So Long 2012: Hello 2013

I was once told that in the 1830s a bill was put before the United States Congress to close the patent office because everything that could be discovered had surely been discovered by then. Therefore, there was no more need for a patent office. I don’t know if that is urban myth or if it actually happened, but even if it didn’t happen I’m sure there were people in the 1830s that thought there would be no more inventions.

In hindsight and knowing all that has been discovered since 1830, you and I can laugh at how absurd that idea was. But if we had been living in the 1830s we may have been among the naysayers. Naysayers only believe what they can see and what they have experienced and even then they are jaundiced by negative perceptions.

On this last day of 2012, I think there is something to learn from this. A new year brings with it new beginnings and who knows what wonders await us? We can be naysayers and think that the future will be exactly like the past—nothing new, nothing better. Or we can be excited about the possibilities of what is to come—new things to learn, new friends to make, new experiences, new growth, new tender mercies and miracles. As Mr. J's mission president, Stephen R. Covey, used to tell us every time we saw him, "The best is yet to come!"

So as the clock begins to strike to take us into 2013, I hope you begin the year by thinking, “The best is about to begin,” and then expect it.

Light!

The Jews in the Old World were not the only people awaiting the Messiah. On the American continent many Nephites eagerly anticipated the birth. But there were also many people who didn’t believe, and they began to scorn and persecute the believers. The persecution became so intense the wicked people proclaimed that if the sign of the coming of the Lord did not occur by a certain day, they would kill all the believers.


Samuel the Lamanite prophesies
of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The prophet at the time, Nephi, was filled with sorrow at the wickedness around him. For years he had tried to help the people but so many of them refused to believe and repent. Now as they issued their mandate, he prayed mightily all day long in behalf of his people asking that the Lord would be born so that the righteous who awaited the Messiah would not be killed. After hours of prayer he heard a voice saying, “Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets” (3 Nephi 1:13).


As promised that night the sun went down, but there was no darkness. What a strange experience to watch the sun disappear beyond the horizon and yet the sky remain as light as if it were noontime. The believers rejoiced as they recognized the sign given them by Samuel the Lamanite. But those who had threatened to kill the believers were frightened and many of them fell to the ground as if they were dead. Fear filled them for they knew that they had been wrong, and they worried about what would now happen to them. That entire night the light continued and the next morning the people watched as the sun rose on an already bright sky.

I love to think about this story and reflect on what it teaches me not only about the bitrh of Jesus Christ but about me being born again in Him. When Christ has been born again within us there is no longer darkness. When we have experienced the mighty change of heart, even a situation that the world says should bring great darkness into our lives such as the death of a loved one or any other tragedy is mitigated by the light of Christ within us. When a person loves and trusts in Jesus Christ, there is always light shining brightly. There is always hope.

Christmas is Hope

Living the Good  News! which is the gospel of Jesus Christ isn't a matter of keeping the rules so that you can earn the rewards. Living the Good News! is about thanking Jesus Christ for making Eternal Life possible. We will never be saved because we are perfect, we are saved because Jesus Christ is perfect. Therefore, if we have faith in Christ, we place our hope (our expectation) in the fact that He has told us He will save us and live in gratitude for that great blessing.

Understanding this perspective empowers you. You live differently, more confidently. You live peacefully. You withstand trials, adversity, persecution, disappointment and every other negative occurrence in life because you have hope. You know all this telestial experience is temporary and that you are on your way to a better place.

Hope, then, is the inspiration and motivation to hang in there. Hope is the mortar that holds together the brick of our eternal mansion. Hope is peace in the heart and fire in the belly. Hope brings a smile to the face whether the sun is shining brightly or storms are raging.  

Hope is Jesus Christ, and Christmas is a celebration of that hope.

Seasons

The hills are alive with a blaze of color! Maybe it's just that my memory is fuzzy, but I don't think there has ever been such a variety and so much color on the mountains as there is this year. I love it!

We lived for a year in Texas and the thing I missed most was the changing of the seasons. While to some Autumn may seem dreary and dreadful because of the dying out of the vegetation, the days getting shorter and nights longer and colder to me it is a symbol of the highs and lows of life. Yes, we experience some discouraging, dismaying, down right no good experiences. But every fall is followed by a spring.

