Parable of the Ten Virgins: Left Behind?

Artist: Liz Lemon Swindle

Christ taught in parables, and I've always thought of the ten virgins parable as a simple one: five young women prepared for the bridegroom's coming and five did not (Matthew 25:1-13). However, one line changed my view completely:

"I never understood that those five who were wise were leaving behind their friends and their sisters" (Liz Lemon Swindle).

I've always been surrounded with sisters. I have three younger sisters whom I adore; I love my college roommates; the women I work with now I call "Sister." I love these girls! It hurts me to think of leaving them behind.

And yet, that is what these five sisters had to do. It is impossible to add oil to another person's lamp; President Spencer W. Kimball explained what oil is:

"Attendance at sacrament meetings adds oil to our lamps, drop by drop over the years. Fasting, family prayer, home teaching, control of bodily appetites, preaching the gospel, studying the scriptures—each act of dedication and obedience is a drop added to our store. Deeds of kindness, payment of offerings and tithes, chaste thoughts and actions, marriage in the covenant for eternity—these, too, contribute importantly to the oil with which we can at midnight refuel our exhausted lamps” (The Parable of the Ten Virgins).

I cannot study the scriptures for another person; I cannot take the sacrament for another. However, I can encourage and teach. I love the quote by Joseph Smith, which I will change a little bit: "A [woman] filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing h[er] family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless [every sister]" (Joseph Smith). I am not content with the oil in my own lamp; I want to reach out to other sisters. I don't want to leave any sisters behind.