Trials are an inevitable part of life. During his BYU-Idaho devotional address, Applied Plant Science Faculty Member Blake Willis, addressed students about how attitude and mindset can alter the way we respond to life’s challenges.
“Obstacles will arise in some form in all of our lives. How we prepare for it, how we meet it, makes all the difference. We can be broken by obstacles, or we can become stronger. The final result relies heavily on your attitude … are you prepared to triumph?” he asked in his devotional talk "Attitude Over Obstacles."
His address is full of examples of people like Joseph Smith who chose to triumph despite blatant opposition in completing necessary work like translating the Book of Mormon. He also addressed the fact that sometimes we are tempted to blame outside sources for unsuccess in difficult circumstances while doing little to change those circumstances ourselves. In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, Brother Willis gave some advice on how to counteract this slippery slope mentality.
“I think if we keep the perspective that we’re children of God and that the ultimate goal isn’t what happens in this life … but it’s how we live our lives and hopefully return back to our Heavenly Father’s presence where those differences can be done away with and we can all get our just reward for our behavior here on earth,” Brother Willis said.
Remembering that we are all children of God will not only help us to attribute success or unsuccess in a more direct way, but it will also remind us that God expects us to love our neighbor. As we strive to do what’s right and become worthy inheritors of the Lord’s kingdom, Brother Willis emphasized how we don’t have to traverse through life’s challenges alone.
“We don’t need to meet these challenges by ourselves,” Brother Willis said. “There are other people, associates, friends, roommates, family. There’s the Savior. There’s the Holy Ghost … All pf those things are there to help us through these, and that would be my advice. Whatever it is, whatever the challenge is, it will end at some point, and you will make it through. Other people have done these things. You can do these things too.”