When I first started this account, I had a different handle.
It had “LDS” in the name.
President Nelson had already made statements about the full name of the Church, but in my mind, “LDS” wasn’t really a harmful acronym.
But in March of 2019, the Church announced that they were changing lds.org to churchofJesusChrist.org.
And that’s when I had the strong impression that I needed to change the name of my Instagram account to remove the “LDS” acronym.
I, personally, didn’t feel that putting the name of our Savior into my name was the right thing to do; but I knew that I didn’t want to perpetuate any names for our Church that removed our Savior.
It seems kind of small looking back on it, but it was an important and powerful, tangible change for me at the time.
I already had a few thousand followers on my account at that point, and I was growing exponentially every day.
And yet, I knew I needed to change it. Thus, “Come Follow Me Study” was born!
The Savior taught his disciples in 3 Nephi 27:5 that the church needs to be called in His name.
“Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day”.
It is His church. We worship Him. And others need to know.
Elder Neil L. Andersen taught us recently that, “As the world speaks less of Jesus Christ, let us speak more of Him.”
We can do our part to remove harmful or dismissive abbreviations or nicknames for our Church.
But then we have to fill their places with more talk of Christ!
In virtually every post that I make on this account, I try to make the connection between the principle I’m sharing thoughts about, and my Savior.
I would hope that anyone scrolling through my feed would know that I am not afraid to preach of my Savior.
And I’m working more on making sure my family and friends get that same dose of “Jesus” from me, too!
This is Jesus Christ’s church. Any little adjustment we can make to rid ourselves of harmful phrases and add statements about our Savior will yield blessings!
As Christ himself teaches, “whoso taketh upon him my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day.”
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
