Hank Smith: Be of Good Cheer | Forum | October 23, 2015

thank you thank you it's absolutely wonderful to be with you I don't I'm sure you get this a lot when people come here to speak how and how special this this place is but I hope you'll just hear me out really quick this this is when I say this place is special it's it's different it's different for me let me I'll just give you just a brief background and then we'll get into my message I don't want to spend too much time talking about this but I just want you to know how much I adore this campus way back in the 1900s I was a teenager with my brain wasn't fully developed and my father decided there was a year then that you had after you graduate from high school before you went on a mission and you and my my father didn't see good things coming for me that year and so he had a friend a college roommate BYU college roommate by the name of Glade night he and Glade were had lots of I heard lots of stories about my dad and Glade and the things they did in college and they were talking one day and Glade said well you know Mike I did something crazy I I bought a I bought a college and he said and my they were talking and he said well I have this boy that could use a change of geography what do you what do you think could you take him on and so I took my curly mullet and I got on an airplane and I I'd never been east of Colorado and I flew into Roanoke Virginia and I was picked up in Roanoke and driven up here for the first time to to Buena Vista there's a this might seem kind of cheesy but there's an old line from a John Denver song saying he was going home to a place he'd never been before and that was me I was coming home to a place I'd never been before this was this to me is a part of me this is I have friends still that I made here that not just Facebook friends like real friends that I have that we talk and reminisce about this and way way back then I'll just you you won't even I'm sure you don't even realize this I sound like one of the adults I used to listen to but we had no idea if you were going to come we always assumed that people in the past kind of knew what was going to happen we assume that Brigham was crossing the plains and he said well look at us in our authentic pioneer clothing right can't wait till we find Utah and build it up and you know build the conference center when in fact they were winging it they didn't know what they were they didn't know if it was going to work out they it was on the brink of the church was on the brink of extinction at any day right and Brigham was hoping that it would work out and I look back on those days back in the late 90s here at SVU kind of the same way no one really knew if this was going to work out no one really knew if you'd come they kept telling us if we you know if we build it they will come all right ha and we we looked at each other and thought no because this was a dirt arena with horses and and you think your school is small but your schools is not small the school we went to here that was small and we didn't have air conditioning and then Joba shell was still here and he hasn't aged I'm convinced he's one of the Nephites we could three Nephites because he has not aged at all and so I just hope you know and you likely don't just like I didn't know that you are you're part of something you're part of something extraordinary this place is more than just special it's more than just a nice place to go to school this is this is a God inspired this is a God inspired University all right well I don't want to spend I don't wanna spend too much time on that a lot has happened since the 1900s like I got married and if I can do it all of you can do it too Morgan knows this yeah they're getting me married was was almost like all of you coming here is downright impossible but it happened and I want to show you something that happened to us about three years ago these two little boys happen to us no don't do that they're terrorists they have they've come into my life and stolen everything from me my my money my life my wife there's a lady that used to be my wife that walks around our house now just kind of ironing the fridge I mean she's so frazzled here's another one of them right there you'll notice the one on the right his face doesn't change that much sorry it's it's pretty much the same face wherever we go I said is he okay and the doctor said we don't know I said is that going to go away and they said they didn't know and it didn't go away look seven months later there he is he's the exact same kid there's something fun about having odd-looking children and and that's Halloween Halloween is easy you have no question no question at all who is going to be a little blue food coloring and we were set their noses look at their nose they're the exact same nose all right no twins do fun things things that the other babies if they do it may have grossed you out but when they do it it's kind of cute you take a picture I took them to Disneyland the other day I paid thousands of dollars for them to do this but my favorite picture of the happiest place on earth is this one right here all right well it's I don't I don't know why I showed you that just because you can see that the life that life after college moves on and you have many more great adventures awaiting you fun adventures now I decided to focus my remarks on a statement made by the savior in mark chapter six well it's in all of the Gospels but specifically in mark chapter six the phrase be of good cheer be of good cheer no well I want to show you the story but first I want to get something out of the way and hopefully all of you already understand this that the best way to be happy in life is to live the gospel of Jesus Christ there is no better way to happiness happiness in life some people would say have a positive attitude and I do believe in having a positive attitude but keeping the commandments more important than having a