Finding Strength and Joy in Keeping Covenants

Yesterday I spoke in Stake Conference. If you're reading this and you're not a Mormon, basically it was a very large gathering (about 800 people) of seven Mormon congregations (called wards) in the area, meeting together. We have these kinds of Sunday services  twice a year and for some reason unbeknown to me, the sweet people in charge thought asking little old me to give an 10-12 minute talk would be a good idea. (I know, I know, I don't know what they were thinking either. )

The assigned topic was the title of this post. I spent a lot of time reading the last two weeks about covenants and promises and happiness and strength. It's been a good two weeks, that's for sure, and I have been spiritually fed and sustained by researching this topic. I thought I would like to keep my talk for my children to read someday, and since this is as close to a journal as I have these days, I am going to post it here. Typically when I speak in public, I do not write out the words. I am more of an impromptu speaker, with a general idea of what I want to say. But because of time limits during the meeting and having it translated into Spanish, It was necessary to write it out.

 

 

 

Finding Strength and Joy in Keeping Covenants

 

I want you to imagine a scene with me.  The setting was very similar to where we find ourselves today. A large meeting, with an even larger gathering of our brothers and sisters. Seated on the stand was a beautiful choir, I am sure of it. And there were probably angels and various leaders of all the future dispensations. Seated at the head of all of them, was our Father.  Most likely on His left and right or somewhere close by were seated Jehovah and Michael. As a family, we had been called together for this large council meeting and we waited with great anticipation about what would be said.

Our Father stepped forward and presented a plan, with blueprints and details, and explanations that we clearly understood. I imagine it was very detailed and very well explained. He told us of the difficulties we would face as this plan was implemented and the help that would be constantly and consistently provided along the way. As our Father, He made tender and loving promises and in return, we agreed to the terms and made promises of our own. Afterwards, we probably did what the people baptized by Alma near the waters of Mormon did, “And now when the people had heard these words they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts.” (Mosiah 18:11)  In the book of Job, it says that as we all gathered together, we literally “shouted for joy.” (Job 38:7)

Why all the rejoicing? Even knowing the difficulties we would face? Because this was the desire of our hearts. More than anything we wanted to come to earth and have a body and have experiences that would ultimately take us back to live with our Heavenly Father. We bravely followed our Elder Brother as He stepped forward and agreed to be our Savior. We could not wait to get here and we rejoiced at such an opportunity.

 

And now here we are. But when was the last time we found ourselves rejoicing? I can tell you, ten days from delivering my fourth child in this Texas heat, I am not the most joyful person. My other children can attest to that truth and wonder if mommy will ever stop saying the words, "I'm so tired." And my sweet husband who couldn’t be here today because he is on assignment with his Air Force Reserve unit, would surely tell you that as a couple we don’t do a lot of rejoicing except on what feels like a semi-annual date night when we celebrate our few hours of freedom from all the worries and challenges we face with our busy lives.

 

Now, while I don’t exactly remember shouting for joy, and I don’t typically clap my hands together with a “bring it on” kind of attitude when a challenge presents itself, I do, however, find strength in the promises my Father in Heaven has made to me and the promises I have made to Him in return. And the more I trust in those promises, or covenants, which Elder Jeffrey R. Holland describe as “a  binding spiritual contract, a solemn promise to God our Father that we will live and think and act in a certain way—the way of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In return, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost promise us the full splendor of eternal life,” I find a stronger version of myself and am more capable of feeling happy and joyful. Nephi, in describing how wretched he felt for his sins and iniquities and for giving into temptations, realized that he, too, had great reason to rejoice because he knew in whom he had trusted. (2 Nephi 4:19) I believe as we come to truly know, personally and intimately, in Whom we have trusted, in Him whose very name we have taken upon ourselves, we will find greater reason to rejoice.

When I think about covenant keeping, I can’t help but think of the early pioneers. Brigham Young used to talk about the “Fire of the Covenant” and truly, it burned within them. Some of the words of their melodious anthem teach us just how committed they were. “Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard? Tis not so! All is right!” or  “And should we die, before our journey’s through? Happy day. All is well.” Before they sang those immortal words, thousands upon thousands of them filled the halls of the temple before they would leave on their unknown trek across the West. Why did they do that? Because they knew of the strength they would obtain in making and receiving those holy covenants in the House of the Lord. And they knew that there was no other place where that strength could be found, except within the holy and sacred walls of the very temple they had just built and were now forced to leave behind.

The day before I was set to leave my 10 week experience behind at the MTC and fly to my mission in Washington DC, our country was viciously attacked. My husband, who was already in the mission (yes, that is where we met) was sitting in a zone meeting in a chapel when he and the other missionaries heard what they thought was some kind of an explosion. They did not know at that time that it was actually a plane that had hit the Pentagon just a few miles up the street. Shortly after I arrived in the mission field, we had General Conference and President Hinckley stood and gave that now famous address where he spoke of being handed a note that a missile attack was under way by the U.S. And while it was quite historic to hear something like that in such a setting, it was not those words that stood out to me in that small chapel in Northern Virginia. It is what he said after when he, as our prophet and mouthpiece for the Lord reminded us that, “Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the commandments of God.” It was true then as we rallied together in our grief as a nation, and it is even more true now as we see that rallying unfold in times of war, religious intolerance, the destruction of the family, famine, and despair as it spreads across the entire world.

In modern times, the Lord counseled sweet Emma to “lift up [her] heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which [she had] made.” (D&C 25:13)  That counsel holds true for us, too; and I testify that as we do so, we will find the strength we need to weather the physical and spiritual treks  we will face across unknown territory. We might not feel like singing, “happy day, all is well,” all of the time. But I know that if we will “remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that [We]  must build [our] foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon [us], it shall have no power over [us] to drag [us] down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which [we] are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” (Helaman 5:12), and we will find the strength necessary to trust in our Heavenly Father and the promises He has made to us. 

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a conference in the assembly room of the Washington D.C. Temple, where we stood and recited the words from the 109^th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. “And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them.” (D&C 109:22)

We as covenant making members of His church, have literally been armed and clothed with power, both physically and spiritually, to weather the storms and challenges of life. The same storms and challenges we readily accepted and agreed to as we sat in a meeting and listened to our Father present the Plan. It wasn’t just blueprints for life or some grand idea He thought He would mention. The scriptures call it a great Plan of Happiness, which will ultimately bring us back to Him. I testify the covenants we made with Him then, the covenants we make with Him now on both a weekly basis in Sacrament Meeting, which Elder Holland calls the most holy and sacred of all the meetings in the church,  and as we attend the temple, for ourselves and for those that have left us, that our foundations will be strong enough to withstand whatever is asked of us. We will be able to sing with those brave souls who paved the way before, “’Tis better far for us to strive our useless cares from us to drive! Do this, and joy your hearts will swell—All is well! All is well!” May we go forward from this house and this council meeting today, as we did so long ago, more determined to make and keep sacred covenants and find the strength and rejoicing that comes from doing so.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.