In August of 2017 our family drove to Greenville, South Carolina so that we could be in the path of totality when the solar eclipse arrived. It was a long drive for something that only lasted a couple of minutes, but I will never forget that incredible moment when the crickets started chirping and darkness arrived in the middle of the afternoon. Another moment I’ll never forget was when the moment of totality ended. I put my eclipse glasses back on and looked upward to see that only the tiniest sliver of the sun was showing again, but that tiny sliver was enough to dispel the darkness and bring the daylight back again.
Afterward we had a family home evening lesson and talked about the scripture 1 Nephi 31:20, which reads:
“Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”
A few months later I thought of this experience when I read President Uchtdorf's talk, “Bearers of Heavenly Light” from October 2017 General Conference.
He said:
“Night is nothing more than a shadow.
Even in the darkest of nights, the sun does not cease to radiate its light. It continues to shine as bright as ever. But half of the earth is in darkness.
The absence of light causes darkness.
When the darkness of night falls, we do not despair and worry that the sun is extinguished. We do not postulate that the sun is not there or is dead. We understand that we are in a shadow, that the earth will continue to rotate, and that eventually the rays of the sun will reach us once again.
Darkness is not an indication that there is no light. Most often, it simply means we’re not in the right place to receive the light….”
I love that. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and like there is no light when I am in one of the dark abysses in life, I need to start looking for where I can find the light.
President Uchtdorf, in the same talk, told us that:
“Spiritual hope and light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. First, we need to start where we are and don’t feel discouraged by how dark it seems. Second, turn our hearts toward the Lord. He is always there. He wants us to feel hope and light. And third, walk in and embrace the light.”
We need action! Isn't that one of the basic tenets of the gospel? We need to get up and move. We need to press forward, searching for that perfect brightness of hope. What does that look like? It means putting one foot in front of the other day-after-discouraging-day and turning to Christ. No matter how far off or small the light may seem, I know that when we turn our hearts towards the Lord, He will always be there to help us feel hope and the pure love and light of Christ.
As Moroni says in Moroni 7:41:“And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.”
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What brings you hope? What do you do when you feel hope waning in your life?
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