Good morning brothers and sisters. I'm
grateful to be with you today and to share some thoughts from my
heart. My patriarchal blessing tells me I have been given the gift
of faith. I know this to be true. My mother tells me that when I
was a little girl, before I started school, that I would ask her to
take me to church. I can't remember a time that I did not believe in
Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ. The gift of faith is a
gift I cherish, but that doesn't mean my faith hasn't been sorely
tested and tried. There have been a couple times in my life when my
doubts and uncertainties were so strong, that I seriously considered
walking away from the Church. Today I'd like to share some ideas on
how we can deal with our doubts and uncertainties.
First, I'd like us to remember that the
veil has been placed over our eyes. I remember a testimony shared in
this ward years back. The brother said he didn't know that this
church was true, but he had faith that it was. I have often pondered
on that. I can't say that I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus
Christ live, because in mortality, I have not seen Heavenly Father, I
have not spoken with Jesus Christ, I have not been embraced by them.
However, I believe the testimonies of those who say that they have
seen God the Father, they have spoken with Jesus Christ, they have
felt the wounds in our Savior's hands and knelt at His feet. And so
I walk by faith believing that there is a God in Heaven that knows us
and loves us. I have faith that Jesus Christ lives and is the Savior
of the world who atoned for each and every one of us. I have faith
that He knows me personally and loves me and can help me become the
woman He knows I can be.
In my circle of loved ones, I know some
people who have never experienced doubts or uncertainties, and I
think they are very blessed. I have other dear family members and
close friends whose doubts and uncertainties caused them to walk away
from the gospel of Jesus Christ, taking a piece of my heart with
them. I also know many people who do struggle with doubts and
uncertainties about some of our church's doctrine or things that
happened in our church's history. They may have doubts feeling the
spirit, doubts that God really loves us when there is so much
suffering in this world, or doubts that they are good enough to ever
receive Celestial glory. Yet, they still do their best to come to
church each week, keep the commandments, and live the gospel as best
as they can. To those of you with doubts and uncertainties I say,
you are not alone and you are in good company.
Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun from
Macedonia who lived most of her life in Calcutta, India loving,
serving, and blessing the lives of those who were unwanted by society
and deemed untouchable. I've recently heard of a book entitled,
“Come Be My Light” that is a compilation of letters she wrote
over the span of 66 years that entail the sadness, loneliness,
emptiness, and darkness that she felt as she tried so hard to feel
God's spirit with her, but didn't. This makes me love her even more!
She struggled to feel God's love for her, yet that didn't stop her
from loving and serving others. She was a remarkable woman who also
said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small
things with great love.” So I'd like to say that loving others is
a great way to help us deal with doubts and uncertainties.
I'm so grateful to have a prophet on
the earth. Last year, when President Nelson spoke to us in Montreal
about the 10 most important things he knows to be true, one of them
really jumped out at me. He told us that, “Satan is allowed to
flourish.” This touched my heart that is often overcome with worry
and downright fear. I know many of my doubts come from fear. He
asked, “Why would God allow this- allow Satan to tempt us, to
torment us, to make us miserable?” He then answered, “God honors
the principle of agency. He wants us to choose to follow him.
Everyday we have to choose. Will we follow the Lord's way to eternal
life or Satan's way to death and decay?” This reminds me of the
scripture in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be
not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will
help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness.” We can deal with doubts and uncertainties by
choosing to follow the Lord's way.
I'm also grateful for President
Nelson's recent Conference talk, “We Can Do Better and Be Better.”
He shares how repentance blesses us and how I believe it can help us
with our doubts and uncertainties. He taught, “Nothing is more
liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual
progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance. Repentance
is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and
peace of mind. When coupled with faith, repentance opens our access
to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” He also taught,
“When we choose to repent, we choose to change! We allow the Savior
to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow
spiritually and receive joy—the joy
of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become
more like Jesus Christ!”