positive attitude it's like running a marathon with your shoes on the wrong feet right when you break the commandments and someone says have a positive attitude that's not going to help I think the Savior would say put your shoes on the right feet that'll help a little bit more than a positive attitude breaking the commandments is much like running a you know in a bike race with flat tires it's it's going to be miserable a miserable experience right as you try to move forward so I just want to show you a couple places that shows up in the scriptures alma 41 says do not suppose because in so concerning restoration almost talking to his son corianton about resurrection he calls a restoration which confuses some of my students but they go to BYU they shall be restored from sin to happiness behold I say a new wickedness never was happiness breaking the commandments will never make you happy it just will never it never works that way this is Samuel the Lamanite he says you have sought all the days of your lives for that which you could not obtain it's impossible to obtain what you have sought for happiness in doing iniquity right it's contrary to the nature of God it will not happen it cannot happen so I just would say this really quick my mom tells me stories about David O McKay I never I was not alive for the days of David O McKay but my mom used to tell me stories about him and one of those stories I've always remembered my mom would sit at my bedside and she told me about President McKay's horse dandy let me show you do I have a picture of dandy here let's go back there's dandy right there sorry so president McKay said that dandy was the finest horse he'd ever owned under the saddle he said under the saddle this horse could do things other horses could not it just had a pedigree unlike anybody else any other horse and he said this this horse was going to win competitions it was going to he was going to take him place places however he said outside of the saddle dandy was mischievous curious and dangerous he said this horse was too smart he resented restraint can you remember that dandy resented restraint he didn't like ropes and fences and so he would often untie his own ropes David O McKay said there wasn't a rope I could tie or not I could tie that this horse could not eventually get undone he was just persistent and he hated the restraint he said he thought other horses restraint so he would untie their ropes he said there wasn't a gate I could tie that dandy could not eventually get out of he would just push and push and push until he found a weak spot and eventually he would get the gate open somehow I said this this habit of his of hating restraint got him hit by a car I think the car got hit by a horse but either way he said it didn't cure him it didn't kill him but it didn't cure him and he said the day came and I knew it would finally come he said it was just inevitable that would come that he went out to pasture and found the gate open again and dandy and another horse had gotten out found a tacks shed full of grain and they had devoured it all not knowing it was all baited with rat poison and David O McKay said I had no weapon to put them out of their misery so I sat with them as they both arrived on the ground in pain and they both died and he said and this is the lesson that horse could not see that fence was there not to restrain it the fence was there to protect it from things that did not understand if you can see the commandments that way I promise you you will be well on your way to happiness the commandments are not there to restrain you President Monson does not sit in his office and go brethren the youth are having fun they must be stopped what do we do right I'm sure he doesn't sit around well let's send them on missions early ha ha ha right no I promise you the conversation goes something like this we are losing too many of them how do we protect them we are losing too many how do we protect them alright so I want to get that out of the way that the quickest way to be of good cheer is to keep the commandments now my computer shut off here so I'm going to turn this back on if you have your scriptures go to mark chapter 6 because we are going to look at I brought it up here for you if you don't have them go to mark chapter 6 we're going to take a look at this say the Savior's experience coming out on the seat now in the book of Mark it's it's pretty fascinating that mark a lot of people don't think don't like the book of mark I shouldn't say don't like it but they don't find it their favor gospel because they think it's shorter than all the others it is shorter than all the others but mark when he tells a story often gives more detail than any of the gospel authors and in this this is one of those this is one of those times so it says he told the disciples to get into the ship and go to the other side and they're probably thinking well how are you going to get to the other side and he says don't worry I have I have a way and he goes up in the mountain to pray and when evening was come now evening in those days started around 6:00 p.m. when evening was come the ship was in the midst of the sea and he was alone on the land and Mark is the only one that records in verse 48 that he saw them toiling and rowing Matthew doesn't say that he doesn't say that he saw them or neither does Luke but what mark says he saw them so there is on the mountain and he's watching them toiling in rowing and he's watching them and it says the wind was contrary and then he comes to them upon the fourth watch do you see that in verse 48 he comes them in the fourth watch now the fourth watch is between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. so he's been watching them apparently for about nine hours he's been watching them struggle can you see the Savior if they're going wow that looks hard and he just watches them struggle he watches them work I'm sure he was watching make sure they