“We can do this! We can hold on and hope on.”
On Sunday at general conference, I shared the feelings of my heart. It wasn’t the message I thought I would give, but it is the message I believe God wanted you to hear.
It was my testimony of the power of zooming out, looking at our lives and the lives of those we love through a different lens; an eternal lens, an overview lens.
Now I’d like to say something more to YOU! You young women whom we love so much, who have so much life and learning ahead! Your eye of faith will always be an important part of you, but it will become especially critical when life takes you by surprise—when what you thought would happen doesn’t.
When what you thought would never happen does.
And when something you never could have seen coming, comes for you.
In those moments when you don’t know what is going to happen, seeing with an eye of faith will allow you to feel that no matter how dark the day is that you or your loved ones are experiencing, it’s going to be OK.
Can we use the overview lens to see that there is something better ahead and that it is unfolding even when we cannot see how things could possibly work out? The Lord has a plan. Everything is going to be OK. And we can start to feel that now.
It is my witness that the Savior has the ability, because of His Atonement, to turn any nightmare you are going through into a blessing. He has promised “with an immutable covenant” that as we strive to love and follow Him, “all things wherewith [we] have been afflicted shall work together for [our] good” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:3).
ALL things.
You and I? We can do this! We can hold on and hope on. I bear my testimony that this, all of this, is going to turn out so much better than we could ever imagine! With an eye of faith on Jesus Christ, may we see that everything will be all right in the end and feel that it will be all right now.
Your friend,
Sister Tamara W. Runia
First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency