If there’s anything Americans agree on these days, a new poll confirms that they are pessimistic about the future. In a world beset by escalating violence, hostility and despair, it can be hard for many to see any serious reason for hope.
But hope permeated this weekend’s general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the first presided over by President Dallin H. Oaks, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Speaking during the closing moments of conference, President Oaks tenderly described learning about his father’s death as a 7-year-old boy, prompting him to run into his bedroom “crying my heart out.”
But comfort came from a grandpa who followed him and fell to his knees beside the grieving boy, saying, “I will be your father.”
“We are a family church,” President Oaks said, with hopes for future healing blessings applying to “every Latter-day Saint family, complete or currently incomplete.”
Hope amid heartache
Particularly in this time of mounting instability and despair, it was striking to observe the smiles and bright countenances of general leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These messages stood out for a countercultural degree of peace and joy amid today’s abundant scowls and general societal malaise.
Most of us will eventually face times “when we feel stretched beyond what we thought we could bear,” taught Elder Henry B. Eyring, also of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. But these “moments are not evidence that the Lord has abandoned you.” Rather, they are “evidence that he loves you enough to refine and strengthen you.”
Elder Ulisses Soares, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, described meeting with members of the church in Mexico City, many of whom faced “indescribable trials, including kidnappings, homicides and other heartbreaking tragedies.”
“As we looked into the faces of those Saints,” he recounted, “we did not see anger, resentment or a desire for revenge. Instead, we saw a quiet humility.”
Although these countenances were “marked by sorrow,” he described witnessing their faith and hope in the comfort God provided.
Hope in new beginnings
Relevant to the sense of stuck-ness permeating so many issues on so many levels today, Elder Patrick Kearon taught, “new beginnings are at the heart of the Father’s plan. Fresh starts are the mission of the Son.”
Elder Kearon told a global audience that “you don’t have to be who you’ve been before.”
He quoted a young woman who said, “I am not afraid to come to Heavenly Father in prayer and ask for his help with whatever I’m struggling with. I know they’re not trying to catch me doing something wrong. Their arms are open wide.”
Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke to families seeking healing from serious betrayals, including those harmed by someone else’s choices.
“When will your pain be gone, your grief subdued, the unwanted memories forgotten? I do not know. But this I do know: (God) has the power to bring beauty from the ashes of your suffering. As you continue to place your trust in Him, the clouds of darkness and your anguished sobbing in the night will be transformed into cascading tears of joy and peace in the morning’s light” said Elder Andersen.
“That moment will come. I testify that it will come.”
A hopeful view of who we are
“Oh, how I wish I could embrace you and help you understand this great truth,” Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared. “You are a blessed being of light; the spirit child of an infinite God! And you bear within you a potential beyond your capacity to imagine.”
Citing William Wordsworth’s line that we come here “trailing clouds of glory,” he added, “You left heaven to come here, but heaven has never left you! You are anything but ordinary.”
Elder Gary E. Stevenson also added, “In our congregations and our communities, may we choose to see one another as children of God.”
Hopeful and profound meaning in family relationships
Elder Ronald A. Rasband said that everyone belongs to a family — whether “you are a mother, father, daughter, son, grandchild, grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, or cousin.” “Most importantly,” he emphasized “each of us are ‘a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents . . . (with) a divine nature and destiny,’” citing The Family: A Proclamation to the World on its 30th anniversary.
In a message entitled, “The Family-Centered Gospel of Jesus Christ,” President Oaks reiterated that the gospel plan “was first taught to us in the council of an eternal family, it is implemented through our mortal families, and its intended destiny is to exalt the children of God in eternal families.”
While gently acknowledging the many ways families today vary from an eternal ideal, including the one in which he was raised, President Oaks reassured “Heavenly Father’s plan assures this possibility for everyone.”
Hope for reconciling and healing
While “oftentimes, the world exalts behaviors born of aggressiveness, arrogance, impatience and excessiveness,” Elder Soares taught that for those who cultivate the moderating virtue of temperance, “a serene strength arises in them, and they become better capable of restraining anger, nurturing patience, and treating others with tolerance, respect, and dignity.”
With societal hostility also showing up in many homes today, Elder Stevenson proposed a “peacemaker plan” starting with a “contention-free home zone” reflecting an agreement that “when contention starts, pause and reboot, with kind words and deeds.”
Beyond the home, the apostle added, “before posting, replying, or commenting online, ask: Will this build a bridge? If not, stop. Do not send. Instead, share goodness.”
Lastly, Elder Stevenson encouraged each of us to “seek out a strained relationship in order to apologize, minister, repair and reunite.”
Elder Soares likewise described how Christ taught that “all who desire to come unto Him with full purpose of heart must reconcile with those with whom they are angry, or with those who have something against them.”
Hoping for ‘hearts knit together in unity and in love’
Elder Gerrit W. Gong described recent visits to congregations in Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Germany and Switzerland, as a subset of the 31,916 congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ in 195 birth countries and territories speaking 125 languages.
