A Dose of Hope

(with a short preface of grumbling)

This week has been at least 5 months long. And it's only Thursday. So much has been going on that I swear I must be nearing my 22nd birthday. I can feel the wrinkles coming. The fact that I have been eating at Taco Bell may not be helping this premature aging. But those dang crunchwraps are just so disgustingly delicious.

With multiple tests and assignments and design layouts to slog through, I was needing a bit of a boost.  I found this inspirational gem from Dieter F. Uchtdorf on lds.org.

Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time. . ..

Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness. Its absence—when this desire of our heart is delayed—can make 'the heart sick' (Proverbs 13:12).

Hope is a gift of the Spirit. It is a hope that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the power of His Resurrection, we shall be raised unto life eternal and this because of our faith in the Savior. This kind of hope is both a principle of promise as well as a commandment, and, as with all commandments, we have the responsibility to make it an active part of our lives and overcome the temptation to lose hope. Hope in our Heavenly Father's merciful plan of happiness leads to peace, mercy, rejoicing, and gladness. The hope of salvation is like a protective helmet; it is the foundation of our faith and an anchor to our souls.

You can read his entire address HERE – airplanes included.

Each of us go through stormy times in our life. And they say "It never rains but it pours."  They may be right. But what that knowledgeable conglomerate of "them" sometimes forgets to mention is this:

The clouds after the storm are lovely.