As I have contemplated what I should share with you today, a talk by Elder Bednar while he was still President of the University came to mind. He suggested that Brigham Young University–Idaho was or would become a Disciple Preparation Center. President Clark, at graduation in December, also spoke about being disciples and the responsibility that each of us has to spread the light and knowledge that we have gained here at this great University throughout the world. So what can I share with young women and young men who are on the path to discipleship? The most basic and fundamental principle for a disciple to understand is “Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” So I have decided to speak to you about first principle of the gospel.[1]
We all know the definition of faith found in Alma chapter 32:21 which states, “Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore, if ye have faith ye hope for thing which are not seen, which are true.” I have found myself in difficult situations and have thought how much easier it would be if I could only see through the veil. I have since come to the conclusion that if I could see, I would not have faith. Faith requires stepping out into the darkness and depending on our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ for guidance.
President Hinckley in his book Standing for Something tells of an experience he and his wife had many years ago as they flew across the Pacific from Honolulu, Hawaii to Los Angeles. In those days, they only had propeller-driven aircraft available. About halfway across the Pacific, one of the motors stopped. There was a decrease in speed, a lowering in altitude, and a certain amount of nervousness among all of the passengers on board. Much of the aircraft’s power was missing, and the hazards were increased accordingly. Without the power, they could not fly high, fast, or safely. What a welcome sight the Los Angeles airport was when they finally reached it.
President Hinckley went on to say:
It is so with our lives when we discount the need for faith and disregard knowledge of the Lord. Under those conditions, we are, as it were, flying on partial power. We simply cannot do as much alone as we can when we team our efforts with the Divine. Passive acceptance or acknowledgment of God is not enough. Vibrant testimony comes of anxious seeking.[2]
Elder Oaks has indicated just having faith is not enough; we must have faith centered upon Jesus Christ. He states “Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a conviction and trust that God knows us and loves us and will hear our prayers and answer them with what is best for us.”[3]
One of the greatest examples of simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can be found in the bible. There was a woman whose husband had died. Left alone to raise her son, she had tried to find ways of supporting herself, but she lived in a time of terrible famine. Food was scarce and many were perishing because of hunger. As available food diminished, so did the woman’s chance of surviving. Every day, she watched helplessly as her meager supply of food decreased. Hoping for relief, but finding none, the woman finally realized the day had come when she had only enough food for one last meal. It was then that a stranger approached and asked the unthinkable. “Bring me, I pray thee,” he said to her, “a morsel of bread.” The woman told the man that all she had left was a little bit of oil and little bit of meal, just enough for one last cake. She was about to prepare it as a last meal for herself and her son, “that we may eat it, and die.” She did not know that the man before her was the prophet, Elijah, sent to her by the Lord.
“Fear not,” he said to her, “but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.” Can you imagine what she must have thought? What she must have felt? But then came the prophetic promise, “For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”
The woman, after hearing this promise, went in faith and did as Elijah had directed. “And she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.”[4]
So how can we develop such faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Elder Hales has told us “faith is acquired through prayer with a sincere desire to draw close to God and trust in Him to bear our burdens and give us answers to life’s unexplained mysteries of the purpose of life.”[5] Elder Oaks gives us two other requirements. These include studying the scriptures and words of the prophets as well as having trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He states, “We must trust him enough that we are content to accept his will, knowing that he knows what is best for us.”[6]
I would like to suggest one more thing that has helped my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to grow and that is refining experiences that we are given in this life. Each time I have heard Sister Ann Pingree, who is the second counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency speak, I am touched by her unwavering faith. This past September she spoke in the General Relief Society meeting for the women of the Church. She talked about the refining process in her life. She was in her mid thirties and had four young children when she received her patriartical blessing. The blessing the patriarch gave emphasized missionary work over and over again. She felt overwhelmed with the thought of being a missionary. She had barely read the Book of Mormon once herself and felt inadequate to teach others about the gospel. When her patriarchal blessing came, she tucked it away carefully in a drawer. Over the years that followed, she and her husband focused on preparing their children to serve missions. After sending her sons to many lands on missions, she believed she had completed her missionary duty.
