitive to sin and others.

There are many applications for this. There are so many ways that we could look at examples of how to react when we’re in the heat of the moment. However, I rather teach a guiding principle that can be applied wisely rather than hard fast rules.

Soft answers begin with soft hearts.

When you are faced with an opportunity to give an answer, it’s not about artfully crafting the right response. It’s not about choosing positive words or putting a criticism in the middle of two compliments. It’s not about blunting the edge of correction. It’s about stepping back and asking yourself where your heart is.

Do you really love this person you’re about to respond to?

Do you recognize them as a child of God?

Do you want them to have a happy life?

Do you recognize that you would potentially make the same choices and have the same values if you grew up in their position?

If you can answer those questions correctly, you are much more prepared to give a soft answer even if that soft answer includes correction or standing by your beliefs.

Soft answers are not necessarily manifested in a specific volume; it’s manifested in your attitude towards another person who may be wrongfully accusing you, attacking your character, or spreading misinformation about you. It’s manifested in how you feel about someone you love when you feel betrayed or unloved by them in return. It’s manifested in your generosity with someone who makes your life harder.

I did not understand this when I was younger. I felt like I gave “nice” responses, but I often found myself in broken relationships or with frustrated friends.

I remember getting older and going on my mission. Missions are interesting for a lot of reasons but one of those reasons is the fact that you get put into leadership positions very young and are expected to help people reach their full potential. Sometimes that includes correcting others. I remember watching a couple of elders on my mission who could correct other elders without repercussion for the most part. People liked them and listened to them and could be corrected by them without growing defensive.

I remember thinking that I would never be able to do that.

These principles changed that. When you change your focus, you can often turn away wrath. It’s not about changing your words; it’s about changing your focus.

You stop focusing on how you are being perceived. You stop focusing on how to convince them to do better. You stop focusing on how much they’re making your life harder.

And you focus on them.

It’s that simple. People can feel when you’re just tolerating them and being polite to their face. They can feel your intentions. They can feel when you’re simply focused on yourself. Even if it’s not consciously recognized, they will still feel it and start putting up defenses.

It’s easy to get hyperfocused on handling your conversations well. It’s easy to hyperfocus on trying to get it right. But honestly, in the end, all that really does is signal to the other person that you’re focused on yourself and it starts you off on the wrong foot immediately.

If you can train yourself to focus on the good of the other person (as Christ teaches), it goes a lot farther in turning away wrath than any artfully crafted words you can possibly string together.

I love Proverbs because they’re full of the wisdom that stems from the teachings of Christ. Christ teaches us to love our fellow brothers and sisters. He is the One who teaches us to focus outward and forget ourselves. The exact application of these teachings brings results, and Proverbs often highlight those results and wisdom. I testify that Christ knows what He’s talking about when He instructs us on how to build happy lives. I testify that forgetting yourself softens others in turn and brings more joy, connection, and happiness into your life.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.

The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Proverbs 1–4; 15–16; 22; 31; Ecclesiastes 1–3; 11–12 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

Download Print-Friendly Version

Increasingly, people are turning to AI for some of life’s most personal and consequential questions.

I write as the founder and CEO of the largest cross-faith AI spiritual infrastructure platform currently in operation. So I have a unique view of how people use AI. We see people using AI not only to plan a Halloween party or check the time in another country, but also to pose questions about guilt, identity, grief, betrayal, doubt, salvation, and meaning.

Faith seekers of the next generation are not waiting for denominational guidance. Pew found that 72% of adults under 30 had not participated in a service during the previous month, while Gallup found that only 22% of 18- to 29-year-olds attended weekly or nearly weekly in its 2021–2023 surveys. Instead, young people are forming personalized spiritual identities using today’s most accessible and compelling digital tools.

When a generation learns to process suffering, shame, and moral ambiguity inside an always-available online chat interface, that habit is hard to reverse. This poses a literally existential challenge for traditional religious institutions. Can faith communities harness the power of AI in a responsible, ethical, and even “faith-based” manner?

AI Already Has a Moral Compass. You Just Didn’t Set It.

