2.297 Stand Still, With Utmost Assurance

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello my friends, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Have you ever been having a difficult day and maybe kind of in a bit of a bad mood and someone comes up to you and says, "hey man, cheer up." And you want to just kind of poke them in the eyes? Maybe our scripture for today will help you out a little bit.

We've been reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 121 through 123. We've got one more Doctrine and Covenants section we've got to dive into. One more verse for today inside of the Doctrine and Covenants readings.

After sections 121 and 122, where the Lord gives some very clear and direct instruction to Joseph Smith to hold on and to bear these things. Joseph Smith then turns around and writes kind of a letter of sorts to the Saints, and that's what section 123 is. It's a pretty powerful section, considering that Joseph in this same moment had just been asking the Lord where he had gone in his time of difficulty, right?

He had been saying, "Heavenly Father, I don't know that we can take any more of this. Look at what's happening to us and our members, and what are we doing?" Where are you and what's going on? And then the Lord gives him the loving counsel that we've shared a little bit of through this week and hopefully you've been able to read some.

Then Joseph sits down, pens this direction to the Saints. And it's the very end of it that just hits me right in my heart. I wanted to share it with you today.

Doctrine and Covenants, section 123, verse 17. Joseph writes, "Still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God and for his arm to be revealed." You know, this verse sticks out to me. They say that Joseph Smith had quite a cheerful countenance and that he was regularly one to kind of approach life lighthearted and laugh and play and have fun.

And while I never met Joseph Smith and had the opportunity to kind of see that personality, I think back at some of our prophets and one that stands out to me was President Hinckley. He was an eternal optimist and encouraged us regularly to see the positive in life and to approach things cheerfully. I think it's an opportunity for you and for me to realize that, look, even if we are going through challenges in our lives, how we go through them is our choice.

We may not be able to remove the challenge, but we certainly can consider the approach that we take to the challenge. And I for one have found that being grumpy inside of the challenge only. We had lost power and electricity.

We had no way for heated water. It was the middle of winter. It was freezing cold.

Our apartment was freezing. Our little candles didn't heat our hands very good. We didn't have anything but just a bunch of clothes to put on.

And one day we got running water and we hadn't bathed in quite some time. And my companion, he's pretending to water ski in the bathtub, and he's splashing. I can hear the water splashing and stuff.

And here he was just, just trying to make the best of things. And I can remember knowing him and to this day, I could probably run into him in the street and he'd have a smile on his face. My friends, let us do these things cheerfully.

Let us approach the challenges in life with a smile on our face. It's what Joseph Smith encourages us to do. President Hinckley encourages us to do.

We can do this. You and I can do it with a smile on our face. That's all for today, my friends.

Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave to the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.