“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.” (D&C 121:45). The word garnish comes from the same root word as the word warn. One of the early usages of the word garnish was to give notice or warning. In other words, we could interpret the verse above as something like, “let virtue watch over and guard thy thoughts unceasingly.” I imagine that if the veil could be parted and we could see our guardian angels in all of their glory, we would be struck dumb by their beauty and grace. Is it any wonder then that garnish means both to beautify and adorn as well as to warn and watch over? The light of Christ is something that we should welcome into our lives for no other reason than that it is incredibly beautiful and desirable and sweet above all that is sweet. It is all of these things. But it also protects us from evil and casts out fear and warns us when we are about to wander off the path. We ought to garnish our thoughts with virtue in the same way that we would garnish a dish with a slice of lemon or a sprig of rosemary, but we also ought to let virtue garnish our thoughts in the same way that a security detail would screen for threats and block out those thoughts that only mean to do us harm. If we will allow it, virtue can be a constant and neverending source of vigilance and protection, as well as a source of beauty and adornment.
