If you are close to a member, or are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you know how the youth are encouraged to serve missions. Serving a mission is typically when someone from 18 to 25 years old gives up 18 months to 2 years of their life preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and serving the people in the area they are sent. There are also many retired couples serving missions. They serve in many different areas of expertise and even in their own town. But this is not the only way we can be a missionary. There is a third option which includes every one of all ages.
With the popularity of social media, we are all encouraged to publish words of peace and share goodness. How exciting for us in these last days before the second coming of our Savior that we can participate in spreading positive messages of the gospel!
If you look around on lds.org under the “Inspiration and News” you will find an area called “Social Media”. This section gives ideas of how we can share goodness:
Some suggestions from lds.org include:
1) Use your own genuine voice and pictures. When we use our own words and pictures, we give our words more meaning and believability. I would much rather read someone’s heartfelt story than facts on a page.
2) Be positive as you share the goodness from your own life. We all have positive experiences and spreading this goodness from our own life can help another who is struggling.
3) Respect the writings and visual helps of others. If you don’t have permission to use someone else’s writings and pictures, then don’t use them. Any of the social media pictures can be used online from lds.org.
4) Remember that social media posts are forever. Some might forget that when we post it is there forever unless you personally delete it. What we say and do online is for the entire world to see so choose words and pictures wisely. The negative repercussions of pessimistic stories and comments can have a lasting effect. I have seen this happen already in my neck of the woods.
Social Media:
One of my favorite things to do is post memes or pictures with quotes on my Facebook and blog pages. To find these wonderful visuals look on lds.org then on Inspiration and News then on Inspiring 
Media. There are several choices depending on whether you like videos, memes or just quotes. There are so many choices, we can post one every day for years before we use them all up.
If you choose the Social Media area, you will find the websites where the church has encouraged its members to share goodness through quotes, pictures and videos. These include, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ , YouTube, Pintrest, Instragram, Tumblr and blog sites. Did you know there are over 600 blog sites just for Mormon Moms who blog? That is an incredible number.
So many church members have joined the ranks of spreading goodness. There are hundreds more all over the internet having to do with the LDS church and mormon.org– all sharing goodness. Social media seems to be the new wave of spreading the gospel and participating in gospel discussions.
To read more of Valerie’s articles, click here.
Besides sharing the gospel on the internet, we can all look for everyday opportunities to share feelings, experiences, and our personal testimony of Jesus Christ. We can give our children frequent opportunities to share what they are learning in Sunday School or religious discussions when families share gospel learning.
Publishing words of peace and sharing goodness is a great way to spread positive messages of the gospel wherever we are.
Valerie Steimle has been writing as a family advocate for over 25 years. As a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she promotes Christian living in her writings and is the mother of nine children and grandmother to twelve. Mrs. Steimle authored six books and is a contributing writer to several online websites. To her, time is the most precious commodity we have and knows we should spend it wisely.
To read more of Valerie's work, visit her at her website, The Blessings of Family Life.
