President
Monson has said, “This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and
now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities
come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are
to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us
distinguish between what is important and what is not”.
So
what is important? What is important to you right now? What should be important
to you right now? What is going to be important to you in the future? I think
of my spirit in the Premortal existence. What was it like to be there with our
Heavenly Father and the Savior? What was important to me then? What did I know
about my life? What expectations did I have for myself? Did I promise my
Heavenly Father I would “return with honor?” In order for us to return to our
Heavenly Father, especially an honorable return, we need to focus on some
important aspects of our journey.
#1: The first item of
business is to make sure we are on the right path. This means we are keeping the
commandments and making covenants with our Heavenly Father. As Elder
Holland said in April 2012 General Conference, “If you have made covenants,
keep them. If you haven’t made them, make them. If you have made them and
broken them, repent and repair them. It is never too late so long as the Master
of the vineyard says there is time.” The number of individuals who have the
opportunity to learn of the gospel and covenants are a relative few when
compared with all of the children of God who have ever walked this earth. President
Eyring called us the favored few in the Women’s Meeting. The journey back to
our Heavenly Father is a hard journey and making covenants with our Heavenly
Father qualifies us for greater blessings here on earth and after death.
#2: While this path is full
of trials and adversity, we have help.
One of my favorite quotes is from Mildred Eyring,
President Eyring’s mom. She said, “If you are on the right path, it will
always be uphill.” One reason this path will be one of struggles and difficulty
is we are trying to get to higher ground. If we are to win the battle against
sin and evil, we must be continuously moving up. Years ago we held a contest at
work to improve efficiencies and performance. The theme of the contest was
“Moving mountains one pebble at a time.” I thought of this for weeks after. It
occurred to me that while it is possible to have faith to move mountains in an
instant, the mountains in our lives are usually moved by us taking one step at
a time. The climb can be hard and sometimes it will take all of our strength
and faith. But we take it one step at a time. And oh, what a view!
The
other reason that this path is hard is because of the opposition that has been
working since the Premortal Existence to make men miserable. And Satan will use
every tool he can. If sin doesn’t work, then surely discouragement will work
just as good. If he can’t disable your spirit and your faith by sin, then he
will feed you lies and more lies so you will doubt and despair. Don’t listen to
him!
A
few years ago, I was driving down to Utah to take a test for school. I took a
Friday off of work so I could leave on Thursday night and be able to spend some
time with my niece and nephew. My mom was worried that day due to the weather
forecast. It was early March and it started raining as I left Blackfoot. I didn’t
pay the weather too much attention. I remember the rain stopped once I was just
south of Pocatello. As I was heading up Malad Pass, the rain started again, but
it was a very light rain. I kept climbing up the mountain thinking that the
light rain would continue. It slowly, but steadily got a little worse the
higher I got. As I was driving by the rest stop, I saw a many semis pulling
off. I didn’t think much of it (you can see how oblivious I am). Less than 2
minutes later, I drove straight into a blizzard so severe I could hardly see 10
feet in front of me. At times it may have been more like 5 feet. I naturally
slowed down, but even then I was having a hard time seeing the road. I was
panicked! I wasn’t sure what I needed to do. I knew that I would not be able to
make it through this storm without help from Heavenly Father. So, I prayed. And
I tried to think of possible solutions. “Should I pull off at the next exit?” “Should
I pull off to the side of the road?” “No,” came the voice. “You will not be
easily seen by passing cars and could be injured or killed. And you don’t know
when this storm will let up and how long you will be there. You don’t know the
area well enough to know where you are. Slow down, it doesn’t matter how fast
you are going. Go 10 mph, put your hazards on. Remember the basics that were
taught to you in Drivers Ed. If you do that, you will make it through this
storm.” So I did. I slowed down to 10 mph, put my hazards on, and slowly made
my way through this awful, awful storm. There were times I didn’t know where
the roadways were and I used the rumble strip to keep myself on the roadway. I
remember there were times that the despair came back and I could actually feel
Satan laughing at my fear and discouragement. Even the swirling snow looked as
if it was mocking me. When these emotions threatened to overtake me, I would
pray again and the peaceful feeling would return. In those moments, I yearned
to hear the word of God. So, I changed my iPod to my General Conference playlist
and I listened to an Elder Oaks talk. As I drove through the storm, I saw a car
upside down in the median. I wanted to stop but I knew I had to keep going.
However, I could call 911 to make sure the emergency personnel knew of the
accident and could provide assistance.
