In a paradoxical way, afflictions and sorrow prepare us to experience joy if we will trust in the Lord and His plan for us. This truth is beautifully expressed by a 13th-century poet: “Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.”
| Consistent and Resilient Trust
I invite you to commit to a lifelong process of discipleship. Make and keep covenants. Throw your old ways into deep, churning waterfalls. Completely bury your weapons of rebellion with no handles sticking out. Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, making covenants with a real intent to reliably honor them will bless your life forever.
| Unwavering Commitment to Jesus Christ
Satan, the father of lies and the great deceiver, would have us question things as they really are and either ignore eternal truths or replace them with something that appears more pleasing. “He maketh war with the saints of God”2 and has spent millennia calculating and practicing the ability to persuade God’s children to believe that good is evil and evil is good.
It’s not our successes but rather our sacrifice and efforts that matter to the Lord.
| True Disciples of the Savior
If we rely only on our rational mind and deny or neglect the spiritual understanding we can receive through the whisperings and impressions of the Holy Ghost, it is as if we were going through life with only one eye. But figuratively speaking, we have actually been given two eyes. Only the combination of both views can give us the true and complete picture of all truths and of everything we experience in our lives, as well as of the whole and profound understanding of our identity and purpose as children of a living Heavenly Father
| Seeking Knowledge by the Spirit
Where do we find true spiritual nourishment? Most often, it is not trending on social media…This means that we must deliberately take time each day to disconnect from the world and connect with heaven.
The adversary works relentlessly to attack the elements of the Father’s plan he hates the most…Because a physical body is so central to the Father’s plan of happiness and our spiritual development, Lucifer seeks to frustrate our progression by tempting us to use our bodies improperly. President Russell M. Nelson has taught that spiritual safety ultimately lies in “never taking the first enticing step toward going where you should not go and doing what you should not do.”
| Watchful unto Prayer Continually (Alma 34:39; Moroni 6:4; Luke 21:36)
It’s not our successes but rather our sacrifice and efforts that matter to the Lord.
| True Disciples of the Savior
A half-hearted commitment to our covenants will not guarantee us anything. We may be tempted to equivocate, throw our old ways in calm water, or bury our weapons of rebellion with the handles sticking out.
| Unwavering Commitment to Jesus Christ