Remember the Vision

Yesterday I had the chance to catch up on the phone with a good friend from my youth.  He asked me for some words of wisdom as a fortune cookie had recently told him that a friend would give him such.  He is a much wiser and better man than me, and so I didn’t feel I had any wisdom of my own to impart.  But as I’ve considered his question, I do recall the wisdom he shared with me many years ago as I recorded it in my mission journal.  We had a monthly newsletter that a missionary mom compiled and sent around to all of the Elders in the field from a group of friends who were serving at the same time.  In it this friend of mine wrote something which was very impactful for me as I was just starting my mission.  Here is how I recorded his words in my journal: “I want every single one of you to remember something… remember the vision that you had of what kind of missionary you would be.  Because I promise you that idleness and self-pity will want to set in….  We don’t have to just try to fit in and be a ‘go-with-the-flow’ missionary.  Every one of you are one of a kind and you have the potential to become the best.  It just won’t happen though!  It will be a trial, it will be a struggle!  If you’re put with a companion that doesn’t want to work hard, show him the meaning of hard work.  Even if you’re put with a companion that works hard, show ‘em how we do it back in Sandy!”  This was a powerful reminder to seek to actually become the kind of diligent, inspired, obedient missionary that I had envisioned myself becoming as a child.  Now, many years later, I still find inspiration in those words, although the calling and responsibilities have changed.  I was a kinder, wiser, more patient, and more loving man in how I imagined my adult self would be than I actually am today.  And so, to answer the request of my friend who asked for wisdom, I give to him and me his own words from so long ago: “Remember the vision that you had of what kind of father, husband, and Priesthood holder you would be.”
               The corollary is that we also need an inspired vision also of what we can become and accomplish with the help of the Lord.  One of the scriptures that my mission president often used to inspire us was this proverb: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).  He taught us to see beyond the day-to-day proselyting activities and have a broader vision of what we could accomplish through faith in Jesus Christ.  He wanted us to see the temple sealing that could take place for our struggling investigators, to see the stake that our small branch we were working in could one day become, to envision how the light of gospel faith could spread across the very secular country we were laboring in.  That kind of vision is certainly needed in raising a family, for it is difficult to see past the daily grind: the office, the traffic, the dishes, the tantrums, the homework, the diapers, the fights, the laundry, and all the little things that have to be taken care of to keep a family running.  It is easy to wonder, amidst the daily chaos, what is all the hard work and struggle really for?  When we have no vision of what we are striving to obtain, then we certainly can “perish” spiritually.  We need to have, as the prophets of old, the “eye of faith” to see what the future can be for us and our family (Ether 12:19).  I guess we should seek to have the kind of faith that Brigham Young taught those working on the Salt Lake Temple to have: “Build not for today nor tomorrow," he said, "but for all eternity."  This is the idea behind the Lord’s counsel to the Saints in 1831: “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33). 

And so what is that great work that we are doing?  I believe that Mormon gave us the clearest answer.  We are seeking for us and our families to be “filled with this love, which [God] hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that [we] may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure” (Moroni 7:48).  That is surely the desired end, the vision of what we can become: to be filled with the love of God and purified from all sin like the Savior.  When I was in the MTC, President Nelson told us that the success of our missions would be seen in the Christlike qualities of our grandchildren, a vision far broader than any of us had contemplated.  And I imagine he might say the same thing about the end goal of all of our efforts in the gospel today—that we and our children and all our posterity become even as the Savior is.