As the prophet Lehi put it, "There must needs be an opposition in all things." When we think of that we usually think about all good things having an opposite--something negative. But looked at another way it also means that all bad things have an opposite--something positive.

So instead of wallowing in the negative we can think about the positive that is about to follow. There is always a spring and summer after a fall and winter!

The Promises

There is a famous line in one of Paul's epistles that I love. Paul says to the Corinthians, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Remembering this should infuse all of us with encouragement and faith. What Paul is saying is that if we are only looking to Christ as someone to help us through this life, we miss the best part of Christ's message. There is so much more than just this life and Christ will continue to bless, heal, provide and help us not only now but forever.

Because of Christ we will be resurrected and live forever. Because of Christ many blessings we could not have in this life will be given to us in the next life. Because of Christ everything will eventually be made absolute fair and wonderful. So if we are only thinking in terms of this life it is easy to get discouraged. Instead we need to realize that Christ's power and promises don't have boundaries of time. The best is yet to come!

What? Be Perfect!

We are all too familiar with the scriptural injunction to be perfect. As the Savior instructed, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). But when He issured this same command in 3 Nephi 12:48 He changed it by saying, "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." The important question here is why the difference.

The key to understanding is in the definition of the word perfect. The first definition in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary is, "being entirely without fault or defect." In otherwords flawless. (OUCH!!!)  But the second definition says, "satisfying all requirements." I'm thankful that's the definition intended in these scriptures! And how do we know?

Remember before His resurrection the Savior challenged us to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is perfect. But after His resurrection He includes Himself in the example and asks us to be perfect like our Father in Heaven and like He is. Jesus was at all times flawless, but he had not "satisfied all the requirements" until he was resurrected. Only then was He perfect (completed).

Being perfect in a gospel sense isn't about flawlessness. God knew we couldn't be flawless and so He provided a Savior for us. But He wants us to be completed in that we receive all the covenants, and we won't receive them all in this life. We, like our Savior, need to move on to the next life and be resurrected before we will be completed.

Now that certainly is GOOD NEWS! Forget about working to be completely flawless or feeling shame because you aren't flawless or trying to put on a frontso others will think you are flawless. Instead, relax and concentrate on being your wonderful, natural, flawed self that is working toward completion. There is so much peace and hope in that!

Glad Tidings

Find cross stitch here

This morning I was reading this:

 “And thou shalt declare glad tidings,

yea, publish it upon the mountains,

and upon every high place,

 and among every people

that thou shalt be permitted to see”

(D&C 19:29).

That was an invitation I cannot resist. So, I’m going to declare glad tidings all day long.

Glad tidings are good news.

Glad tidings are the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Glad tidings are hope and love and all those things are possible because of Jesus Christ.

I’m glad for those tidings.

My heart is singing. I don’t have a musical voice, but my heart is bursting with song.

My heart sings loud and true and clear and right now it is singing glad tidings of great joy.

The world is in chaos, but I have a Savior who will put things right.

 That is the best of good tidings.

I made mistakes and encounter fear and sorrow, but He will succor me through the dark days.

That is the wonder of the good tidings.

Every note of my heart-song is full of rejoicing.

I hope you can hear it, because angels carry the songs of rejoicing to whoever is listening.

Are you listening?

Glad tidings are in the air.

This, Too, Shall Pass

The phrase “And it came to pass” appears in the Book of Mormon 198 times from the beginning of the book until 2 Nephi 5:30 and then it is never used again by Nephi. Later, in the book of Ether, Moroni uses the phrase 160 times, but he never uses it his own writings. 

What has been discovered from other writings originating in the Near East is that the phrase “And it came to pass” is used to indicate that a period of time has elapsed. This phrase is very useful  when writing history. Therefore when Nephi is recording the story of their leaving Jerusalem that happened several decades before he is writing he uses the phrase until he brings the record up to the current time and then he no longer needs it. Likewise, Moroni while abridging the Jaradite account uses it throughout the book of Ether, but when he is telling us what is happening to him he doesn’t use it.

This is interesting to me, but I like the phrase for another reason. “And it came to pass” are words of hope. Yes, today might be a down day. Things might be going wrong today. Horrible things might even be happening today. But . . . they will pass. There will be a brighter day, and eventually all days will be bright days. God has promised it. 

Remember, 

"Weeping may endure for a night, 

but joy cometh in the morning" 

(Psalms 30:5).