Every secular AI model is trained on choices: what data to include, what to weight, what counts as a “good” answer. Someone made those choices. For the select handful of companies whose models now field a meaningful share of the world’s questions, that someone was a data engineer optimizing for helpfulness and engagement, not for doctrinal accuracy or a questioner’s eternal welfare.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong addressed this phenomenon directly at the Athens Summit on Ethics and Artificial Intelligence on May 26, 2026. He warned that AI “is concentrating information, technology, and capital and thereby centralizing power,” and that this concentration “undermines the sovereignty of individuals, companies and countries.” 

He was speaking about AI’s effect on power generally, not chatbots specifically. But the principle applies with particular force to the pattern of chatbot spiritual guidance I have described. If a small number of companies shape how over one billion people receive answers to their most vulnerable questions, and some meaningful share of those questions are religious and theological, then a small number of Silicon Valley engineers are quietly shaping how faith gets explained to the world. As Elder Gong put it, “neither profit-motivated technology companies nor politically motivated governments can be left to determine society’s AI moral compass.”

To be clear, these general-purpose models aren’t “lying” to your teenager in the sense you and I might mean, and in fact, they don’t actually “hallucinate” (i.e. generate random inexplicable gibberish) anywhere as often as the popular press sometimes conveys. These models are actually doing exactly what they were built to do: predicting the words that are most statistically likely to come next, given everything they were trained on—which is, in practice, most of the internet. That means scraps of religious doctrine get blended with whatever else exists on the topic—pop psychology, Reddit posts, secular therapeutic language—into something plausible, even morally conversant, but often subtly wrong for a specific tradition or belief.

For a recent example, take the controversy when the U.S. military re-classified Pentagon “faith codes” and in doing so determined that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should not be officially designated as “Christian.” Following outcry from Utah Senator Mike Lee and others, I immediately checked more than 5 secular LLMs and not a single one responded with an unambiguous response that Latter-day Saints should be considered Christian. DeepSeek, for example, stated, “it depends.” My personal AI query from June 8 with DeepSeek went as follows: 

This is a debated topic, but the short answer is: **It depends on the definition used.**

– **From the LDS (Mormon) perspective:** Yes. They believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior.

– **From traditional Catholic, Orthodox, and mainstream Protestant perspective:** No. The main reasons are that Mormonism rejects core doctrines of historic Christianity (the Trinity as defined by the Nicene Creed) and adds its own scriptures (Book of Mormon, etc.) that are seen as contradicting the Bible.

So there is no universally agreed-upon “yes” or “no.”

What’s worse, AI-generated answers typically arrive with total confidence, even to the point of self-serving affirmation to an embarrassing degree; this is what people in the industry characterize as “sycophancy.”  A model rarely hedges the way a thoughtful bishop would (“I’m honestly not sure, let’s find out together”), because uncertainty isn’t what it’s optimized to produce. And because most consumer models are tuned to be agreeable, a lonely or doubting person is more likely to get validation than the kind of loving correction or religious perspective that actually produces growth. Anthropic’s own research on Claude reveals—surprisingly?—that within the domain of “relationship guidance,” spirituality has the highest percentage of responses scored as sycophantic (38%). 

None of this makes the technology inherently malicious. But it is, without question, structurally unsuited to handle every job that it’s being asked to do at scale. We also risk losing some of the messy connections that make us human. As Elder David A. Bednar said at a worldwide devotional at Brigham Young University–Idaho on November 3, 2024, a danger of AI is that it may “replace meaningful human interaction.” 

This is where the need for what my company, Solace, calls “governance” comes into play. Let’s define that term more clearly, as well as map out some of the associated challenges and opportunities.

So What Would Governance Actually Mean?

I would define “Governed AI” in the specific context of the broader faith space as follows:

An AI system that a religious community has deliberately constrained to answer only from its own approved doctrinal materials rather than the open internet, that is theologically reviewed and auditable so a specific accountable person(s) can trace and correct its errors, and that is designed to recognize the edge of its own competence and redirect people toward real pastoral relationships and in-person fellowship as appropriate.

In practice, a governed AI policy like this one is not one single decision but a fluid living stack of them: what gets ingested; who reviews for theological accuracy before an answer reaches a member; how the system is audited on an ongoing basis, not just at launch; and what happens automatically when a conversation crosses from doctrinal information into a personal crisis.

That final question is the one most conversations on “AI and religion” skip entirely, and it’s the one that matters most. A governed system that just gives more accurate doctrine quickly without a deliberate mechanism for recognizing its own limits and redirecting to a bishop, a friend, or a real conversation hasn’t solved the problem Elder Bednar named. It’s created a more polished version of it.

