When have you felt grateful to have a campfire?

What did Elder Gong mean when he talked about a “campfire of faith”?

Our campfire of faith—our memories, experiences, and heritage of faith in God’s goodness and tender mercies in our life—has strengthened us through the night.

First, our campfire of faith can encourage us to find joy in wholesome creativity.

How have you found joy in learning or doing new things?

What does creativity have to do with faith?

• Creativity can engender a spirit of gratitude for life and for what the Lord has woven into your being. (Elder Scott)
• President Henry B. Eyring describes his artistic meditations as motivated by “a feeling of love,” including “the love of a Creator who expects His children to become like Him—to create and to build.” President Eyring’s creative works provide a “unique, spiritual perspective on testimony and faith.”
• President Boyd K. Packer’s artwork illustrates a fundamental gospel message: “God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all things that are in them, that all nature bears testimony of that divinely directed creation, and that there is [a] complete harmony between nature, science, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

How can you strengthen your own faith through creativity?

Second, our campfire of faith can encourage us to minister in new, higher, and holier Spirit-filled ways.

What is the connection between ministering and faith?

How can your campfire of faith encourage you in your ministering efforts?

A third campfire of faith encouragement: creative gospel joy and blessings come when we seek to love the Lord and others with all our hearts and souls.

What does it mean to love with all our heart and soul?

How can faith lead us to such love?

How might such love affect our faith?

Fourth, our campfire of faith encourages us to establish regular patterns of righteous living that deepen faith and spirituality.

What is the power that comes from these regular patterns?

With daily obedience and refreshing living water, we find answers, faith, and strength to meet everyday challenges and opportunities with gospel patience, perspective, and joy.

What can you do to better draw on these blessings?

Faith comes from hearing the word of God and is a spiritual gift. It increases when we not only hear, but act on the word of God as well. Faith is like a muscle. If exercised, it grows strong. If it is not used, it becomes weak and flabby.

Fifth, as we keep the best of familiar patterns while seeking new and holier ways to love God and help us and others prepare to meet Him, our campfire of faith can encourage us to remember perfection is in Christ, not in ourselves or in the perfectionism of the world.

How can perfectionism weaken our faith?

How can we avoid these pitfalls?

When we have faith in the Saviour  it means relying completely on Him—trusting in His infinite power, intelligence, and love. In today’s uncertain world, we may not know what tomorrow will bring, but faith in Jesus Christ can give us spiritual peace, even in the face of calamity and heartbreak.

(Sections in italics are excerpts from Elder Gong’s address)