This experience taught me the
importance of many things. First, prayer works. God listens to our sincere
prayers because He loves us. Second, remember the basics. Scripture study,
church/temple attendance, listening to the words of the prophets and apostles
are all necessary to stay on course. We don’t have to be progressing fast but
we need to be moving forward. Third, listen to the promptings of the Holy
Ghost. There are spiritual rumble strips that warn us when we are going off
course and we need to heed those warnings. Fourth, you cannot help someone else
if you are not on safer, higher ground. Fifth, Satan will try to stop you from
moving forward, even if he can only do so through discouragement.
Years ago I was in a sacrament
meeting in which a young man was giving a talk and he told a story from his
mission to Ireland. He and his companion were biking to an appointment. It was
really windy that day and no matter which way they turned, it always felt like
they were going into the wind. He said to his companion, “We must be going the
wrong way. We are always facing the wind.” His companion replied, “No. That is
how we know we are going the right way. We are doing a work that Satan wishes
to stop.”
One of my favorite quotes from
Elder Holland is from a talk he gave at BYU in 1980 titled "For Times of Trouble”.
He said, “In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the
veil, and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement
strike—and they will—you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be
opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see
riding at reckless speed to come to our protection. They will always be there,
these armies of heaven, in defense of Abraham’s seed.”
#3: We choose our attitude
and our attitude determines our altitude. In that same talk of Elder Holland’s, he
paraphrases a story of Thomas Edison told by his son Charles.
“Thomas
Edison devoted ten years and all of his money to developing the nickel-alkaline
storage battery at a time when he was almost penniless. Through that period of
time, his record and film production was supporting the storage battery effort.
Then one night the terrifying cry of fire echoed through the film plant. Spontaneous
combustion had ignited some chemicals. Within moments all of the packing
compounds, celluloid for records, film, and other flammable goods had gone up
with a roar. Fire companies from eight towns arrived, but the fire and heat
were so intense and the water pressure so low that the fire hoses had no
effect. Edison was sixty-seven years old—no age to begin anew. His son Charles
was frantic, wondering if he were safe, if his spirits were broken, and how he
would handle a crisis such as this at his age. Charles saw his father running
toward him. He spoke first.”
He
said, ‘Where’s your mother? Go get her. Tell her to get her friends. They’ll
never see another fire like this as long as they live!’
At
5:30 the next morning, with the fire barely under control, he called his employees
together and announced, ‘We’re rebuilding.’ One man was told to lease all the
machine shops in the area, another to obtain a wrecking crane from the Erie
Railroad Company. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, ‘Oh, by the way. Anybody
know where we can get some money?’” (Paraphrased from Charles Edison, “My Most
Unforgettable Character,” Reader’s Digest, December 1961, pp. 175–77.)
Virtually
everything you now recognize as a Thomas Edison contribution to your life came after
that disaster. Remember, ‘Trouble has no necessary connection with
discouragement— discouragement has a germ of its own.’”
#4: We must keep in mind
the true purpose of adversity.
It is there to help us, to humble us, to turn our hearts to God, to prepare
ourselves to be taught by God, etc. One of my favorite stories about this topic
is from President Faust in his talk “Refined
in Our Trails.” He recounts an experience that occurred several years after
the Martin Handcart company came across the plains. Some church members were
criticizing the Church and its leaders for allowing the group to come across
with very little supplies and protection from the elements. There was an older
gentleman present who had been one of the handcart company and he, in substance
said, “I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know
nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper
interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company
out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it
and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited was there, too. We suffered
beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but
did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? … I
have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of
food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead
and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that
far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it.”
He
continues: “I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began
pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but
my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there. Was I sorry
that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life
since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay.”
#5: Becoming acquainted
with God and His Son is not a one-time event. It is done over and over again as we move through the
different trials and situations in life. Lizzy and I moved in the beginning of
March and as a result I’ve had a lot of boxes to sort through. Some of these
boxes were things I kept from my high school years. One of the treasures I
found was from my junior year of high school during which we studied the Book
of Mormon in seminary. My teacher promised us at the beginning of the year that
if we read the Book of Mormon and came to class that we would know our Savior
better and have a personal relationship with him. And that was true for me. During
this class we spoke often of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what that meant
in our lives. I remember one day we got into groups and we had to determine
which miracle was the greatest out of all that Jesus Christ had performed. I
remember thinking a lot about this. After much discussion, my group decided that
bringing someone back to from the dead was pretty high up there. But then our
teacher reminded us that while it was an amazing act of faith, those who held
His priesthood and acted in His name could perform the same miracle. He asked
us, “What was the one thing that only the Savior could do?” We looked over the
list again and we realized that forgiving sins was the greatest miracle because
only Christ could make such forgiveness possible. Then we talked about the
healing power of the Atonement. I remember my teacher asking the class, “What
would you be healed of if you could choose anything?” We thought about that and
then wrote our thoughts down on a piece of a paper. I would ask the same thing of
you. If you knew you would be healed and that this ailment could be spiritual,
mental, emotional or physical, what would you be healed of?
