Member of Parliament and Co-Leader of the Maori Party, Marama Fox, spoke to women from the Auckland New Zealand Papakura Stake last weekend about how they can influence their families and society in positive ways.
“Our light is the light of our Saviour Jesus Christ,” she said at a special devotional for women on Sunday, 30 August at the Latter-day Saints’ Papakura meetinghouse in South Auckland.
“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about what it means to be the light. I’m sure you know that when people look at you and wonder what is it that is so different about you, they recognize the light that’s within us all.
“When we let His light shine in us then people see that and they wonder at that. Sometimes they don’t understand it but as you grow and carry on and do good works, they may not see the Saviour but they will want to know Him because they know you.”
Mrs Fox told the women that being an advocate for children is one way all women can be the light. A mother of nine children herself, she spoke about her passion to help protect the children of New Zealand. “I thought about our place as mothers and sisters and our duty to raise children in loving homes where they know that they are loved, where they’re cared for.
“We can do much to save the children in our communities and in our own homes. We don’t have to all change the world. We don’t all have to be politicians. We don’t all need to lead causes in our communities. We can simply raise our children in love and kindness.”
Paraphrasing Proverbs 31:28, Mrs Fox said, “I pray that one day my children will rise up and call me blessed, not for what I do in public life but for what I do at home. I pray also that one day my husband will rise up and call me blessed, and not because of how proud he may be of things I might do in public life, but because together we raised a family that love us and we love them.”
Concluding the devotional, local Latter-day Saint leader, Toni Elkington, said, “When we turn on a light switch in a dark room or a candle in a blackout, the room fills with light. The same can be said for providing an example of righteousness, and therefore being a light or being the light. Being the light can help illuminate an increasingly dark world.”