weren't going to get seriously hurt but for a while I'm just gonna let you struggle now mark is the only one that records as he was walking upon the sea he would have passed by them do you see that in verse 48 he was going to walk right by he was just gonna walk right by the boat I guess right but they cry out now in the pictures it shows you know that you can see Jesus in the light and I'm sure not for an artist they have to do that right because a picture of a dark sea at night wouldn't be very wouldn't sell many pictures right well you got a dark yeah what is it it's Jesus walking on the sea right okay it's it's just one big dark mass right so but think about this they wouldn't have been able to see him this wasn't our day when there's lights everywhere all night this is this is pitch dark so the only time I bet they see him is in the if there's a flash of lightning right and here he comes walking on the sea flash of lightning I hope he put his hood on just for the effect all right they are terrified now I often ask my students I'd like to pick the Scriptures do you think Jesus walked on top of the water or do you think he walked like six inches in the water in the water kind of splashed up on him so the first way he's going up and down with the water or do you think he just walked straight across and the water kind of splashed up around him what do you think you have to picture these things you have to think if he's going up and down now that would be even scarier because he would disappear from view and then come back into view and disappear from view right and they've got to be thinking this is terrifying right there they're terrified it says they were troubled which yeah yeah troubled can you see one of them this this is this is troubling no they're terrified right they think it's his spirit and in the darkness in the storm in the darkness in the wind they hear these words be of good cheer now how odd with that moment of bin right to hear the spirits coming we're about to die in this store maybe you think it's the Grim Reaper or something coming to collect your soul and he can all of a sudden what you think is the green Grim Reaper calls out be of good cheer I'm sure they looked at each other do you recognize that voice be of good cheer and then it is I be not afraid now look what elder haulin said about this he said such counsel is not a jaunty pep talk about the power of positive thinking though positive thinking is much needed in the world he says no Christ knows better than all others that the trials of life can be very deep and we are not shallow people if we struggle with them if you were going through something very difficult right now very deep is Elder Holland we call it you are not shallow if you are struggling he says but even as the Lord avoids sugary rhetoric meaning big pep talks he rebukes faithlyn faithlessness and he deplores pessimism whats deplores mean he really hates it he hates pessimism qui sail again the Lord really hates pessimism not now he doesn't hate pessimistic people don't get me wrong just pessimism itself where you use cynicism as a guiding philosophy in your life everything's bad it's always going to be bad right I go on a bad date then I've done I think of every other bad date I've ever been on and I'm gonna die alone with cats right is I'm gonna buy litter today because I'm never going to get married right this idea of cynicism being a guiding philosophy says he expects us to believe look what he says next I love what elder Orson F Whitney once said the spirit of the gospel is optimistic it trusts in God and looks on the bright side of things the opposite or pessimistic spirit drags men down and away from God looks on the dark side and murmurs complains and is slow to yield obedience we should honor the Savior's declaration to these four words again be of good cheer indeed it seems more that we may be more guilty of breaking that and look at this word commandant than almost any other be of good cheer is not a pep talk what is it it's a commandment I want you to keep that commandment right now show me what it looks like to be of good cheer right what you do first you smiled you smile this is a commandment I think I turn that off when you wake up in the morning as they turn me off they're like it's not a commandment turn him off get him out of there we don't want happy students um when you wake up in the morning what does the Lord expect you to do smile right when you have a seven o'clock class or an 8 o'clock class or 9 o'clock class some of you early is 11 o'clock class right the Lord expects us to wake up and smile right to be of good cheer now I'm going to make it a little bit of a confession here and I hope that you won't mind hearing something personal about my life but I don't always keep this commandment the way I should and I was going to tell you about him one day that I decided not to keep this commandment my wife and I moved when I got the job I teaching the religion department of BYU and we moved from Salt Lake County down to Utah County and as we're unpacking I grabbed had taken the microwave that we have the type of microwave set on the counter because we're poor and so we had the microwave and I brought it out of the box and set on the counter which my wife said oh you can put that back in the box we're getting a new microwave and I said we are is this one broke and she said no it doesn't match and I said I'd never heard of this concept before I said what what it doesn't match she said yeah it doesn't match I said would I was singing and always close match I'm like yeah yeah it's a microwave where else are we gonna put it in my mind I'm like sis you want to put it in a different room and she said let me explain so she walked me over very slowly sometimes you have to do this to your husband she walked me over very slowly to the dishwasher and said tell me what color the dishwasher is I said it's stainless steel she said good job and