Fire in the Belly

At the close of Alma’s beautiful sermon on the priesthood of God that is found in Alma 13, Alma says,

“But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord . . . having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest” (28-29). This reiterates a theme that runs throughout all of scripture—that we should have faith, hope and charity.

The problem is that too often we don’t recognize a difference between faith and hope. But Alma helps us understand that difference. Faith centers on the Lord Jesus Christ and means we believe what He teaches us. 

He will save us. Therefore, if we have faith we will naturally believe that we are going to receive eternal life. So hope is the next step. It is to expect eternal life.

I am often startled by my students who don’t think they are going to make it. They know they aren’t perfect and there are so many commandments and there is so much to do and  . . .  But we are saved not because we are perfect. We are saved because Jesus Christ is perfect. Therefore if we have faith in Christ, we should all place our hope (our expectation) in the fact that we are going to receive eternal life. We will be exalted.

When you live your life with that expectation you live very differently. Instead of looking at the gospel as a burden that has to be met in order to "earn" your way into the celestial kingdom, you see it as a way to show Jesus Christ how grateful you are for making your eternal life possible. That hope then empowers you.You live confidently. You live peacefully. You can withstand trials, adversity, persecution, disappointment and every other negative occurrence in life because you have hope. You know all this telestial experience is temporary and that you are on your way to a much better eternal destination.

Hope, then, is the inspiration and motivation to hang in there. Hope is the mortar that holds together the brick of our eternal mansion. Hope is peace in the heart and fire in the belly. Hope brings a smile to the face whether the sun is shining brightly or storms are raging.  

Hope is Jesus Christ.

Spring!

Yellow crocus are pushing through dark brown soil in my front yard. For me this is the visual equivalent of a delightful chuckle that interrupts a long silence or a spontaneous outburst of song among children at play. It is also a reminder that after the storms and chill that are so much a part of telestial life, there is always something wonderful waiting for us. 

Spring is also a time that renews my hope and teaches me about my Savior. As Nephi taught, “All things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him” ( 2 Nephi 11:4). And in the book of Moses we read. “And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath all things bear record of me” (Moses 6:63). While this is true all year long, spring intensifies the lessons. New pocking through the earth, brighter sunshine tickling my cheek, warmer breezes stirring the air, the promise of new fruit blossoming in the trees all remind me of grace and love and hope and eternal life made possible because of Jesus Christ.

Spring is the perfect time for leisurely walks in places where nature is my personal tutor.

Triumph!

There is a wonderful parable in the New Testament in which Jesus explains what will happen to those who follow Him:  “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock."

But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:46-49).

Sometimes we tend to think that if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, no storms will come into our lives. But this parable clearly teaches us that storms come to those who are building on the solid rock of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to those who are building on the shifting sands of the world. Both groups undergo adversity and trials. The difference isn’t in the adversity, the difference is in the strength, power, and help of those who build upon the rock. The promise is that when we build our foundation upon the rock we will triumph over the storms.

Hope, Blessed Hope!

The Good News! today is that there is hope. (Don’t you love that word hope!) The Truth is that everyone has hope. One of the Hebrew words that is translated in the Old Testament as hope is tikvaw which literally means “cord” but it is also used for the concept of hope. It is easy to see why cord and hope were associated because our hope is in whatever we are tied to. Some people have hope in power—if they have enough power they will be safe, comfortable, secure. Others place their hope in money—if they have enough money they will be secure. Others place their hope in popularity or fame or intelligence or in their ability to do something better than anyone else.

There are many things we place our hope in, but everyone has some kind of hope. Sometimes it is said that a suicidal person has no hope, but they do; they have placed their hope in death—if they can just die they will be safe and secure.

Thus the important question for all of us to ask is “What is my hope?” And the way to tell is to determine where we spend most of our time and effort.

Getting to the Celestial Kingdom is simple. All we need to do is want it more than we want anything else. If there is nothing we want more, we place our faith and hope in Jesus Christ and He will guide us to our Promised Land, the Celestial Kingdom. 

P.S. I have a good friend that writes a blog about hope. It is called Fireflies of Hope. Check it out.

Aren't We Thankful for Hope!

