Sometimes I wonder if we can comprehend the power of faith. I had a friend request that I do this quote for her. It is hard to explain the feelings I had while I was working on it. The first one I put a beautiful sunrise as the graphic. But I couldn’t deny the deeper feelings I was experiencing. I couldn’t help but think about what happened in the Sacred Grove. Joseph Smith, a young 14 year old boy went there to pray, having faith enough to know that if he asked his Heavenly Father a question, he would get an answer. And he did get an answer! Because of his faith and because he acted on the answer he received to his heartfelt inquiry, the world has been filled with the incredible light of the gospel!
I thought about my own faith and what it means to me. I thought of the times in my life when I have had to rely totally on faith—my faith! That faith is built on my Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Light of the world. It is our faith in Him that will give us the strength to emerge triumphant in times when we feel our world shattering around us. We all will experience feelings like that at least once in our life, perhaps even many times, because, honestly, that is part of life. Those are the refining moments in our lives. Those are the times we get to choose what becomes of us—whether we put our trust in Heavenly Father to shape and mold us into the person He wants us to be or whether we become bitter, angry or feel sorry for ourselves. While I can’t say that I have loved my trials, I can say I love what my trials have helped me become. I cannot say I have loved watching those I love go through their trials, but I love how they have come through them better and stronger than ever!
So I guess what this experience left me with was a bit of soul-searching. These are the questions I am pondering. Do I have the kind of faith that young Joseph had? Do I really know that Heavenly Father will answer my sincere prayers? Do I have enough faith in Him to trust how He answers my prayers? Alma 58:11 says: “Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him.” How grateful I am for the peace that comes from Him alone, for my faith and for my hope in Him!