Bright

I have been thinking about future plans lately, with summer coming I need to plan what markets I want to go to and how and where I want to advertise. But recently I have heard a lot about food shortages, oil shortages, increased drought and natural disasters, wrecked economies, etc. Sometimes these occurrences or the thoughts of all these things happening make me want to hunker down and stay home, gather my family around and hide. But I don’t think that is what the Lord wants us to do. I remember hearing this quote from our prophet Pres. Thomas S. Monson in a general conference a number of years ago, and this has stuck with me ever since, “The future is as bright as your faith.”

I love this quote because it is filled with hope. Over the years I have learned that the people who make it through hard times well, are the ones that see the good, the positive, the possibilities rather than the bleak outlook that others see around them. The ones who look for solutions and ways to help rather than stop and hunker down like I sometimes want to do. But I think the preceding sentence of this quote is just as important as the second sentence. Here it is:

I have often thought of how many people, all of us really, who go through hard times in some form or another. Enduring is something that we all are asked to do in life at some point. But “enduring” and “enduring well” are two totally different things. I think it all comes down to our perspective. Are we looking to the future with bright hope in what it has to offer or are we looking ahead with little hope for mankind, for ourselves, or for the solution to our problems? This makes enduring really hard if that is our perspective. We weren’t sent here to be sad and to stoically endure life with a down turned countenance. We were sent here to be of good cheer, we were sent here to trust the Lord, and then to get off our knees and go to work making our lives, and the lives of all around us better, we were sent here to hope for and plan for a bright future, all the while being of good cheer. As I pondered upon this, I also pondered upon another quote from one of our apostles, Jeffrey R. Holland, that I have hanging in my bedroom.

I know the Lord wants us to succeed in life. Success isn’t always the same for everyone. Some people have lots of money, some have lots of friends, some have peace of mind and conscience. Your idea of success may not be the Lord’s idea of success, but in all things, if we have good desires, and if we face the Lord through the abundance, through the lean times, through it all, He is there to help us, to bless us, and to give us the success He knows is best for us, because He loves us. But He also expects us to work. I have learned this in so many instances in my business. So many times, when I thought I had hit a wall, when I didn’t know which way to go, or how to get to the other side of what seemed to be a chasm of unknowns. But the Lord would light one step in front of me, and when I took that step, guess what, the next step was then lit. He has not ever shown me the beginning from the end, but I know He leads me along little by little every single day.

I love this last quote. There is help, I have never been left alone by my Heavenly Father. I do have to get off my knees though and put in the work. But He is always there lighting that step in front of me. This has taught me how bright the future really is. The Lord will always be there to help me, and He is the source of all light and truth. Following Him makes my future brighter than anything I could possibly imagine.