Last night I read the following scripture verse from the Book of Mormon:
And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared. - Ether 12:32
The power and importance of having hope blew me away. Without ever really analyzing it, I have always thought of hope as a passive, kind of wimpy, emotion. Obviously not, if I can't receive the ultimate eternal reward without it. My heart started to beat a little faster as I realized I had learned an important eternal principle. It almost skipped a beat when I realized, sadly, that often I am without hope. At least, I don't have the powerful version of hope of which Moroni wrote; the hope that produces faith strong enough to literally (a la the brother of Jared) move mountains. This kind of hope led the woman in the crowd to touch the Lord's hem and be healed, Nephi to build a boat, and the sons of Mosiah to convert countless Lamanites. This hope involves faith and work. In fact, I think if you truly hope for something, this hope compels you to work towards achieving it, having faith that the Lord will make up for what you can't do alone.
So, how do I go about getting hope? Moroni counsels:
And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen. - Ether 12:41
How can I have hope if I don't believe He'll keep his promises? It's not enough for me to know that He gives blessings to people in the scriptures/church magazines, I have to know Him well enough to hope that He'll extend those blessings to me as well. I've decided to work on having hope for a few blessings that I want. After some deliberation, I've decided to list them.
1. I hope to get married someday. Those of you who know, know that this is a big step for me.
2. I hope to lose weight. If He can cure leprosy, why not obesity?
3. I hope to go to France someday. Is there such a thing as a trivial hope?
4. I hope to be a more patient, loving person.
5. I hope to be happy.
6. I hope to earn eternal life.
11 comments:
Thank you.
I need to remember that principle more often as well.
I agree. I could definitely use a little more hope in my life as well.
Wow! Two great things I've read about hope in two days. Hope must be something I should be paying more attention to. I read CJane's article on Segullah yesterday and I loved this quote from her,
"I have hope in the Lord’s will. I understand that hope isn’t the desire for the Lord to meet my expectations, rather hope that I can detach myself from expectations."
I hope CJane doesn't mind that I quoted her, but I don't think I could have said anything about hope that sounded that amazing.
This is a great blog for my experiences lately. I recently had someone who is not of our faith confide in me. They shared their worries about a friend who was dying of cancer. This friend had not led a very uplifting life. He had made choices that aren't consistent with the teachings of Christ. They wanted me to tell them that he wasn't going to hell.
Of course, I can't tell a person where anyone is going to go. I didn't quite know what to say because I don't know a person's soul. And so the only thing that I could come up with to say to that person was that we didn't know the eternal destiny of that person, but that we can always have HOPE.
Thanks for the affirmation.
Thanks for that message. I really needed to hear it. Sometimes I forget to have hope
Beautiful post. I really like CJane's quote as well. I guess it's all about getting that eternal perspective on life. I'm struggling with that so this was great for me.
Very uplifting post about something we all need to refocus on often.
I remember a RS lesson (maybe a SS lesson) years ago about the importance of hope. I need this reminder. Thanks, Julie.
Listening to conference right now.
Dieter F Uchtdorf: "God loves all his children, and he will never cease to love and to hope for us."
-From "Point of Safe Return" (And he talks about hope before that in the talk, too.)
I just read "Can't Wait To Get To Heaven" by Fannie Flagg. It was really good; inspirational AND funny. At one point, God tells the main character that life is a gift and the purpose of life is to enjoy it. This combined with my revelation about hope have made my week, probably even my month. I totally recommend this book; it's a really easy read and worth every second.
I do enjoy funny LDS books. I just bought one called "Heaven Bound, Speed Bumps on the Way to Perfection." Sounds funny and hopeful.
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