Governed AI also helps to clarify accountability in a way that matters. When a general-purpose model gets theology wrong, no one anywhere is positioned to notice, let alone fix it; it’s just one wrong answer among billions and billions, invisible by design. When a community-governed system errs, an accountable person or team within the faith community who understands the material and the people it serves is designated to trace the problem, correct it, or refine it. That’s not a minor operational detail; it’s the whole difference between a tool a community can be responsible for and one it has simply adopted.

Here, the Church has a structural advantage worth naming plainly. The Church already has the content infrastructure (what we sometimes refer to as “proof texts”). Correlation, curriculum approval, and a defined chain of doctrinal authority already exist, built for exactly the purpose governance requires: deciding, deliberately and centrally, what counts as an accurate representation of the faith. That doesn’t make building a governed system easy. However, these structures address one of the single hardest problems other traditions have had to solve before they could even start.

The Honest Difficulty: This Isn’t Something Most Wards Can Build

Building this kind of governed system is hard. A curated, auditable, continuously reviewed body of content with real theological oversight, and based on a sophisticated and scalable technology stack, is not a weekend project for a single ward’s tech-savvy service committee member. According to research jointly commissioned by Solace and Harvard Business School, most congregations across faith traditions spend less than 2% of their total budget on technology infrastructure, so they lack access to the tools and expertise for such an undertaking. A well-meaning staff member uploading a stack of talks into a public chatbot interface isn’t governance.

The answer can’t be that every ward should build its own AI system. This is a decision too consequential to leave to individual improvisation or to default entirely to commercial platforms – which means it belongs, at minimum, at the level of the Church with the resources and doctrinal authority to do it carefully, or through partners who submit to and supplement that oversight rather than replace it. Naming this scale problem honestly is more persuasive than pretending it doesn’t exist.

As Elder Gong said at the Athens Summit, “we will not fulfill AI’s full potential until we make it as morally good as we make it powerful. And we will not reach our full human potential until we, and not any technology, take responsibility to chart our best future.” 

We will share additional research, real-world insights, and case studies in future Public Square Magazine articles. Our goal is to help sharpen both the imperative and the path forward for the Church to explore the frontier of “governed AI” without compromising the values of the faith.

The post When the Faithful Ask AI for Help appeared first on Public Square Magazine.

The Sunday class schedule changed today. Now, Sunday School, Relief Society, priesthood quorums, and Young Women will meet for 25 minutes every week, instead of 50 minutes every other week.

For our special meetings today about the new Sunday curriculum, our Relief Society president prepared the handout shown above to Help members understand what to expect. You can download a high resolution version of this handout.

(Download an alternate version that uses the wording “Announcements may be found on the calendar or handouts in the back of the room.”

In his April 2026 General Conference address, “The Character of Christ,” President D. Todd Christofferson teaches that becoming like the Savior involves more than simply imitating His outward actions. True Christlike character grows from the thoughts, desires, and intents of a heart that is being changed through Jesus Christ.

The gospel therefore asks a deeper question than simply, “What should I do?” It asks, “What kind of person am I becoming?”

Christlike character grows out of a Christlike heart.

President Christofferson explains that developing this kind of character requires a mighty change of heart. For most people, that change happens incrementally over time through faith in Christ, repentance, covenants, and the grace of Jesus Christ through the Holy Ghost.

The result is not merely better behavior. It is a transformed heart that increasingly produces Christlike thoughts, motivations, desires, and actions.

Common Criticism: “Christianity is just about following rules and trying to be a good person.”

It is easy to look at the commandments and practices of Christianity and conclude that discipleship is primarily about modifying behavior.

From this perspective, the gospel is essentially a moral checklist: behave better, work harder, and become a better person through personal discipline.

Fallacy at Work: Behavior Without Transformation

This criticism assumes that Christian discipleship is fundamentally about what we do on the outside.

It overlooks the deeper purpose of the gospel:

• Not simply changing behavior, but changing desires.
• Not merely following rules, but developing Christlike motivations.
• Not relying entirely on personal discipline, but receiving divine grace.
• Not simply becoming better behaved, but becoming more like Jesus Christ.

Doctrine: Christ Changes the Heart

President Christofferson teaches that Christlike character begins within us.

