The Best Is Yet to Be

BY ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

From a Brigham Young University devotional
address given on January 13, 2009.
For the full text of the address in English,
 visithttp://speeches.byu.edu.

---

Look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future 

"...you can remember just enough to avoid repeating the mistake, but then put the rest of it all on the dung heap Paul spoke of to the Philippians. Dismiss the destructive, and keep dismissing it until the beauty of the Atonement of Christ has revealed to you your bright future and the bright future of your family, your friends, and your neighbors. God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go. That is the thing Lot’s wife didn’t get—and neither did Laman and Lemuel and a host of others in the scriptures.

This is an important matter to consider at the start of a new year—and every day ought to be the start of a new year and a new life. Such is the wonder of faith, repentance, and the miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The poet Robert Browning wrote:

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in his hand

Who saith, “A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!” ²

Some of you may wonder: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester, a new major or a new romance, a new job or a new home hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to stay in the past?

To all such of every generation, I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come” (Hebrews 9:11).

Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever. That is a New Year’s resolution I ask you to keep."

Finding hope and faith in this life of turmoil can be a weighty task. I testify to you that there are great things in store for those who endure.

I testify to you of our Savior's love.  He knows our names, and he knows our trails.

Have faith, have hope, have charity and this year will be filled with the tender mercies of our Lord.

I know it is true for me, and true for you.

Hope, Faith and Charity by James C. Christensen    

http://www.swoyersart.com/james_christensen/faith.htm

Mother and Child

Mother Mary

and the 

Christ Child

Matthew Chapter 1: Verse 21

 21 And she shall bring forth a son, 

and thou shalt call his name JESUS: 

for he shall  save his people from their sins.

“And the ransomed of Yahweh shall return and come to Zion with singing … 

they shall obtain joy and gladness, 

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 51:9-11)

  “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low:  and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”  Isaiah 40:4-5

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

“And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”  Isaiah 60:3

Hallelujah! 

For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

The kingdom of this world

Is become the kingdom of our Lord,

And of His Christ, and of His Christ;

And He shall reign for ever and ever,

For ever and ever, forever and ever,

King of kings, and Lord of lords,

Hallelujah! 

xoxoxo

d

Charity Never Faileth

My favorite chapter in the New Testament.
To be like him.....
my hearts desire.


Corinthians

Chapter 13

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and 
of angels, and have not charity, I am become as 
sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand 
all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have 
all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity,
I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed 
the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, 
and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 ¶ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; 
charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, 
is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6 rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7 beareth all things, believeth all things, 
hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 ¶ Charity never faileth: 
but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; 
whether there be tongues, they shall cease; 
whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, 
then that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, 
I understood as a child, I thought as a child: 
but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly, 
but then face to face: now I know in part; 
but then shall I know even as also I am known.

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; 
but the greatest of these is charity.


I am grateful for my Savior.
His birth, his life, his death....
the sacrifices he has made for
me.
I hope and pray to have Charity,
to be like
our Savior.