Hope.

I have been thinking a lot about hope lately.

The last couple of month have been interesting for my family. As many of you know, Eric graduates in 2 weeks from Utah Valley University. We have anticipated his graduation for the past five and a half years that we have been married. Eric and I knew when we first got married that we didn’t want to wait until we were done with school to have kids. We knew it would be a tough road, but that it would be well worth it in the end.

The last month has been a bit of a struggle for me. I felt betrayed. I felt that after all the hard work that we had gone through, we were back at the beginning wondering how we were going to support our family. I guess you could explain it as emptiness.

I hope that I am not making you feel bad for me, because that was not my intention in writing this today. I have had a very amazing ‘personal growth’ month, and I cannot go another second without taking a chance to publicly share my thoughts, feelings and testimony.

About a month ago on a Friday night I was feeling sorry for myself. I was watching the news and they were mentioning how in this economy it is hard to have Hope. Hope. hOpe. hoPe. hopE. I couldn’t stop thinking about what it meant to me to have HOPE at this time in my life. Many questions went through my mind. Can I have Hope without Faith? How do I create Hope? Can I be happy without the hope that everything will be okay? And that was only the beginning of the thought process.

So, my first step was to figure out what Hope was. I mean, I know what hope is, but what was it really, so here are a couple of things that I discovered:

· Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

· Hope is the companion to Faith and Charity.

· Hope has a power to fill our lives with happiness.

· The absence of hope can make us ‘heart sick’.

· Hope is a gift of the spirit.

· We have the responsibility (commandment) to make hope an active part of our lives and overcome the temptation to lose hope.

· Hope bring us Peace.

· Hope is the foundation of Faith, without it we cannot have Faith.

And probably my favorite thing about Hope:

· Hope is not knowledge, but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us.

And ultimately I do believe that the Lord will fulfill his promise to me. Something that I read from President Uchdorf really touched me… ‘ There may be times when we must make a courageous decision to hope even when everything around us contradicts this hope.’ And that is the truth. This week, I had to make the decision to hope even though sometimes the world looks grim. The job market may look bleak, money may be disappearing from the bank account, I may not be able to get the car I want, the dreams of getting a home may be on the waiting list, but in eternal perspective, I know that the Lord will fulfill his promise to me. The promise that if I follow his commandments and live righteously, then I will be able to live with him again. I know that the Lord will help provide earthly needs when we live the way we should. I am so grateful that I am experiencing these trials at this time in my life, because I know that I will be a stronger person because of them.

Thanks for listening.

On a lighter note, here is a woman who had hope and made her talents show. Click here to watch this video. It is pretty shocking.

Love, Tamber