The most discouraging trials in life, the ones that are the hardest to deal with, are the ones that involve righteous desires. You want to be a wife, but no one asks you. You want to be a mother, but no children come. You want to have a temple worthy marriage, but your spouse doesn’t. You want to be righteous, but you struggle with things that seem to be inborn like same sex attraction. You want to help in the Lord’s work but your efforts meet with rejection. These kinds of trials are double trials because not only are they adversity, but they are troubling in the fact that they don’t make sense.
With these kinds of trials all we can do is hold on, trusting in God, and know that at some point we will understand. All things will work for our good. The law of justice will be applied and at some point we won’t just understand, we will be grateful for the way all things turned out.

That is one of the most beautiful things about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is hope.

Persistence Power

Growing up my mother used to tell me the story of the little train pulling a large load at a time of crisis who accomplished the task by saying, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.” The little train saved the day and did what the large trains failed to do. Mother used the story to illustrate the importance of positive thinking. That’s great, but it is also an important lesson in the power of persistence.

We don’t usually think of persistence as a gospel principle, but it is.

After the Lord confounds the language of the people at the time of the Tower of Babel, we are told that the Jaradites are led to a new home. As the Lord tells the Brother of Jared about the Promised Land He is leading them to, he says, “And there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great nation. And there shall be none greater than the nation which I will raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth. And thus I will do unto thee because this long time ye have cried unto me” (Ether 1:43). For some reason, in some circumstances, the Lord wants us to persist in our prayers and pleadings.

So what does that mean? It means we shouldn’t get discouraged because our prayers aren’t answered immediately. It means we shouldn’t give up praying for things we need or want just because our prayer hasn’t been answered yet. It means that there is something important for us to learn by being persistent in our prayers. And who know what else there may be to learn from this. In short, it means, hang in there! Who knows what great blessings are ahead!

Hope!

Today the sun appears, begins to warm everything up, then disappears again. It made me think about the words of a song, “There is hope smiling brightly before me.” The reason it reminded me of those words is because the sun today acts a lot like hope. Hope, like the sun, is shining even if clouds temporarily hide it.

It’s like taking off in an airplane on a cold, cloudy, winter’s day. For a few minutes you fly under the dreariness of the clouds looking down at a drab, dull world when suddenly things get worse. You enter the clouds and everything becomes all the more depressing. You can’t see anything! There isn’t even a drab, dull world to behold only thick oppressive clouds that hide your way. But suddenly the plane breaks through the clouds and bright, bright sunlight glistens on the wings and shines into the plane, and warms your very soul with delight.

Even though we can’t always see or feel the sun, it is shining. And even though we can’t always feel or see how things are going to turn out, hope is waiting. Hope is always brightly shining somewhere behind the dreariness. We just need to rise through the clouds and find it!

More Words of Isaiah

My students often complain that Isaiah is too difficult to read. I agree that certain passages are difficult. I don’t understand it all, but there are so many wonderful things hidden away in Isaiah that it is worth plowing through it to find them. For example, In Isaiah 41:10 it says, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

The right hand is the covenant hand and so the Lord is telling us that when we are keeping the covenants He sustains us. The covenants we make with Him are binding and powerful! Because of those covenants, we don’t need to fear. We don’t need to get discouraged. We have a covenant with God, and therefore He is with us and will take care of us.

Finding passages such as these help us understand what the Lord meant when he said, “Search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah” (3 Nephi 23:1).

Aloha!

The Hawaiian word aloha is an enthusiastic greeting, but it is also a warm farewell. It is interesting that the same word means both “hello” and “goodbye.” But then again, maybe it isn’t so strange. The older I get the more I realize that every “goodbye” is also a “hello.” When we pass through the door of any stage of life, another door opens. We just have to be willing to go through the door, into the new room, and not look back with so much longing that we fail to see the opportunities that are now ours.

I’m at one of those points in my life right now. Grizelda has changed almost everything in my life from my career path to my daily routine. I can hear a door closing (no make that slamming!) behind me and the light isn’t on in the room I’m entering so that I can see what is in there yet. But while I wait for the light, I’m going to shout, “Aloha! Aloha!” with all the enthusiasm I can muster and let it warm me with the thought that the best is yet to come. “Hello!” to whatever that is!

