In March of 2020, Sheri Dew found herself home alone in Salt Lake City when an earthquake hit.
“I was disappointed in myself with how scared I was,” she recalls. “When you’re in the house by yourself and the earth starts to shake, it’s kind of like your brain stops working, and you think, ‘What do I do first? Where do I go? What should I do?’”
She’s always believed the Lord’s counsel, “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” So, when she felt afraid during the earthquake and throughout the COVID-19 lockdown, Sheri figured she was unprepared.
In light of this experience, she asked Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson how someone can know if they are well-enough prepared. Or, as the parable of the ten virgins puts it, how do we know if we have enough oil in our spiritual lamps? President Johnson gave a thought-provoking response on an episode of the Magnify podcast.
“You Can’t Have Enough”
“It’s hard to know how much oil you have to have in order to sustain [you through] the challenges that are inevitably coming,” President Johnson says. “So, my answer is: you can’t have enough.”
She explains that filling our lamps is not a one-and-done event—it’s a daily endeavor, and something we do through consistent acts of devotion.
“For me, that includes prayer,” she says. “I’m trying to pray, not just in my usual fashion (morning and night on my knees). … I’ve been trying to find moments to pray during the day, sometimes while I’m in the car. I’m praying out loud more often. I’m trying to … make sure that my connection and my communication with my Heavenly Father through my Savior is consistent and it’s fresh and it’s real.”
President Johnson also spends time studying the Book of Mormon daily and listening to the words of modern prophets.
While President Russell M. Nelson was prophet, she listened to one of his 114 general conference talks each morning. The day after President Nelson’s funeral, she began listening to President Dallin H. Oaks’s talks.
“That prophetic voice was not just in my head, but it was in my heart,” she says of President Nelson. “That’s been a blessing for me and has helped me keep my lamp full.”
She adds that attending the temple and bearing testimony are also acts of devotion that help fill her lamp.
A Better Question
President Johnson also explains that the oil in our lamps is always being used.
“You can’t say, ‘Well, I had enough in my lamp in the moment that I had to light it,’ because the moment you light it, the oil is being diminished,” she says. “You’ve got to continually replenish it. And so that’s why we say we do these things over and over and over again. I haven’t come up with anything new.”
In response, Sheri points out:
“As you’re answering this, I think the question I should have been asking myself is, ‘Are you keeping your lamp full?’ That doesn’t probably mean that there aren’t some days that are scary. Some days probably just are [scary] until you get on your knees and ask for help and plead for strength. That, in its very act, is an act of faith.”
Listen to Sheri and President Johnson’s full conversation on the Magnify podcast.
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