Article June 21, 2010 Issue

LIVING A HOLY LIFE

BY CHELSEA KEARNS

What does it mean to live a holy life? When I hit a rough patch, this is something I like to think about.

I remember the first time I posed this question. I was going through some emotional turmoil, and as I was struggling daily to feel peaceful, the word holy kept coming to mind. As I pondered its meaning, I thought of purity, glorifying God, self-forgetfulness, and goodness.

When I looked deeper, I found the following description in Webster's Dictionary from 1828: "We call a man holy, when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God, and his life is regulated by divine precepts." Striving for purity, glorifying God, practicing selflessness, and doing or being good certainly seemed like excellent ways of conforming my heart to the image of God. I clung to these concepts and really worked at practicing them in thought and action. Although I didn't always feel a sense of peace during that emotional period, I was given glimpses of it.