The Savior’s attributes are the natural fruit of His thoughts, desires, and intents. If we want to develop His character, we must therefore seek the kind of mighty change of heart described in the scriptures.

But this transformation is not something we accomplish through willpower alone.

The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we, each of us, can call on the grace of Jesus Christ to help us.

Through baptism and confirmation, the Savior promises the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Through the Holy Ghost, we receive His influence and spiritual gifts, including the power of godliness in our lives.

This is what makes the gospel more than a system of moral improvement. Jesus Christ can actually help change us.

President Christofferson’s Correction

The Christian answer to human weakness is not simply, “Try harder.”

It is:

Come unto Christ. Receive His grace. Let Him change your heart.

Our consistent effort matters, but our transformation ultimately depends upon the Savior.

Solution

When we understand the gospel as a process of transformation rather than mere behavior modification, the commandments take on a deeper purpose.

They become part of a covenant path through which Christ helps us become the kind of people we could never become through effort alone.

Living Apologetics: Becoming Christlike From the Inside Out

President Christofferson gives us a powerful way to think about discipleship.

We don’t simply imitate Christ from the outside.

We seek to develop the motivations that produced His actions in the first place.

For example, Christlike love produces:

• Compassion
• Patience
• Forgiveness
• A willingness to correct when guided by the Holy Ghost

His devotion to the happiness and advancement of others produces:

• Humility
• Meekness
• Selflessness
• Courage

As these qualities become part of our character, our actions begin to change because our hearts are changing.

This also explains why spiritual growth can take time. President Christofferson teaches that for most people, the mighty change of heart happens incrementally.

We may look back and realize that Christ has been changing us little by little:

A little more patient.

A little more forgiving.

A little less focused on ourselves.

A little more concerned with the suffering of others.

That gradual transformation is itself evidence of the Savior’s work in our lives.

Practical Apologetic Use

If someone says: “Christianity is just about following rules and trying to be a good person.”

You might respond: “President Christofferson teaches that the gospel is about something deeper than outward behavior. Through the grace of Jesus Christ, He can change our hearts and help us develop His character.”

Ways to Apply Today

1️⃣ Identify one Christlike quality you want to develop and pray specifically for the Savior’s help in developing it.

2️⃣ When a difficult situation arises, pause and ask yourself not only, “What should I do?” but also, “What would Christlike love, patience, or humility look like here?”

3️⃣ Look for one opportunity to turn outward toward someone else’s needs, especially when you are experiencing difficulties of your own.

Keep This Talk With You

President Christofferson’s message ultimately reaches beyond our individual efforts.

Our choices matter.

Not only because they shape who we become, but because individual character influences the world around us.

It is the aggregation of individual choices over time that forms and changes societies for good or ill.

One person choosing compassion matters.

One person choosing forgiveness matters.

One person choosing integrity matters.

One person choosing to follow Jesus Christ matters.

And when individuals throughout families, congregations, communities, and nations increasingly adopt the character of Christ, those individual choices can collectively shape the world.

President Christofferson teaches that adopting Christ’s character is therefore not merely preparation for ourselves. It is part of preparing the world for the Savior’s return and His millennial reign.

The work begins in the heart.

Christ changes the heart.

The changed heart produces Christlike character.

And Christlike character changes the way we live, serve, and influence the world around us.

What is one change Christ is inviting me to make in my heart that could change not only who I am, but how I bless the people around me?

The Consider Conference series by FAIR offers an in-depth look at recent General Conference talks to help members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints navigate common questions, misunderstandings, and criticisms. Each post provides doctrinal insights, historical context, and practical ways to apply gospel principles in everyday conversations. Through this series, we hope to equip readers with faith-promoting resources that encourage thoughtful reflection, respectful dialogue, and a stronger foundation in gospel truths, fostering both personal conviction and meaningful discussions with others.

The post The Character of Christ appeared first on FAIR.

by Autumn Dickson

Mortal life is not for the faint of heart. Though it can have breaks in the difficulty where the sun shines for a while, we often get thrown back into the waves so that we can achieve our purpose of growing. It’s a necessary exercise. It was the purpose of mortal life. However, despite opposition being one of the main tools of the Plan of Salvation, it can be exhausting.

Here is a verse in Psalms that helped me to reflect on this concept.