Our Security

With all that has happened the last month, I’ve been thinking a lot about hope. Hope has taken on new meaning for me—I’ve experienced it in new ways and learned for myself what a life-line hope is. A long time ago I wrote about hope here on my blog (“The Golden Cord of Hope,” March 10, 2008) and how one of the Hebrew words for hope also means cord. The idea behind the dual meaning is that our hope is what we are tied to. If we think that if we have enough money we will always be safe and secure, our hope is in wealth. If we think that if we have a lot of friends or followers they will keep us safe, our hope is in popularity. If we think that if we know enough we will always be able to deal with every situation and therefore we will be safe, our hope is in intelligence or academic degrees.

These are just a few of the hundreds of things we mortals “tie” ourselves to in our quest to be safe and secure. But to fully understand the ramifications of hope we need to look at the meanings of the words safe and secure.

The English words safe and save both come from the Latin word salvus which also gave us the word salvation. The three words are related and are all about being safe which means not exposed to the threat of loss or injury. The word secure is formed from the Latin prefix se- which means “without” and the word cura which means “care or worry.” So being secure is to be without worries and to be safe or saved is to be without threats, loss, or injury. Sounds good, doesn’t it? That is what everyone hope for.

But there is only one source to that kind of salvation—Jesus Christ. There is nothing wrong with money, popularity, and intelligence or other such things. We can use them to do much good. But if we are seeking them to provide safety and security, they are false salvation systems. True hope, true safety, true security only comes through Jesus Christ. In other words, safety only comes by “tying” ourselves to Him.

F + H + C = Miracles

I’ve had a lot of time to think about miracles lately. I’ve also said many a prayer expressing thanks for the miracles I’ve received. One of the things I’ve learned in this process is that faith is an essential principle for facilitating miracles, but not the only principle. Faith as an essential principle I already knew. As a matter of fact, it is the only principle I'd considered as part of a miracle. What I hadn’t realized is that there is more to miracles than faith. Two other essential principles that facilitate miracles are hope and charity or, as Mormon calls it, the pure love of Christ. (See Moroni 7:47.) Together, faith, hope, and charity ALWAYS facilitate miracles.

As I’ve been reading in the Book of Mormon it has confirmed this finding. In every instance when faith, hope, and charity exist miracles happen. That isn’t a coincidence!

Injecting Hope

It is surprising what a simple gesture of kindness can mean in a person’s life. As I look back on my life, I realize that there were a few people who greatly influenced me. The amazing thing is that in every case the things they did were small simple things–so small the people have no idea what an impact they had on me. But even though they don’t remember what they did, I do.
Growing up in what was then the small town of Centerville, my friends and I used to visit the older ladies that lived on our street. Two of these especially influenced me by their kindness. Mrs. Torrey once gave me an old book, Heidi, with the simple words, “I have only sons and so I want you to have this.” It made me feel so very special and important.
When only five years old, I’d write “books” of my own, illustrate them and go door to door selling them. Mrs. Torrey and Aunt Nora would praise my books so much that it felt like they filled me with helium.
Later, in high school, an English teacher, Miss Lee, encouraged my writing. She wrote at the end of one assignment words that I memorized. “Sherrie, You’ve got it–whatever it is. Don’t ever stop writing!!!” I can’t even count how many time those two sentences saved me when encountering editors who rejected my manuscripts and even a few other bumps in life.
Other friends such as Lucille Reading and Laurie Thornton warmed, encouraged and bolstered me, again without knowing what an impact they were having on my life. They just did what was natural for them. They loved me despite my faults. Whenever I’d get discouraged, I’d go visit Lucille and I’d come away lifted. When I went, I didn’t talk about my problems. I just knew that being in her presence for a little while would “cure” me. She was that kind of person. Laurie was the same way. Laurie was blind, but she had learned to laugh with life despite the fact that life had handed her some bad cards, and her laughter was infectious.
Often we read about people who have a mentor that takes them by the hand and plays a major part in their lives the way Anne Sullivan did in Helen Keller’s life. That does happen. But in my own life the most impactful influences have been brief, small occurrences like my young women’s leader, Barbara Davis, who despite the fact that I was being a brat during the lesson one night, patiently put up with me. Her love and kindness that night changed me.
I bring this up, because I think we underestimate the power we have to impact others. We never know when something as simple as a smile, a hug, a phone call, or an encouraging word is just what someone needs to send them on their way injected with hope–a hope that can last a lifetime. We are more influential that we realize, and we need to be more aware of the power we have to encourage others and use it.