Then her husband was called to be the Mission President in Nigeria. With this calling came many questions and concerns for her. She was worried about going over 10,000 miles away from home, leaving both her married and unmarried children and her aging father and mother-in-law behind. What would they eat while they were there? Would they be safe in a country that was politically unstable and dangerous? She felt inadequate on every level. It is interesting to note what she did to increase her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
Her prayers became constant and fervent. She redoubled her efforts to attend the temple. She searched the scriptures, fasted and prayed, and all the while tried to live faithful to the covenants that she had made. The next thing she had to do was to step out into the darkness. In order to do this, she realized that she needed to rely completely on the Lord and seek for personal revelation. And finally, she had to submit her will to the Lord’s in order to receive His help, His guidance, and His protection.[7]
As I listened to her speak, I was reminded of an earlier talk that she had given. She and her husband, while serving in Nigeria, had traveled to a remote location in their mission so he could conduct temple recommend interviews with the members in that area. Some of these members had been in the Church for less than two years. All of the members lived 3,000 miles away from the nearest temple in Johannesburg, South Africa. None had received their temple endowment.
The members all knew the appointed day that President and Sister Pingree would come, but no one knew the exact hour they would arrive. There was no way to call ahead since telephones were rare in that part of West Africa. So these committed Saints gathered early in the morning to wait all day, if necessary, for their temple recommend interviews. When the Pingree’s arrived, they noticed two Relief Society sisters waiting among the rest of the group.
After many hours, all of the temple recommend interviews were completed. The Pingree’s began the drive back along the sandy jungle trail and were stunned when they saw these two sisters still walking. They realized they had trekked from their village, a distance of 18 miles round trip, just to obtain a temple recommend they knew they would never have the privilege of using.
These Nigerian Sisters believed the counsel of President Howard W. Hunter who said, “It would please the Lord for every adult member to be worthy of and to carry a current temple recommend, even if proximity to a temple does not allow immediate or frequent use of it.”[8] Sister Pingree concluded, “In her hand, carefully wrapped in a clean handkerchief, each sister carried her precious temple recommend. I carry their examples of faith carefully wrapped in my heart.”[9] These sisters truly exhibited faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely this experience and many others like it strengthened Sister Pingree’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we experience difficulties, trials, and challenges in this life, we must realize we are not alone. Our loving Heavenly Father remains very near to help us and strengthen us as we move forward in faith. In Section 24:8 of the Doctrine and Covenants we read: “Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days.” I cannot think of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ without being reminded of my own pioneer ancestors who exhibited faith in every footstep. I have ancestors that came in both the Martin and Willie handcart companies. Many years after these companies came into the Salt Lake Valley, there was a Sunday School class that brought up sharp criticism about the decision of the Martin handcart Company to start for the Salt Lake Valley so late in the year.
An elderly man arose and said:
I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts 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, too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but we became acquainted with God in our extremities.
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 that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it. 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, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.[10]
As I have read this account many times over the years I have been struck by two things. First of all, it was through the fires of affliction that these great pioneers came to know God. By the time they reached the Salt Lake Valley, their testimonies and devotion to our Heavenly Father were strengthened and their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ increased. They had learned what it means to step out into the darkness and to be completely submissive to God’s will.
The second thing that has brought much comfort to me is the fact that they received strength and help from angels that were unseen. I have sensed many times a loving Heavenly Father very near as I have gone through difficulties, trials, and challenges. Although the difficulties I have been through in my life cannot begin to compare with those of my pioneer ancestors, and my handcart is very different than the ones they pulled, I too have received strength and help from angels unseen as I have been pushed along from behind.
Elder Oaks spoke of trust as being one of the important things to help us develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He stated, “Conviction that the Lord knows more than we do and that he will answer our prayers in the way that is best for us and for all of his other children is a vital ingredient.”[11]
Elder John H. Groberg taught this in an experience he had while on his mission to Tonga. He said they would always pray for protection, success, and good seas and wind that would take them to their destination. Once he asked the Lord to bless them with a good tail wind so they could get to their destination more quickly. An older man in the group told Elder Groberg that he need to modify his prayer since by praying for a tail wind, he was actually praying against the people who would be trying to come from the other direction. The older gentleman suggested that he should just pray for a good wind, not a tail wind.
Elder Groberg went on to conclude,
Sometimes we pray for things that will benefit us, but may hurt others. We may pray for a particular type of weather, or to preserve someone’s life, when that answer to our prayer may hurt someone else. That’s why we must always pray in faith, because we can’t have true, God-given faith in something that is not according to His will.