then she walked me over to the stove and she said what color is the stove and I said it's stainless still said very good you're getting this and then we walked over to the refrigerator which we had had to buy cuz we left our old fridge refrigerator because we didn't have one of those that's why we had to buy another one because that's what you do and so we were to the refrigerator she said what is this I said stainless steel she said look at the microwave what's microwave I said it's white and she said that's why we're getting a new microwave it needs to be stainless steel I said no it doesn't this one functions so we'll use it thus started a little war in our house now I love people that say my wife and I have never had an argument I love that and I wonder if they talk because I am going to be honest with you my wife and I have had arguments not we don't usually throw stuff it's just we disagree and and we both have pretty strong opinions so that microwave I'll just tell you this came in and out of that box had to be 70 times that week as I would get it out put it on the counter and use it and I'd come back in it was back in the box pretty soon the box was taped in the garage I got it out of the garage untaped it put it back on the counter back and forth back and forth we started using the children against one another it was funny yet kind of like this underground volcano secretly ready to erupt and finally after about five or six days we decided to compromise and get a new microwave so which is what a compromise is by the way when you get married just so you know for example I cannot stand cats she loves cats and so we compromised and we have two cats now here is the worst part of our compromises my wife said to me after we had I said finding a new microwave she said I need you to pick it up I said no I don't make me pick it up and she said it's on your way home don't make me drive over there with five children just come on we pick it up for me and how I'm going oh goodness so I stopped at the store and I find the cheapest it was my favorite part it was finding the cheapest stainless steel microwave I could find and I grabbed it and I kind of getting upset at this point remember the Savior's commandment what was it leave good cheer yeah yeah that was not happening I took the microwave in the ladies like welcome to home depot sell me the microwave all right stick well and I put it in the car and I Drive it home and I go home and I put on a counter right and I left I went to the other room and I here a few minutes later I hear the Box opening and my wife's very excited I think and she says what did you buy I said I bought a microwave she said yeah you bought a blue microwave I said no I didn't know I didn't look at the box she's like I don't care what it says in the Box this microwaves blue and I knew what was coming take you back we need it tonight I said we'll just use the old one I threw it away you threw it away yeah I was old so we compromised and I went back to the store you're not married but those of you who are mne of you were married raise your hand if you're married okay there's plenty of you so you how many of you have children raise your hand if you have children okay not very many of you are alright so she said on my way out take the kids ah which those of you still don't understand this so I'm carting a couple of my kids along with me as I now I'm furious I picked a microwave and I took it back to Home Depot and I throw it up on the counter and the little 17 year old girl said hi what's the problem it's Adam uh Cory blue excuse me this is Sheila still in the box a microwave blue just you know microwave so she's quickly apologized I'm so sorry sir we will get this taken care of you ever been one of those uncomfortable moments in public where someone's making a scene and you don't want to watch but you do want to watch and so you just kind of sneak over like you're pretending to do something there's lots of people milling around the little counter you know as I'm sure people are getting their phones out like I gotta get maybe this will go viral if he does something crazy right it was getting a little uncomfortable and I was that way and my kids are staring at me and I had it's anyone ever had anyone want to be with me that they've ever broken the commandment to be of good cheer and been upset and made his scene okay okay so I'm not the only one well as we're standing there and everybody's watching and she's trying to bring this up as fast as possible in exchange it though her manager came over and he said what seems you could tell there's you know little people were noticing he came over and he said what's the problem and she explained no microwave he got she still has a boy in him - what she said did you take the cellophane off the microwave I said well he said they put blue cellophane on the on the microwave did you take the blue cellophane off this thing with still microwave he opens the box and pulls the blue cellophane off the microwave I said the what this little girl at the counter I look over at her and she's he explained they put this blue cellophane on those stainless steel to make sure it's protected by ten decal and of course my children the microwaves not blue I'm like quiet I was so embarrassed all I did and this is a true story is I grabbed the microwave I turn around and I walk out of the store and I got about to the doors and I hear at the counter where I just was ha ha ha ha ha all this laughing you know who else thought it was funny my wife she thought that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard you know who is the only person who didn't find it very funny me I didn't find it funny at all until I was reading a general conference talk about 6 months later from president uchtdorf this is what he said he said oh sorry let me go move on oh sorry sorry there it is I don't know how I must have moved that forward he says impatience is a symptom