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| ©Darrell Wyatt |
I've often wondered how people who don't have a belief in a higher power can make it through even the smallest trials. I don't know that I could even wake up each morning and go through the days without feeling that I was part of some larger purpose - some sort of eternal plan.
I have faced some trials that, to me at the time, seemed insurmountable. Looking back on them, although they were hard and they're still hard to think about, they weren't nearly as bad as they felt while I was experiencing them. I can truly say that my faith in the Lord and the strength that he gave me is what pushed me through. Just like a tugboat (I still don't understand the name, since it's pushing, not tugging), the strength that I get from my faith in God is what pushes me out of bed each day. It is how I know I can make it through almost anything.
Because I live in Utah, the trial of Brian David Mitchell (Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper), has monopolized all of our local news. The harrowing details of her experience are relayed almost hourly on radio and television news, and updates are regularly posted on the internet news sites. She went through unimaginable ordeals every day for nine months. Through all of it, she never turned away from her faith. Just last year, when speaking at a conference titled "Overcoming the Unimaginable", Elizabeth made this statement: "I know that we do have angels on the other side that we don’t see. We’re never truly left alone in our darkest hour." If anyone were permitted to feel alone or abandoned in their time of need, it would be Elizabeth Smart. Yet she did not then and does not now. In fact, she's serving a mission in France, hoping to share her life-saving faith with everyone she meets. What an incredible young woman and a testimony to the strength that faith in God can give us. Her story brings to mind this scripture:
Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. (Joshua 1:9)
I read today about more war between the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Nephites lost half of all their lands and possessions to the Lamanite armies. We're told that the Nephites had become prideful and wealthy and pretty wicked, which became their downfall.
And because of this their great wickedness, and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper, but were afflicted and smitten, and driven before the Lamanites, until they had lost possession of almost all their lands. (Helaman 4:13)
And they saw that they had become weak...and the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them; yea, it had withdrawn from them because the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples. (Helaman 4:24)
There are a lot of reasons to follow the commandments and to remember the Lord in all things - eternal life, happiness, prosperity, better relationships, and the list goes on. These verses, however, reminded me why I personally choose to be as righteous as I can. I don't want to ever be left in my own strength. I want to live in such a way that those angels that Elizabeth Smart spoke of will be able to watch over me. I want that spirit of the Lord with me at all times and in all places. Without Him, I am nothing. I am weak. I can't think of anything more frightening than that.
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