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I woke up this morning and after getting some breakfast I stepped out into the dim light of predawn and stood barefoot in the grass. I felt the dew on my feet and the soft cool morning air on my face and hands. I listened but the birds were still asleep. Taking a pair of scissors, I cut a bloom from the rose bush outside my back door. 

Life is messy. And sometimes unkind. It is confusing, painful and discouraging. But an amazing thing happens when we decide to take it just one day at a time. It is a lesson I have to learn over and over. Sort of like Charity or Humility or Optimism.

I have decided to have faith over fear. To trust that although I can't know what will happen, that a perfect Being who loves me does. And trusting in that is more important to me than knowing. So while it is difficult, and some would say perhaps a cop out for dealing with life, I choose to trust that God cares enough about me to have my best interests at heart. And if He has decided to not share those with me in the moment, I will be okay with that and move forward. 

I drove four sister missionaries to a baptism over the weekend and while in the car (4 hours total!) these sweet sisters who have dedicated 18 months of their lives to the service of Jesus Christ asked me my advice to them both for their missions and after. As we talked I recalled my experiences - both as a missionary myself and of the struggles I experienced coming home. I can tell you from personal experience it is easier, and more comforting, to keep the faith you have and build on it as you can then to lose it and start from the ground up. 

Elder Jeffrey R Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said, "When moments come and issues surface, the resolution of which is not immediately forthcoming hold fast to what you already know and stand strong until additional knowledge comes... The size of your faith is not the issue - it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you have and the truth you already know." Nephi quoted Isaiah when he teaches a similar concept: "Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled."


"One of the greatest weaknesses in most of us
 is our lack of faith in ourselves." 
L. Tom Perry



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