After
we were done writing our thoughts down on paper, the teacher asked us to think
about the prayer that Christ would offer in our behalf and for the healing we
desired. What would he say? Then he asked us to write what we thought would be
in that prayer. It was a powerful experience at that time and again now as I
have had the opportunity to revisit that experience a few weeks ago.
I
close with a story from a
talk given by President Monson in April 2009 General Conference. This story
was recounted by President Benson and a Brother Babble who was assigned to the
saints of postwar Europe. They met a young woman who had lived in East Prussia with
her husband and four children. They had lived a good life until the war broke
out.
Her
husband was killed during the final battles of World War II. The occupying
forces determined that all Germans living in East Prussia needed to relocate to
Western Germany. Because this young widow was German, it was necessary for her
to go. The journey was over a thousand miles and the only way she could make
this journey was by foot. She filled a small wagon with bare necessities and
set off with her children and her testimony of the restored gospel.
It
was late summer and they had neither food nor money. They lived on whatever
they could gather from the fields and forests along the way. There was always
danger from other refugees and plundering troops. They continued on as the
weeks and months went by. Soon the temperatures dropped below freezing. Her
smallest child was a baby in her arms. Her oldest was seven years old and was
in charge of the wagon. Their shoes had long since deteriorated and they
wrapped their feet in burlap to provide protection. Their clothes and jackets
were thin and inadequate. They would usually find shelter in a barn or a shed
and they would huddle together for warmth. She lived with an overwhelming fear
that they would perish before reaching their destination.
I
quote President Monson, “And then one morning the unthinkable happened. As she
awakened, she felt a chill in her heart. The tiny form of her three-year-old
daughter was cold and still, and she realized that death had claimed the child.
Though overwhelmed with grief, she knew that she must take the other children
and travel on. First, however, she used the only implement she had—a
tablespoon—to dig a grave in the frozen ground for her tiny, precious child.
Death,
however, was to be her companion again and again on the journey. Her
seven-year-old son died, either from starvation or from freezing or both. Again
her only shovel was the tablespoon, and again she dug hour after hour to lay
his mortal remains gently into the earth. Next, her five-year-old son died, and
again she used her tablespoon as a shovel.
Her
despair was all consuming. She had only her tiny baby daughter left, and the
poor thing was failing. Finally, as she was reaching the end of her journey,
the baby died in her arms. The spoon was gone now, so hour after hour she dug a
grave in the frozen earth with her bare fingers. Her grief became unbearable.
How could she possibly be kneeling in the snow at the graveside of her last
child? She had lost her husband and all her children. She had given up her
earthly goods, her home, and even her homeland.
In
this moment of overwhelming sorrow and complete bewilderment, she felt her
heart would literally break. In despair she contemplated how she might end her
own life, as so many of her fellow countrymen were doing. How easy it would be
to jump off a nearby bridge, she thought, or to throw herself in front of an
oncoming train.
And
then, as these thoughts assailed her, something within her said, “Get down on
your knees and pray.” She ignored the prompting until she could resist it no
longer. She knelt and prayed more fervently than she had in her entire life:
‘Dear
Heavenly Father, I do not know how I can go on. I have nothing left—except my
faith in Thee. I feel, Father, amidst the desolation of my soul, an
overwhelming gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. I
cannot express adequately my love for Him. I know that because He suffered and
died, I shall live again with my family; that because He broke the chains of death,
I shall see my children again and will have the joy of raising them. Though I
do not at this moment wish to live, I will do so, that we may be reunited as a
family and return—together—to Thee.’
When
she finally reached her destination of Karlsruhe, Germany, she was emaciated.
Brother Babbel said that her face was a purple-gray, her eyes red and swollen,
her joints protruding. She was literally in the advanced stages of starvation.
In a Church meeting shortly thereafter, she bore a glorious testimony, stating
that of all the ailing people in her saddened land, she was one of the happiest
because she knew that God lived, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He died and
was resurrected so that we might live again. She testified that she knew if she
continued faithful and true to the end, she would be reunited with those she
had lost and would be saved in the celestial kingdom of God.”
I know there is power in the making and keeping of covenants. If
we want to be on the right path, it will include these promises with our
Heavenly Father. The path that will lead us back to our Heavenly Father will be
hard and full of opposition. But if we turn to our Heavenly Father, we will
receive aid and protection against the storms of life. Maintaining a good
attitude during these storms of life will allow us to learn from them and
become better. We also have an opportunity to become closer to God through
these trials. By using the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can find peace and
healing from the sins and wounds of our souls.
