1. Flood the Earth

In 2014, David A. Bednar delivered an address entitled "To Sweep the Earth as with a Flood" at BYU's Education Week. In this address, Bednar encouraged LDS members to continue to use social media, but to do so in a more positive way. His main purpose was to urge members to use their social media accounts to help share their testimony as well as create a positive light in the social media world.

Through this address, Elder Bednar shared a message that was similar to the message shared in 3 Nephi 18:24, which says "Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up -- that which ye have seen me do." Elder Bednar stated that by sharing our positive light and testimony on social media, we can help part the dark clouds of negativity that social media accounts can often cause. I know that I can be better at sharing my light online. I am not sharing any negative things, but I can more often share my testimony of this gospel and the positive impact it has in my life. I have many nonmember friends that follow me on these accounts and could benefit from my positive impact.

I just loved this talk and thought that it was so relevant to the youth and adults in our day, as well as the children who will grow up in this tech-savvy world. Bednar talked about the importance of keeping positive and appropriate social media accounts. He shared the example of Bonnie Oscarson's Pinterest account. Once she was called as the General Young Womens President, her number of followers sky-rocketed. Luckily, her account was already wholesome, uplifting, and appropriate. I know this personally because I was one of her many new followers when she was called. It made me think- would young girls be proud of the content on my accounts? Would my accounts help inspire and uplift others? If not, how can I change this?

Through using the specific examples of church leaders' social media accounts and showing their fun, uplifting content- Elder Bednar did a get job of persuading me to do the same. He demonstrated to me that posting uplifting, church-related content is not only easy, but can still be fun and personality-specific as well.

All in all, through reading this address, I am re-committed to outwardly living my faith through sharing my testimony with others- both on and off the web.