Psalms 116:7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

In all the craziness that runs rampant in our world, the Lord can offer peace and rest. He doesn’t offer it as the world gives it; He offers it differently.

Doesn’t that sound nice? I spent a lot of time growing up not understanding how to actually harvest the peace out of the gospel. I did the work, but I couldn’t close the gap between following the commandments and actually receiving a calmness in my soul. I went to church and read scriptures and did programs and attended the temple, and I still had a significant amount of turmoil in my life.

So what are some of our barriers to peace? I think there can be many barriers to peace including opposition, spiritual challenges, and challenges for our loved ones. However, I think the biggest barrier is a misunderstanding of where peace comes from. Let’s talk about some of those misunderstandings first.

The world teaches us that removing the opposition will help us find peace. I don’t think that’s 100% false. I definitely find peace when I take care of some of my issues. However, this is not a consistent enough resolution. Even when my life is relatively serene, I have a bad habit of finding problems.

There was an experiment performed by John B. Calhoun in the late 1960’s where he created a mouse utopia with plenty of space, food, and water. The temperature was always ideal. There were no predators. The mice flourished initially. As time moved on, despite ideal conditions and plentiful resources, the society of mice dissolved. Males started fighting aggressively with no true purpose. Females abandoned their young. Many mice withdrew socially and wouldn’t participate.

In a world filled to the brim with external peace, the mice created their own problems and sabotaged their own society.

I can’t help but notice parallels in our own world.

There is such a thing as external peace, but it actually plays a relatively inconsequential role in our internal peace. The world would tell you to remove external pressures and responsibilities. This is relatively ineffective.

But beyond what the world teaches, I think sometimes we, as Latter-day Saints, misunderstand where peace comes from even within the gospel. At least I misunderstood it. I thought that if I did what I was supposed to, the peace would just descend upon me. It would just start springing up as I made the correct decisions.

I missed a critical step.

Following the commandments → get to know Christ → peace in Christ

Following the commandments does not automatically bring peace. It can remove some of the barriers to peace. It can prevent barriers from rising up. For example, following the Word of Wisdom helps prevent addictions which can upend your life. However, we have already discussed the fact that removing external barriers is insufficient.

Peace is a byproduct of belief. I believe that Christ can fulfill His promises to me, and those promises are so incredible. I love them. When difficult things happen, I can hold to those promises. When life is easy, I still can find purpose rather than emptiness. True belief brings peace.

Commandments can help us find belief.

Perhaps that seems like a silly nuance, but it made a world of difference for me. I kept doing what I was supposed to do in the church, but I was still finding turmoil. True belief was missing. Interestingly enough, I believe in the church. I believed that God led it. I believed that Joseph Smith had restored it. I believed The Book of Mormon came from God.

But it wasn’t until I started actively believing that Christ had died for me, paid for my sins, and promised to personally take care of me that things clicked into place and I felt safe. I’m grateful that the commandments helped me find that belief that brought peace.

Which brings us back to our verse. Let’s put it into modern words this time.

Psalms 116:7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

Rest. Because the Lord has blessed you. Because He will bless you.

Sometimes He really does calm the sea and remove external barriers. Those are nice times. Those are times where we get to practice finding purpose to ground us.

But other times, He can help us walk on water instead. In the New Testament, Peter walks on water and stays there as long as he keeps his eyes on Christ. It doesn’t matter how tall the waves are. It doesn’t matter how much the water rises. It doesn’t matter when keeping your eye on Christ keeps you on top of all that water. In fact, the rising water just brings you higher.

You’re not swimming desperately or drowning. You’re keeping your eyes on Christ, and He is enabling you to walk on top of it all. Your soul can rest because He is dealing with you bountifully.

I testify that peace comes internally. External peace is nice sometimes, but inner peace is truly what matters. I testify that the most powerful kind of peace stems from keeping your eye on Christ. I testify that keeping the commandments brings peace because keeping commandments helps you keep your eye on Christ. I testify that peace is possible even in our world filled with turmoil.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.

The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Psalms 102–103; 110; 116–119; 127–128; 135–139; 146–150 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

The Sunday class schedule will change on September 6, 2026. Sunday School, Relief Society, priesthood quorums, and Young Women will meet for 25 minutes every week, instead of 50 minutes every other week.

