Faith

Faith is an action that helps us become more Christ like. As a perfect example of faith, Christ followed Heavenly Fathers will and suffered himself to be crucified. As part of Gods plan, we needed someone to provide that atonement for us. Christ followed gods plan and provided us a way to get back to our Heavenly home. Without the atonement we will never be able to return back to god. As stated in 2 Nephi 9:7 it reads, “Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement-save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. As we exercise faith in the atonement we can have strength in our trials, we can have the knowledge that god loves us, and most importantly our faith will bring us back home to our heavenly father.
As a young single adult, my biggest trial is exercising faith during trials in my life. Though my family life is pretty close to perfect, I however, struggle knowing that I’m the only “single” sibling that isn’t married. But out of my step-family, that is not the case. My step-brother Trent is engaged, not married. My other step-sister Hayley, is married with a daughter. My other two step-sisters are Heather who has a boyfriend at 16 years old. And then Ashley who is 15 who is in-fact single! And then I have another step-brother who is also single at 18 years of age.
Being single has caused me to have depression at times in my life. This is almost unbearable at times and causes me more heart-ache than anything else. Depression has driven me to my knees crying by my bed side wondering why I’m on this earth. Why am I going through this trial? And the answer that comes to me most frequent is the scripture, Doctrine and Covenants 121:7 “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment.” I must admit, sometimes when I’m really frustrated, my comment to that answer is, “you call eight years but a small moment?!” Even after I cry by my bed side sometimes for hours, the lord never leaves me without the feeling of peace.
Why do I bring up my single life as my trial? It is because I’m blessed in mostly every important area in my life. I have a job that will pay my bills, I don’t have a lot of family drama and I can deal with that. And I have a set of friends that I believe will always be there for me. As for school, I do have to work a little harder than most in order to retain information I study, but I’ve learned that as long as I try my hardest the lord recalls to me most of the information I study and I have passed every class I’ve allowed him to help me in. that means, I’ve failed some courses and I have retaken them and have passed them because I have learned that I can’t pass the class without the lord. As school is a constant trial, I know that I will one day graduate and so therefore school I’m not too concerned with. It’s easy to have faith in things you know will come to pass when you know have control over it. But it is the things that you can’t see that it is hard to have faith in.
The things I don’t see includes, who is the girl I’m going to marry for all eternity? I’ve read the Book of Mormon but I’ve never seen the gold plates from where book was translated by. I’ve never seen Jesus Christ or Heavenly Father or the Holy Ghost, but I’ve felt Their presence and Their love for me. And lastly, Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints really the only true and living church upon this earth? These are things that I know I’ll see one day but it has not come to pass. I’ve felt that I will marry in the lords temple one day, I’ve felt that the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost do exist. And yet, these are things that I still sometimes lose faith in. I’ve asked myself this question, “why do you lose faith in these things?” The answers come as quickly as I blink.
1. It’s been a while since you’ve prayed and read the scriptures.
2. You’ve been bitter at your past whether it be rejections from girls, or a coach that decided to never look at how skilled you are as a soccer player and cut you from making JV as a freshman and sophomore, and then when you did make JV and Varsity only got 10 minutes of playing time each game. (I’m very bitter about that still!)
3. You stopped serving others and have stopped saying Hi to others (it seems like most of the time I need to say Hi first in order for them to acknowledge that I’m there.)
4. You’ve forgotten your many blessings and forgotten that the lord loves you.
When I lose sight of these four things it usually leads me to depression. It’s straight forward for me to know what I need to do in order for me to be continually happy. I have also noticed another thing. Doing positive things like keeping the commandments, and following church guidelines, will keep the spirit with me so that when depression hits it will not last too long.
Faith will always be a principle that people will gain a testimony in or lose a testimony in. Faith if not continually practiced will cause depression, a loss in the spirit, and can even cause one to take his or her life. Faith if practiced will cause eternal happiness, strength to overcome weakness or trial, find that you qualify for the atonement, and a testimony that Christ loves us so deeply that he suffered both pain and death in order for us to return back to the Father.
For those of us that have entered into the covenant of baptism and for those of us that have made other covenants through the temple, and have also received our patriarchal blessing, The lord has the power to ensure that the covenant we have made with him will be satisfied. It is through our Faith that will ensure that those covenants and promises we have made will be valid in the end.
Through trial and error, I know that faith is the first principle and ordinance of the gospel. I know that exercised faith has the power to get us through lives challenges; it has the power for us to gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and the atonement, to know that the Book of Mormon is true and the Church of Jesus Christ is true. Faith will help us receive answers to our prayers and god will grant those answers in his own due time. Who knows, maybe if we continually exercise faith the shorter the time slot will be for the answer.
Jesus Christ lives and he loves us dearly. He wants us to return back to the Father who also loves us dearly. They love us enough to test us, to try us, in order to help us grow. Without hands on experience we may never know some of the stuff they do. I am grateful for all of gods creations, except flies (besides the fact that they provide food for other insects.) I am grateful that he has a hand in my life to guide me and to help me make good choices that enables me to fulfill the plan he has for me. In closing I know that the atonement is real and we are eligible to receive its grace the moment we decide to take part in it.