Be of Good Cheer — 3 Nephi 1–7
Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon 2024 (September 16-22)
If I told my counseling clients, to “cheer up” when they’re experiencing depression, anxiety or marital conflict, I would immediately be fired. And yet, that is the invitation from the Savior in 3 Nephi 1:13.
I dug deep this week to discover how this might work in my life. Here’s what I came up with:
When I remember the long view, or think celestial, hard times can be put in proper perspective. The sting of job changes, lean financial times, illness, even death, can be less devastating when I’m not myopic.
President Nelson passed this word on to the wife of his grandson when she lost her father. This was her discovery, “After Jill’s father passed on, the word myopic kept coming to her mind. She opened her heart to understand even more deeply that myopic meant “nearsighted.” And her thinking began to shift. Jill then said, ‘Myopic caused me to stop, think, and heal. That word now fills me with peace. It reminds me to expand my perspective and seek the eternal. It reminds me that there is a divine plan and that my dad still lives and loves and looks out for me. Myopic has led me to God.’”
As a daughter of God, I’m “built” to conquer hard times. My test isn’t what I go through in mortality, but how I respond to what I go through. Focusing on what I control and letting go of all that I don’t gives me immediate relief and strength.
I’m never alone. The plan of happiness gives me all that I need to succeed. It includes the atonement of Jesus Christ, the gift of the Holy Ghost, prophets, scriptures, covenants and ordinances, a church community–all put in place to help me get through every hard situation that comes.
It will all work out. “It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry. … If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith” (President Gordon B. Hinckley).
For all these reasons, I know that I’m capable of dealing with whatever comes my way in this life. Be of good cheer…of course!
Do Hard Divinely Better Lesson # 35: Identify why you can “be of good cheer” in difficult, even frightening moments.