In the article “Use the Gospel Library App to Prepare for Weekly Sunday Classes and Meetings,” Mary Richards reminds us of some of the useful features of the Gospel Library:

• Adjust your home screen to get quick access to the lessons to study ahead of time. (Relief Society and elders quorum leaders need to be diligent in adding the conference talks that will be studied on Sundays.)
• Add the Verse of the Day widget to your home screen.
• Set notifications for reminders to prepare ahead of time.

Read the specifics in the article “Use the Gospel Library App to Prepare for Weekly Sunday Classes and Meetings.”

I was a bit nervous going into the tour. Because Latter-day Saint teachings and practices are often mocked in the popular media, I wasn’t sure what assumptions my fellow interns might already hold. Would I be the weird coworker now?

Despite my initial fears, the experience could not have been better. During the tour, my fellow interns asked me all kinds of interesting questions. Some of them were deeply touched by our doctrine of eternal families. Others were impressed by the striking portraits of Christ, particularly the giant painting “His Return” by Dan Wilson. They were fascinated by our lifestyle, doctrines, and ordinances.

Their questions also helped me look at the truths of the restored gospel with new insight. As a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I had taken many of these truths for granted. For instance, the enormous endeavor to provide every person who has ever lived with the opportunity to receive the gospel and its ordinances is a startling project of divine love and justice that I sometimes forget in everyday worship. My colleagues’ questions and perspectives illuminated my own beliefs, making them even more meaningful to me.

I have often reflected on how the temple open house sparked a summer of dialogue and helped me gain greater insight into my own faith. As the 2027 Salt Lake Temple Open House Celebration approaches, I hope we realize how significant this opportunity is, whether we visit in person or virtually. I believe there are several things we can do to make the experience more meaningful.

5 Ways to Make the Most of the Open House

1. Invite friends to attend.

Inviting people to visit the open house might feel uncomfortable, especially if they do not share our beliefs. But I found that many people are genuinely curious and thrilled to have the opportunity to attend. As I learned from my own experience, touring with friends of other faiths offers new insights.

2. Learn the layout and plan the trip.

While the temple is the focal point, there are lots of other things to do, see, and experience on Temple Square that you won’t want to miss. Many buildings will be open to the public; I’m personally looking forward to visiting the Relief Society Building. Temple Square will also be full of performances throughout the celebration. You might consider identifying the exhibits, multimedia presentations, and performing groups you can see during your visit.

3. Participate in and learn about all the temple ordinances.

Participating in all the ordinances of the temple, where possible, can help us to remember the powerful sequence of the covenant path and the vital importance of each part of the temple. For those who have not yet received temple ordinances (and even for those who have), studying each temple ordinance can help us to better appreciate the symbolism and sacredness involved in the ordinance rooms.

4. Study and practice teaching gospel truths simply.

During my temple tour, friends frequently asked me questions about the temple and our beliefs about Jesus Christ, the priesthood, ordinances, and the plan of salvation. Sometimes we become so accustomed to teaching these concepts to fellow Latter-day Saints that we forget how to be conversant with friends of other faith backgrounds. During a temple tour, when friends ask questions, they probably don’t want long or complicated answers. We can practice teaching our beliefs in a simple, accurate, and sincere way in advance to make the temple tour a better experience for those who join us. The lesson outlines in chapter three of Preach, My Gospel can be great to study and discuss during Family Home Evening or in gospel study groups.

5. Focus on Christ.

With all that’s going on during a temple open house, it’s easy to become enamored with the architecture, artwork, and landscaping. But all of these beautiful elements are there to invoke remembrance that the temple is the holy house of the Lord.

In every room, symbol, and painting, we can ask ourselves how we see Christ there. The open house celebration theme “Rejoice in Christ” reminds us that this is not just an open house; it is a celebration of what Christ has made possible.

During the launch event for the theme and tour reservations, I had the chance to ask Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson about the theme. President Johnson also serves on the executive committee for the Salt Lake Temple Celebration. She said, “Rejoice in Christ . . . beautifully says, in just a few words, what we’re hoping people will feel when they’re here.” She went on to say, “We hope they will feel to rejoice in Jesus Christ as they learn more about the love and the peace and the hope that he offers each one of us.”

I look forward to rejoicing with Christ with friends and family as we tour the Salt Lake Temple in 2027. I hope you’ll join me. 

The post 5 Ways to Prepare for the Salt Lake Temple Celebration appeared first on Public Square Magazine.