of selfishness it is the trait is a trait of the self-absorbed it arises from the all too prevalent condition called center of the universe syndrome which leads people to believe that the world revolves only around them and that all others are just supporting cast in the grand theater of mortality in which only they have the starring role now as anyone here ever struggled with center of the universe syndrome center of the universe syndrome if you haven't raised your hand you have we all have struggled with center of the universe syndrome the one thing that will take away from cheerfulness is selfishness the one thing that will take away from cheerfulness is selfishness let me show you this in the scriptures let me show you this all right first Nephi 17 you've got Nephi and layman right they're both describing the exact same situation but Cownie fie describes it he says so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us oh by the way when I read this to my kids I do all the voices so this is Nephi so great where the blessings of the Lord upon us that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness our women did give plenty of suck for their children and they were strong yet even like under the men that's died I wouldn't fly today and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings and thus we see the commandments of God must be fulfilled if it so be the children men keep the commandments of God he does nourish them and strengthen them and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which Jesus commanded them he did provide meats for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness how does wilderness sound pretty fantastic if your knee fyrite and then you look at layman just a few verses later the exact same situation this is layman's hoist thou art like an or father sorry he's a smoker led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem and we have wandered in the wilderness these many years our women have toiled being big with child and they have borne children in the wilderness have suffered all things savor were death listen it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions that is a sweetheart right there look at my wife she'd be better off dead thank you how does he describe it these many years we have suffered in the wilderness which time we might have enjoyed our possessions in the land of art harridan CA we might have been happy all right won't you do me a favor you're here with someone someone sitting next to you tell them the difference between Nephi and layman if it's not their circumstances what is it what is it what is the primary difference between those two men tell the person next to you what is the primary difference between laymen and nephi now most people when I ask them this question they say something like well for laymen happiness is always somewhere else right for net right now happiness is back in Jerusalem with our stuff we'd be happy if we were there right and later on it's going to be if I was off this boat I'd be happy if I was somewhere else then I would be happy now we pick on laymen and let me allot in this church but how many of you have ever had those same feelings if things were different then I would be happy almost all of us at one time in our lives said if things were different then I would be happy but the research shows my friends that you would not research shows that only 10 percent of your happiness has anything to do with your circumstances 10 percent and that is only in extreme cases of poverty where you don't have enough to eat or extreme cases of health problems but if I were to give you a million dollars you would be the exact same I told that to a group of women once and this woman just could not she just could not she said wait wait wait go back if you gave me a million dollars I wouldn't be any happier happier I said well research shows that you would be no different maybe for a couple of days you'd be happier but then you'd go back to they being the exact same person you are she said oh those people just don't know where to shop and then I said she said well then I'd be unhappy in some really nice places that's like ok I'll hand that to you but honestly if we change your circumstances your happiness level would not change there's a great study done in 1979 on paraplegics and lottery winners they interviewed all the paraplegics they can find the country and all the lottery winners they could find in the country and they found that their happiness levels were the exact same the exact same you would think I won the lottery I'm going to be happy for the rest of my life right all the money I'll ever need or you think I'm a paraplegic I got in an accident I will never be happy again but you would find their happiness levels are the exact same it really has nothing to do very little to do I should say with our circumstances look what Elder Holland says about these two brothers he says speak hopefully speak encouragingly including about yourself that's how Nephi talks right he speaks hopefully and he speaks encouragingly including about his own circumstances right raw meat I love it all right my wife she's like a man it's the best I love the wilderness the wilderness has been so exciting right speak hopefully speak encouragingly including about yourself listen to this I have often thought that Nephi is being bound with cords and beaten by rods must have been more tolerable to him than listening to laman and lemuel constant murmuring surely he must have said at least once hit me one more time I can still hear you yes life has its problems and yes there are negative things to face but please accept one of elder Holland's Maxim's for living no misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse there is nothing in your life that is so awful that when you complain and moan won't make it worse remember what the lord deplores the lord deplores pessimism the lord deplores pessimism look at