The Palm of His Hands

The Gospel of Love and Hope

I just had the opportunity to watch the Face2Face for Young Single Adults with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland that was originally broadcast this past Tuesday, March 8, 2016. If you have not seen it, I encourage you to take the time to watch it. Elder Holland in his opening remarks said there was three things that he hoped that the young adults would learn from them that night.

“First that you are loved. God loves you, the Church loves you, the First Presidency and The Quorum of the Twelve love you, your leaders love you’re your parents love you. Second there maybe some who live in areas of the world where there are few in numbers. We want you to know that you have a great support group all over the world. There are millions that are cheering for you. Take strength in the brotherhood and sisterhood that we represent. Third you are a royal generation. You are the future of the church. We want you to take seriously the next step in you lives, your generation will very soon have to do what we have been doing. We want you to take seriously your role in the kingdom. We hope that your service to the church, the Lord, and the community will be as we know you can be..”

What a great message to the youth of the church. With all of the struggles that our youth are dealing with to know that they are loved is a great gift.

The first question that was asked was “is a happy marriage possible?” Elder Holland responded that not only is a happy marriage possible it is the rule. He said that the only thing in heaven are families, that is why we build temples. He said we talk a lot about families because we practice here what we are supposed to be like there. We do teach that these principles are for everyone. Marriage is ordained of Goad and central to the plan. There maybe some that will never marry, but we do not shy away from the ideal. The ideal is that marriage and families are essential to the Lord’s plan. Even though we see a lot of unhappy marriages, it is not the norm. You can have a happy marriage if you work at it.

When asked what he and his wife do to make their marriage happy, Elder Holland said:

We love each other I love her and there is nothing that I would not do for her. There is nothing that she has not already done for me. I am what I am because of her. She has sacrificed everything for our children, my profession, my call. The best definition of marriage is by James Thurber, a humorist, Love is what you go through together. Don’t be hasty or get ulcers about getting married. But don’t hold back. If we would have waited to get married until we had money, we still would not be married. When we got married we had $300 between us. Don’t wait until you finish school, or have a car, etc. If you do you will miss everything you would have gone through together. There is nothing you do that you don’t need to work at it to be successful. You have to work to succeed in school, work, sports. Everything. Why would you think you don’t need to work at marriage? Memorize D&C 4 and substitute missionary work with marriage.”

Another question that was asked was “With all the cynicisms and criticism, we get from the world, how can we find peace? Elder Hallstrom said one of the fruits of the atonement is hope:

“We know who were are and that gives us the hope to press forward. Discouragement is debilitating and we quit. The hope for the future is more glorious than we know. Elder Holland quoted from Alma who know about transgression, told his son Helaman: “I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day. (Alma 36:3)

“Elder Holland said we can open the scriptures anywhere and find the answers to that question. The church has invested millions of dollars in the institute program so the young adults can learn from the scriptures. First and foremost is the life of the Savior in all of his life how to face adversity. There is hope for all of us, some blessings come now, some later. All things the Lord has said will be fulfilled. If it is a baby blessing, a priesthood blessing, whatever it is all the Lord’s promises will be fulfilled eventually.”

These two promises –that God loves us and that there is a hope in this life as well as the in the life to come for the obedient can help all of us, no matter what age we are, to get through the trials that we face each day. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of love and hope. What else do we need?

Your comments and questions are welcome.