Sunday, August 16, 2015

Henry B. Eyring on finding hope through the atonement

President Henry B. Eyring (1933- ) served in the Presiding Bishopric from 1985-1992, as a Seventy from 1992-1995, then was called to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. He has served in the First Presidency since 2007.
"Both Mormon and Moroni were facing days of difficulty that make my challenges pale. Mormon knew his son might be overcome with gloom and foreboding, so he told him the perfect antidote. He told him that he could choose, by what he put in his mind, to become an example of hope. Here is what he wrote:
"'My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever' (Moro. 9:25).
"What we can do to help—teaching, and doing it with the spirit of righteousness, with love, with tenderness, with example—centers on the Savior and his atonement. That is what we would teach. The Atonement working in our lives will produce in us the love and tenderness we need. And by remembering Him and His gift, which we promise to do as we take the sacrament each week, we can put a light of hope in our faces which those we love need so much to see."
- Henry B. Eyring, "The Spark of Faith," Ensign, November 1986, p. 74
Click here to read the full talk

In times of "gloom and foreboding," which seem to afflict every age and people, there is a "perfect antidote," according to President Eyring, in the message of Mormon to his son Moroni: "He told him that he could choose, by what he put in his mind, to become an example of hope." So not just coping with our struggles and challenges, not just controlling feelings of gloom; but exemplifying the faith and confidence that are hallmarks of one filled with hope—"the hope of his glory and of eternal life."

The crucial key is for each of us to come to feel the power and blessing of the Atonement, very personally and individually, "working in our lives." Then not only do we have peace and confidence in our own challenges, but we can become the light of hope for others.



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