this wonderful smile some of you will remember this smile he used to say these three little words he says I come this morning with a plea that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight I am suggesting that we accentuate the positive this might be something you write down and put on your mirror or put in the dash of your car or put somewhere where you're going to see it every day maybe the background of your phone accentuate the positive was it mean to accentuate the positive find it focus on it talk about it talk about all the good things that are happening right there are negative things that are happening yes there are hard things to face but don't focus on those he says what I'm asking is that we turn from the negativism that so permeates our society and look for the remarkable good in the land and the times in which we live that we speak of one another's virtues more than we speak of one another's faults oh if I could say that again and again that we speak of one another's virtues then we more than we speak of one another's faults it's so easy to criticize it is so easy to tear people down it is so easy to find holes in arguments right being a critic being a skeptic it's not hard doesn't take a lot of intelligence the intelligence is when you're trying to build when you're trying to lift that takes intelligence that we speak of one another's virtues more than we speak of one another's faults that optimism replace pessimism and that our faith exceed our fears so I thought I'd finished with someone who does this better than anybody else that I know her name is Chris Bell Belcher I already showed you her her picture sorry about that because she can look quite strange to people at first here's here's why when when my friend Chris was 7 months old she was taken to a well child check up in which the doctor told her mother and none of you will understand this until your parents but a 7 month old baby cute little 7 month old baby girl now that she has cancer on both her retinas and that it's growing towards her brain and so they took my friend Chris the 7 month old baby girl they took her out of the arms of her mother laid her on an aluminum table every week for three months and drew little X's on her temples with magic marker put her under anesthesia and blasted her with radiation now the good the good news after three months the cancer was gone the bad news after three months they had done so much damage to the tissue and bone around Chris's eyes that it would never grow again so she can see to a degree but she has to grow up with a bit of a deformity which is what I showed you before I apologize so you can kind of see she says don't you love my beautiful hourglass shape now this woman is one of the most positive funny cheerful women I have ever met she has been through she's had spinal meningitis five times it's because the bones around her eyes are very brittle and they'll break and they she gets bacteria inside of her side of her brain she said once I had a headache that lasted for seven weeks she's now completely blind she lost sight in her left eye when she was eight years old and they had to remove her right eye when she was 40 when that day came that they had to remove her right eye she had two boys two children and the wonderful James the her husband she calls him and the head they told her that they needed to remove her right eye and this was the last she'd see and she asked me an interesting question she said Hank what do you think he'd look at if he knew you weren't going to see tomorrow I said I don't know Chris and she said color and family she said I just wanted to absorb color reds and yellows and pinks I just wanted to see them all and I wanted to memorize every feature of my boys her boys were 5 and 3 she said I tried to memorize everything about him because I wanted to be able to picture them as they grew up but as they wheeled her back to surgery her husband James came with her and they said they tell James it was about time they were going to put her under and she and he had to go and so he bent down and he kissed her on the cheek and he said hey you be good okay and she looked up at him with her one eye that she could see out of and she said James we're gonna have to work on your goodbyes and he smiled at that and she said stop right there that's perfect and she closed her eyes and that was the last thing she ever saw now I told Chris I was going to tell you her story and she said okay you can tell my story she said but first of all do not tell them that I was happy the whole time I said but you are happy she said yeah but you weren't with me the six weeks after the surgery I was not happy she said in fact I went over to the salt lake temple and when no one was looking or at least I didn't think anyone was looking I hit it I said you did what she said I was so mad why was the temple square and I just walked over their enrichment did you see Heavenly Father like what she oh wow she's upset but she says she said I had been in my room feeling bad for myself for about six weeks when my husband came in one day and said we go to church and she said no I can't I can't I can't go to church he said why not she said because I'm recovering and he said they took your eye not your legs you can come to church and she said James don't make me go to church Chris why not because because ever don't be nice to me and I don't want anyone to be nice to me everyone will tell me how much they love me and I don't want to be told that I just want to sit here in my room and be sad okay and he said well I can't let that happen and so this is what you do when you're when you by the way your spouse and you compromise a lot but when you can get the children on your side then they have to compromise and so James called in the boys who said mom go to church of that derides James right and so she said I went to church that day I'm just gonna go to Sacramento home she said but I walked