Faith

Photo I took of the Provo Temple 15 Oct 2009

This last Sunday Cody and I were asked to give talks at a nursing home that is in our stake.  Unlike most talk requests that are extended, we weren't given a topic.  At first I thought that was a little unfair because I felt like I had too much on my plate and now I needed to think up a topic for a five minute talk I'd be giving to people I didn't know the next day.

After considering my life and what message I would like to hear, and then thinking about what is a topic that would be helpful for older people who have surrendered most of their independence to the inevitability of growing old--I decided to speak on faith.

I chose this quote from Elder D. Todd Christofferson from this month's visiting teaching message:

"Faith in Jesus Christ is the conviction and assurance of (1) His status as the Only Begotten Son of God, (s) His infinite Atonement, and (3) His literal Resurrection."

My next favorite source of information is the LDS Bible Dictionary. Under faith, I chose this snippet:

"The Lord has revealed Himself and His perfect character, possessing in their fulness all the attributes of love, knowledge, justice, mercy, unchangeableness, power, and every other needful thing, so as to enable the mind of man to place confidence in Him without reservation."

The bulk of my talk was used to tell the story of my great-great grandmother Betsy Scholes Morris and her faith.  Then I closed by sharing my favorite scripture, 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."

The past few days as I've been thinking about that talk and Cody's talk which followed (it was basically on having faith in trials--a shortened version of his lesson the previous week in young men's), I've considered that opportunity a blessing far greater than I could have even imagined on Sunday.

There are many things that we can have faith in--people, events, promises. However, because we are mortal and make mistakes or the events and promises we make are all traced to a human, then those people, events, and promises can fail. However, because of what Christ did for us and does for us every single day, we can have perfect faith in Him.  We can trust Him to fulfill His promises and to carry us through tough times because He has been through it.

I think there is more to faith than I get and understand. Perhaps as I go through each part of my life I will learn another little aspect of faith that will one day make my understanding more complete. For now, I guess my faith in Jesus Christ is enough to know that trials will pass, mortality is allowed to happen but He is there waiting to help us, and that there are blessings being poured on us in the midst of difficulties and that are being kept in store for us for when we walk out of the darkness of our sorrow into the brightness of His love and light.