Elder Oaks taught “faith, no matter how strong it is, cannot produce a result contrary to the will of Him whose power it is. That is why we cannot have true faith in the Lord without also having complete trust in the Lord’s will and in the Lord’s timing.”[12] We must move forward then believing what Howard W. Hunter once said, “God knows what we do not know and he sees what we do not see.”[13]
Elder Oaks tells a story of a young woman who exercised that kind of faith and trust. For many months, her mother had been seriously ill. Finally, the faithful father called the children to her bedside and told them to say good-bye to their mother because she was dying. The twelve-year-old daughter protested: “Papa, I do not want my mamma to die. I have been with her in the hospital for six months; time and time again you have administered to her, and she has been relieved of her pain and quietly gone to sleep. I want you to lay hands upon my mamma and heal her.”
The father, who was Elder Heber J. Grant, told the children that he felt in his heart that their mother’s time had arrived. The children left, and he knelt by his wife’s beside. Later he recalled his prayer: “I told the Lord I acknowledged his hand in life and in death. But I told the Lord that I lacked the strength to have my wife die and to have it affect the faith of my little children” He pleaded with the Lord to give his daughter “a knowledge that it was His mind and His will that her mamma should die.”
Within an hour the mother died. When Elder Grant called the children back into her room and told them, his little six-year-old boy began to weep bitterly. The twelve-year-old sister took him in her arms and said: “Do not weep, Heber; since we went out of this room, the voice of the Lord from heaven has said to me, ‘In the death of your mamma, the will of the Lord shall be done.’”[14,15]
Our Savior himself set the example for unwavering trust in our Heavenly Father in the garden of Gethsemane. Joseph Smith’s translation of Luke 22:42 describes how he knelt down and prayed: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.”[16]
What are the blessings that we can expect in our lives as we develop true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer to this question may be somewhat up to each one of us. In Alma chapter 62:41 we are told that after a long war between the Nephites and the Lamanites “many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their affliction.”[17] Some of the blessings may be apparent in this life and some may not be until the life to come. President Faust has said, “We may not ever know why some things happen in this life. The reason for some of our suffering is known only to the Lord.”[18] As those valiant Nigerian sisters stepped out into the darkness and walked along that sandy jungle trail in West Africa, I am sure they could not have imagined that a prophet of God in the year 2000 would announce there would be a temple built in their own land.
President Checketts alluded to some of the blessings we can receive from having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in a Stake Conference that I attended several months ago when he talked about the refining and the resulting development of our testimonies. His talk reminded me of an analogy I had once heard about a group of women who were involved in a Bible study on the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a sliver smith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silver smith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest to burn away all of the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot-spot, then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silver smith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The answer was “yes, he not only had to sit there holding the sliver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.” The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silver smith, how do you know when the silver is fully refined? He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy, when I see my image in it.”
Orson F. Whitney once wrote:
No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God.[19]
Doctrine and Covenants 27 talks about taking upon us the whole armor of God so that “ye may be able to withstand the evil day.”[20] Verse 17 talks specifically about the importance of faith as it says, “Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”
President Spencer W. Kimball said that we need what he called “reservoirs of faith” to stand firm and strong against all the temptations and adversities of life.[21]
Elder Oaks tells us “Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ prepares us for whatever life brings. This kind of faith prepares us to deal with life’s opportunities – to take advantage of those that are received and to persist through the disappointments of those that are lost.”[22]
As we become refined by our Heavenly Father through the experiences that we have in this life, the scriptures are replete on the reward we can expect in the eternities to come.
In Doctrine and Covenants 58:4 we read: “For after much tribulation comes the blessing.
Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory.” So tribulation is useful in the sense that it is helpful to get us into the celestial kingdom. Brigham Young has also offered insight that at least some of our suffering has a purpose when he said:
All intelligent beings who are crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives must pass through every ordeal appointed for intelligent beings to pass through, to gain their glory and exaltation. Every calamity that can come upon mortal beings will be suffered to come upon the few, to prepare them to enjoy the presence of the Lord. Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation.[23]
I would like to share a thought given at a Stake Relief Society meeting that I attended several years ago that illustrates what we can become as we develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and learn to let His light shine through us.
As I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles. An angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life. But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares were. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all. I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air.
Finally, the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn’t had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness, and death, and false accusations that took from me my world as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again.
I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me. Now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.
I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. A gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes. Then I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating the image, the face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me with warmth and love in His eyes. He said “every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships and My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you.
