To Face A Dragon

I do not think there could have been a more timely set of reading assignments for this week. The general theme for this week was working through difficult circumstances and not getting discouraged.

I have had cause to wonder for a long while--but particularity this week--how in the world I am going to make it in life. The immediate future seems to only spell a long time of adjusting to and figuring out life after college.

But the words of Elder Jeffery R. Holland (an Apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), as well as a quote from our current assigned reading book, help me to feel a little less apprehensive about the future.

Elder Holland, in recounting a personal experience that illustrated how difficult (sometimes absurdly so) life can be, imagines what he would say to the younger version of himself: "'Don’t give up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.'" ("Good Things to Come")

Another quote with a similar message is found in the reading assignment we had this week. A couple of times, the victims of the Holocaust of World War II are mentioned. One victim was said to have scribbled on his wall these words: "'I believe in the sun even when it is not shining, I believe in love even when I do not feel it, I believe in God even when He is silent."  To me, this is a perfect example of faith at it's best. We can be assured that as long as we are doing our best to follow God and the example of His Son, we may be guided and strengthened, even in the "tunnels of misfortune" in our life that seem to go on forever. The bad times will end. We will be able to handle whatever comes our way, if we only put our trust in the Lord.