Praying and receiving answers to our
prayers is another way to deal with doubts and uncertainties.
However, sometimes this can be the cause of our doubts or
uncertainties. I know sometimes I wonder if the ideas I have are
inspiration from the Spirit, temptation from the adversary, or just
my own hopes or fears. This past year I've been keeping a gratitude
journal and I've written down some of my favorite scriptures about
prayer that I'd like to share with you now.
The first is Proverbs 3:5-6, which
reads, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto
thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths.”
The next in Matthew 21:22 says, “And
all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall
receive.”
A similar scripture is Mark 11:24 that says,
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Another similar one in John 14:13-14
tells us, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any
thing in my name, I will do it.”
Christ says again in John 15:7-8, “If
ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that
ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”
I love watching General Conference and
studying the talks afterwards. There are two more addresses from
last April I'd like to share from: “Answers to Prayer” by Elder
Brook P. Hales and “Hearing His Voice” by Elder David P. Homer.
Elder Hales said, “The Father is
aware of us, knows our needs, and will help us perfectly. Sometimes
that help is given in the very moment or at least soon after we ask
for divine help. Sometimes our most earnest and worthy desires are
not answered in the way we hope, but we find that God has greater
blessings in store. And sometimes our righteous desires are not
granted in this life.”
Elder Hales shared three stories and
one was about Pat, a woman who became completely blind at age 11.
When Pat's nephew asked her to pray for new eyes, she responded,
“Well, sometimes Heavenly Father doesn’t work like that.
Sometimes He needs you to learn something, and so He doesn’t give
you everything you want. Sometimes you have to wait. Heavenly Father
and the Savior know best what is good for us and what we need. So
They aren’t going to grant you everything you want in the moment
you want it.”
Elder Homer's talk focused on hearing
Heavenly Father's voice in a world with so many competing voices. He
taught, “He makes it possible for us to hear His voice...through
impressions given by the Holy Ghost...The Spirit speaks to different
people in different ways, and He may speak to the same person in
different ways at different times. As a result, learning the many
ways He speaks to us is a lifelong quest. Sometimes, He speaks to our
“mind and in [our] heart” in a voice that is small yet powerful,
piercing “them that … hear to the center.” Other times His
impressions “occupy [our] mind[s]” or “press … upon [our]
feelings.” Other times our bosom will “burn within [us].” Still
other times He fills our souls with joy, enlightens our minds, or
speaks peace to our troubled hearts...We will find our Father’s
voice in many places. We will find it when we pray, study the
scriptures, attend church, engage in faithful discussions, or go to
the temple...we will find it in (General) conference...”
After sharing the many ways we can hear
Heavenly Father's voice, Elder Homer then shared that sometimes answers are
slow to come, He said, “This can be because it is not the right
time, because an answer is not needed, or because God trusts us to
make the decision ourselves.” He quoted Elder Richard G. Scott
“that we should be grateful for such times and made this promise:
'When you are living worthily and your choice is consistent with the
Savior’s teachings and you need to act, proceed with trust. … God
will not let you proceed too far without a warning impression if you
have made the wrong decision.' ”
We can deal with our doubts and
uncertainties by praying about them and listening to hear Heavenly
Father's voice.
Another way to deal with our doubts and
uncertainties is to keep the commandments joyfully and to have
gratitude for our many blessings. Please listen to the power and
promises in these scriptures:
Mosiah 2:41 says, “And moreover, I
would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state
of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are
blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold
out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby
they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O
remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath
spoken it.”
Doctrine and Covenants 123:17,
“Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all
things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the
utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be
revealed.”
2 Nephi 31:20, “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. 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.”
I'd like to share one last scripture
from John 6:66-69, “From that time many of his disciples went back,
and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will
ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall
we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are
sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Ultimately, we can deal with our doubts and uncertainties by focusing
entirely on Jesus Christ and by choosing to walk with Him.
I say these things in the sacred name
of Jesus Christ, amen.
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