“When you come to church, if you see someone alone, will you please say hello and sit with him or her?” Elder Gong said, emphasizing that this includes people who feel “alone emotionally or spiritually.”
“A journey of gospel friendship and love begins with a first hello,” he suggested in fortune cookie language. Citing the scriptural encouragement to “knit our hearts together in love” the apostle invited members to “worry less, judge less (and) be less demanding of others.”
Elder Quentin L. Cook recounted large numbers of converts arriving in Utah from England and Wales in 1852, being met warmly by church leaders and even a band. The Deseret News described them as, “sunburnt, and weather-beaten, but not forlorn; their hearts were light and buoyant, which was plainly manifest by their happy and joyful countenances.”
Pointing out the nearly 900,000 people joining the church in the last 36 months was more than the entire church membership in 1940, the year he was born, Elder Cook spoke to “all new converts and those returning to the Lord’s church,” emphasizing “we love you; we need you; the Lord needs you.”
A deeper source of hope and happiness
“There seems to be no end to the different sources people look to for meaning, happiness, and help,” acknowledged Elder D. Todd Christofferson. But we need not be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine (or fashion).”
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland compared the stabilizing impact of the Book of Mormon in his life to Jesus opening the blind man’s eyes in the New Testament, saying: “It has been, for me, a rod of safety for my soul, a transcendent and penetrating light of revelation, an illumination on the path when mists of darkness come as surely they have and as surely they will.”
Elder Christofferson described someone he knew who had become “comfortable in a lifestyle outside the church,” until “he began to feel ever more keenly the absence of the Holy Spirit — God’s presence — in his life. By experience, he knew what it was like to have, day by day, the comfort, guidance, and confidence borne of the Spirit, and he missed it.”
“Look unto me,” he noted scripture states, “for I am God, and there is none else.” That means God is “not just one of our priorities,” the apostle said. “It means rather that He is our one highest priority,” citing a Young Women leader who survived a tragic bus crash earlier this year, who said: “I used to think that I love God, but now I really, really, really, really love Him. Now He is the number one priority in my life.”
Step by step, day by day
Even among those who want to be peacemakers, Elder Stevenson acknowledged that many honestly wonder how to do so “when the world is in commotion, my heart is filled with fear, and peace seems so far away?”
Elder Uchtdorf acknowledged God’s “expectations for us are high” since he “knows who we truly are (and) who we are designed to become.” But he reassured, “He doesn’t expect us to take some grand, heroic, or superhuman leap to get there. In the world He created, growth happens gradually and patiently — but also consistently and unrelentingly.”
“It is Jesus Christ who already did the superhuman part,” the apostle added, which means “there is no such thing as a no-win scenario. If we place our hope and faith in Him, our victory is assured. … Step by step, little by little, we will grow ever closer to that great and perfect day when we will live with Him and our loved ones in eternal glory.”
The choice is yours
This kind of hope differs from what people associate with Christianity today. For instance, Elder David A. Bednar noted that many anticipate judgment day proceeding like a “worldly court of law. A judge will preside. Evidence will be presented. A verdict will be rendered. And we likely will be uncertain and fearful until we learn the eventual outcome.”
“But I believe such a characterization is inaccurate,” he said, emphasizing prophetic teachings about how our choices lead each of us to become different kinds of human beings. “In the Lord’s presence, we will acknowledge what we have chosen to become in mortality and know for ourselves where we should be in eternity.”
The apostle’s teaching refocused the question on: What kind of human being do we want to become? “We have not been blessed with moral agency to do whatever we want whenever we will,” Elder Bednar underscored, pointing out that we are “commanded to use our agency to love one another and choose God.”
For those who make that fateful choice, he emphasized how Book of Mormon prophets describe judgment for the faithful as a “glorious day” and one that we should “look forward (to) with an eye of faith.”
Hopeful for our own mighty change
Elder Stevenson cited an earlier apostle, John A. Widtsoe, as teaching during World War II, “The only way to build a peaceful community is to build men and women who are lovers and makers of peace. Each individual, by that doctrine of Christ ... holds in his hands the peace of the whole world.”
“Take upon yourself the name of Jesus Christ,” encouraged Elder Dale G. Renlund. “Identify with Him. Always remember Him. Strive to be like Him. Join Him in His work. Receive His power and blessings in your life. Etch His name in your heart, willingly and intentionally.”
“Little by little,” Elder Kearon taught, “the more we invite His goodness into our hearts and cast out the self-defeating voices in our heads, we become His people because we truly make Him our God.”
“Receive your new beginning, even today, right now,” he concluded. “Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith, writing countless new chapters with us. He is the Beginning and the End, the end of our shame and suffering, and the beginning of new life in Him, letting us leave the past behind and begin again with a new dawn, as many times as we need.”
It’s within the family where these lessons are best learned, President Oaks affirmed. To those who say “we have no time for any of that,” he suggested that parents will discover that “they can turn their family on if they all turn their technologies off. And parents remember, what those children really want for dinner is time with you.”