into the chapel and of course I get inundated with love which I didn't want she said I hadn't smiled in six weeks or laughed or even thought a happy thought she said but this woman came up to me hugged me and said Chris I love you so much and she said oh good and she said Chris I've decided I'm gonna help you and she said oh wow that's all I need right she said I've decided I'm going to teach her boys sign language and Chris said Hank at that moment at that moment that moment I knew I would smile again she said I couldn't help it that lady made me laugh I said what why why would you teach them sign language and she said she got mad at me and said Chris you need to be able to communicate with them if your friend next to you doesn't get it explained to them why Chris and her boys do not need sign language to communicate she said so without knowing it that lady made me smile for the first time in six weeks and then she made this decision she said I sat down at church and I decided it was so much better to smile than to cry she's I had to make that decision did you catch that I had to make the decision that was so much better for me than to laugh and smile than to sit in my room and cry so she said I came out of my stupor I came out and she said and Here I am Chris speaks all over the world she wrote a book called hard times and holy places if I can show that to you Kristin Warner Belcher she gets pon a mileage out of that last name I'll just tell you one quick story a couple quick maybe couple I got to be fast here but Chris said she was elementary school one day and this little girl was raising her hand she said I don't think she was paying attention because she's raising her hand she can't figure out like Chris won't call on her so she's waving at her apparently and one of the teachers finally said um mrs. Belcher there's a girl back here the question and girls like Oh finally and she said ma'am how do you drive and she said I often see blind people get offended really easily and she said I just choose not to and so I said I just stick my cane out the window and move it around as fast as I can she said the scary part is this little girl said oh okay little boy said miss how do you drive T how do you watch TV and she said I just walk up to the TV and I feel the people moving around and he's like oh okay um I don't know if I should tell you this one presence here but I'll just tell you this one really quickly really quickly she said Hank I was at church the other day I'd actually pull over she was talking to this story and I was laughing so hard I don't know if it will be as funny to you but she said I was at church the other day I don't use my cane at church because I know my way around the church and I can hear I am with the echo in the hall and she said I was going to get a drink during a release Society I usually get a drink when everybody's in class so I don't bump into people and she said so I went out there and I was I got to the drinking fountain I could feel the tile under my feet and I listened to see if Andrews out the drink fountain she said nobody was so I walked forward and put my hands down to touch the bar on the drinking fountain she said when apparently there was someone at the drinking fountain she said I he wasn't getting a drink apparently uh but he was standing there contemplating something when he got double my two hands right on his end she said I I knew it was the oldest man in our ward when he said oh so I guess he must have been standing there at the drinking fountain when all of a sudden oh and she she said oh she said oh my goodness I backed up and I just I just sat there for a second like oh no no no no no no and then she said I am so sorry are you okay and she said I heard him walking away saying I am now now there is something wrong with that story but you can see why I had to pull over as she told me this story will finish with with what Chris says she says no one schedules adversity we don't look at our daily planners and say hey today I'll go I'll drop the kids off at school go grocery shopping get a fatal disease pick up the dry-cleaning have marital problems and take dinner - sister so-and-so five-time May epic and lose my job or my house get burned down or push that should I push that off till tomorrow she says in this mortal world we have no need to schedule trials they come now coming from her this means something don't allow your heart to be hardened by hard times coming from me it might not mean so much but I thought coming from her it might really it might really help you don't allow your heart to be hardened by hard times make the choice to turn to Christ she says there's a purpose in your suffering you and I are being changed remodeled stretched and polished for eternal glory if we trust it and choose Christ amid our difficulties our hard times will become holy she says I wish I could comfort the woman I was five years ago I wish I could hold her in my arms and promise her that she would make it the pain will eventually subside I would tell her that she would smile and even laugh again I may have lost my sight but my vision has never been clearer through her storms and through her the wind in the rain what is Chris here be of good cheer it is I be not afraid and who does she hear it from the Lord's prophet though the storms make clouds may gather though rains may pour down upon us our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts nothing in this world can defeat us my beloved brothers and sisters fear not and just like his Savior said of old President Monson says to us be of good cheer the future is as bright as your faith in the name of Jesus Christ amen

Channel: Southern Virginia University

Views: 147,323

Keywords: Southern, Virginia, University, SVU, LDS, Latter-day, Saint, Mormon, EFY, Arts, College, southern virginia university

Id: RnfLss8WBGY

Length: 44min 13sec (2653 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 09 2015