Reason to Hope

 Dear readers 

For those amongst my reading audience who are not yet married, I want to tell you my favourite quality about my husband. 

                                                        Your Best Quality, Someone Already Has 

He is really patient.

And for those who are happily, (or maybe unhappily--eek!) married, I ask you to consider what you believe is your spouse's best quality, but not just his/her best quality, the characteristic in their being that complements you the most and brings the best out of you. For me, it is my husband's loving patience as we both deal with my emotional turmoils day in and day out. What's yours?

And now for those who aren't married, and I don't care whether you are young and actively looking for your "soul mate" or older and prayerfully know that you haven't met them yet, this is also what I want you to consider. What is the best characteristic that you need in your eternal spouse? It may not even be something that you know you need, but I invite you to pray and ask Heavenly Father to know what you need so that it can help you in your search. 

But here is what I want all of us to consider:

Whatever best quality your future spouse will have, someone very close to you already has it. And you can take full advantage of that, if you know who I am talking about.

I am referring to Heavenly Father. 

When my husband gave me a priesthood blessing recently, there was a specific question that I had in my mind that I needed an answer to. And it was answered.

And upon re-reading my journal entries from earlier this year, I realised that it was not the first time that I have asked this question to Heavenly Father, and that was actually the second time that he patiently answered the same question.

Because amongst the midst of my current depression and anxiety, I had forgotten that I already received revelation on this topic. 

And yet Heavenly Father was really patient with me, and He reminded me that he supports my goals, that my goals are His goals, and that He will help me achieve them according to my faith.

A Learning Experience At Work

It makes me wonder what our attitude should be like when we are experiencing hardship and pain. 

At the hospital recently, there was a client literally in tears when I came to escort her to the radiology department for a CT scan. She said, "Please pray for me. Oh God, I've been good my whole life, haven't I? I've tried to be good my whole life. Please, please, please, God." 

I think that as a community, we are too quick to put blame somewhere! We blame others, we blame the government, we blame CHINA, we blame God, whenever anything becomes out of our control.

I have to admit that this nice lady was kind of annoying because she would not stop complaining. But, her brownie point is that she was very persistent in praying to God, even if she was petitioning her will on His. Anyway, me being me, took the opportunity to say a quick prayer for her.

To my surprise, on the way back from her procedure, she asked me, "Do you think that I'm going on and on about nothing? Do you think that I have reason to be scared?" 

I answered her politely, "I think that being in hospital you should be a little worried. But I also think that you can be stronger. I know that you can be stronger." 

And she thought about that quietly. I continued, "I think you have reason to hope." 

And as I was speaking and trying to comfort this lady, I realised that I was also giving advice to myself. 

God Gave Me Reason to Hope

At the end of the day, my Heavenly Father has always given me reason to hope. I am soooo lucky to have survived my first pregnancy. I was told that the doctors had saved my life. But I am also lucky to be born in a country, in a city, with access to emergency doctors with emergency resources, and I'm completely blessed that a doctor was around who knew exactly what to do and how to do it well and worked in the hospital that I was rushed to.

In my life, I have been tempted time and time again to just feel sorry for myself. And I have fallen down that path. I have fallen into pits of despair feeling sorry for myself. I was like that lady in the hospital, "God, please, please, please take this cup away from me. Please, please, please anything but this, can't you see that I can't handle this anymore?" 

One time I gave God an ultimatum, which you should never, ever do. I was on the lowest point of my mental health, and I know now that I had been living on high stress for way too long, plus other factors. I got out of bed, and started to make my way to the kitchen. I was thinking about where the sharpest knife was. But two steps before the kitchen in our little apartment was the piano and the piano stool. I sat there and I cried to God saying, "Please God, if there were or are any angels in the world, you'd better send them now."

And then the angels came. 

And AFTER this problem was seemingly resolved, we lost our first baby. But I knew that from previous experience that God's hand was in my life. And even when I lost the second baby, I still knew that it would be okay. (Just sometimes, I forgot.) And even when I lost the third pregnancy, I still knew that God lived. Because I lived. He had saved my life on this earth, as temporary as it may be to Him, He had saved my life twice.

Now, I know that He lives through the little things. Procuring a secure job in a flexible workplace gives me reason to hope. Still being able to conceive (even if I can't seem to keep them at the moment, too) gives me reason to hope. Being accepted into a tricky course at university, gives me reason to hope. The fact that I am still worthy enough to hold a calling in The Church gives me reason to hope. Lawrence's deep well of never-ending patience and love for me also gives me reason to hope.

What gives you reason to hope?

I have hopes of being a mother one day, of being a doctor one day, of being with Lawrence for all of time and eternity. I have hopes of being a good influence on my family, my extended family, the young people around me. I have hopes in doing the Lord's will, and in creating peace and harmony wherever I reside. 

What are your hopes?

God is absolutely perfect. It is so hard to trust sometimes, but He does know better than the smartest of us. And He IS in control of our lives, I testify that with all my heart, soul and being. But life will NOT go the way we want it to, I can almost testify that is just as true, haha. 

What to do/ What not to do

All we need to do ... is written in the scriptures:

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.

Does having a perfect brightness of hope sound like that lady in the hospital that I escorted?

Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. (2 Nephi 31: 20). 

Hope is, after all, trust in God's promises and that if we act in faith we will be blessed in the future.

And what we definitely should not do ... is also written in the scriptures:

And notwithstanding the signs and the wonders which were wrought among the people of the Lord, and the many miracles which they did, Satan did get great hold upon the hearts of the people upon all the face of the land. (Helaman 16:23).

And the scriptures also say, "[They] began to depend upon their own strength and upon their own wisdom," (Helaman 16:15).

These type of people said, "For we cannot witness with our own eyes that they are true." (Helaman 16:20).

What do you think happened to these people when Jesus came and all the signs came to pass? They were shocked to witness that God keeps His promises (in this case, prophecies as foretold in ancient scripture).

Dear readers, please find it in you today to find the reason to hope, as I have. Don't take my word for it, pray, fast and do everything in your power to allow God to tell you that He will keep His promises. 

Tell me readers, what gives you reason to hope? I want to hear from you. 

Written with love,

Eliza Mckellar.