How do we build a home environment that supports or family members to become “consistently and resiliently happy”?
“Have you ever wondered if you must go through this life in darkness?” Laura can relate to that question.
Our son Dan got very sick on his mission in Africa and was taken to a medical facility with limited resources. As we read his first letter to us after his illness, we expected that he would be discouraged, but instead he wrote, “Even as I lay in the emergency room, I felt peace. I have never been so consistently and resiliently happy in my life.”
As my wife and I read these words, we were overcome with emotion. Consistently and resiliently happy. We had never heard happiness described that way, but his words rang true. We knew that the happiness he described was not simply pleasure or an elevated mood but a peace and joy that come when we surrender ourselves to God and put our trust in Him in all things. We too had had those times in our lives when God spoke peace to our souls and caused us to have hope in Christ even when life was hard and uncertain.
How happy we are when life is hard and uncertain may be a good barometer of our spiritual strength.
The good news of the gospel is not the promise of a life free of sorrow and tribulation but a life full of purpose and meaning—a life where our sorrows and afflictions can be “swallowed up in the joy of Christ.” The Savior declared, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” His gospel is a message of hope. Sorrow coupled with hope in Jesus Christ holds the promise of enduring joy.
When someone is unhappy the first question we might want to ask is “what is the purpose or meaning of life for you?”
“O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness?”
Have you ever poured out your soul to God in such a way? When striving to live as the Lord commands and righteous expectations are not met, have you ever wondered if you must go through this life in darkness?
It is recorded that the Jaredites then “got aboard of their … barges, and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.” To commend means to entrust or to surrender. The Jaredites did not get into the barges because they knew exactly how things would work on their journey. They got aboard because they had learned to trust in the Lord’s power, goodness, and mercy, and they were therefore willing to surrender themselves and any doubts or fears they may have had to the Lord.
The record continues, “They were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.” We live in a world where the monster waves of death, physical and mental illness, and trials and afflictions of every kind break upon us. Yet, through faith in Jesus Christ and choosing to trust in Him, we too can have light continually, whether above the water or under the water. We can have the assurance that God never does cease to blow us toward our heavenly home.
I testify that as we commend ourselves unto the Lord and consistently and resiliently trust in Jesus Christ and His divine purposes in our lives, He will visit us with assurances, speak peace to our souls, and cause us to “hope for our deliverance in him.”
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