I bear testimony to you today that I have come to know that if we study the scriptures, pray and trust in the Lord through times of trial and refining, our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will increase. It is through these refining experiences that I have come to know that each of us has a Heavenly Father who loves us. Not only does he know our name but he has a carefully laid out plan for each of us including refining experiences to help us to grow and to learn as he molds us into the people that he knows we have the potential to become. As we go through these refining experiences he remains very near to help us, to strengthen us, to encourage us and to give us the courage to continue on. I have sensed many times that when I am happy He rejoices with me and I know that I have never wept alone.
I know that I have an elder brother Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and Redeemer. Without his atoning sacrifice none of us would have any hope of every returning to live with our Heavenly Father again. Next to his atoning sacrifice I am grateful for the perfect example that he has set for me to follow. I will conclude with a personal experience that illustrates this concept.
A year and a half ago our beautiful two-year old daughter passed away. Through the long night before she died I sat at her bedside in the Intensive Care Unit at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City ,Utah. As I held her hand, I prayed silently, but constantly that Heavenly Father would spare her life and that she would be restored to health. Being a Registered Nurse, I watched anxiously for any sign of improvement in her condition. As the dawn came, signaling the beginning of a new day, so did the realization that not only was her condition not improving, but it was deteriorating. The doctors gave us no hope. I, at that point, had to contemplate what my life would be like without her. I could not imagine it. She was my baby and she liked me. I couldn’t comprehend living the rest of my mortal existence without her here with me. I began to silently plead with my Heavenly Father. I begged him not to make me go through it. I told him it was too hard and I couldn’t do it. Somewhere in the midst of my pleading, words came into my mind. They were the words of my Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane where he suffered beyond anything that I, as a mortal, can comprehend. He pleaded with our Heavenly Father to not make Him go through it. But then came His concluding words, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” With all of the courage, hope, trust, and faith I could muster, I silently concluded, not my will, but Thine be done.
Within an hour as my husband and I rocked her, still connected to life support, she was gently lifted from our arms and returned to our Heavenly Father. As we drove the 3 ½ hours to home in silence, there were many things that went through my mind. One that I shamefully admit thinking, “Heavenly Father, I sure hope you know what you are doing.” because taking her had left such a huge hole in our family and in our hearts.
When we walked into our family room that day, all ten of our children were there along with our two little grandchildren. Our returned missionary son was reading from the scriptures about where Kaylie, our little daughter had gone. Our then, three-year old son ran up and hugged my legs and then looked up at me and asked, “Mommy, how long are you going to be sad?” My response was immediate and without thought. I told him that I was going to be sad forever because at that moment, it truly seemed like I would be sad forever. But then I had to stop and think. Really, how long would I be sad? I would be sad until I was with Kaylie again and if I looked at it in eternal perspective, this life is but a moment. I would be sad, but a moment and than I would be with Kaylie again.
We then sat down and talked as a family about why we were sad that day. We decided we were sad because one of us was missing. We concluded that is how sad we would be in the next life if one of us was missing because we did not make right choices in this life, only then, it truly would be forever. We made a vow that day that we would try harder to live worthily to be with our Heavenly Father and Kaylie again. If you were to come into our home today, you would notice tucked in the corner of each of our temple pictures, a wallet size photo of Kaylie in her little white dress taken just three weeks before she died. A constant reminder of the commitment we made to each other to be together in the eternities.
It is my prayer for each of us today that we may be as the Nephites and Lamanites who were softened through their afflictions as our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is increased and we learn to let his light shine through us.
Notes
[1] 4th Article of Faith
[2] President Hinckley Standing for Something, pg. 110
[3] Ensign, May 1994, 98
[4] 1Kings 17:11-16
[5] Ensign, Nov. 2004, 70
[6] Ensign, May 1994, 98
[7] Ensign, Nov 2005
[8] Feb, 1995, 5
[9] Ensign, Nov. 2003, 13
[10] Liahona Feb. 1997, 15
[11] Ensign, May 1994, 98
[12] Ensign, May 1994, 98
[13] Ensign, Nov 1987, 60
[14] Bryant S. Hinckley, Heber J. Grant: Highlights in the Life of a Great Leader, Salt Lake City: Desert Book Co., 1951, pp. 243-244
[15] Ensign, May 1994, 98
[16] JST, Luke 22:42
[17] Alma 62:41
[18] Ensign, Nov 2004
[19] As quoted in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, 1972, 98
[20] Doctrine and Covenants 27:15
[21] Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, Salt Lake City; Desert Book Co., 1972, pp. 110-11
[22] Ensign, May, 1994, 98
[23] Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe 1954, 345