Doing Hard Things

To my daughter, 

I want to encourage you today to trust in the Lord that he can help you to do hard things. Nephi was a great example in the scriptures of the kind of attitude we should have when we face difficulties. When his father asked him to make a long journey to obtain the plates of brass, he said this: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 3:7). He trusted that anything the Lord wanted him to do, he could do it! I love what he said to his brothers when they doubted their ability to get the plates from Laban: “Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands? Therefore let us go up; let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground” (1 Nephi 4:1-2). Though the challenge before him seemed impossible to his brothers, he did not doubt that the Lord was more powerful than any earthly challenge he had to face. 

                Nephi showed his trust in the Lord as well when he was given the incredible task of building a boat to take his family across the ocean. His brothers doubted again that they could really do this, and he testified with great faith that they could do anything the Lord commanded: “If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done. And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?” (1 Nephi 17:50-51) What incredible faith that he had! This is the trust in the Lord that we should all have when we have a hard task that we must accomplish. If God commanded us to do it—we can do it with His help!

                As you learn of the stories of prophets in the scriptures, you will see this same pattern in many of their lives: they accomplished very hard things in the strength of the Lord. Mormon survived the destruction of his people and painstakingly engraved hundreds of pages of scriptures that we now have in the Book of Mormon. Ammon and his brethren were able to preach the gospel to their enemies the Lamanites and help convert thousands of them to the truth. Daniel and his companions were able to stay obedient to the God of Israel even when surrounded by the wickedness of the Babylonians. Enoch preached the gospel to a wicked people and built up a righteous city even when he felt completely inadequate. Paul survived shipwrecks and stoning and sickness as he traveled thousands of miles preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We could list many others here as well—the prophets have always done hard things with the help of the Lord. Even our current prophet, President Nelson, has written a book entitled, “Accomplishing the Impossible.” I want you to know too Lucy that with God’s help, you can do hard things! Never forget that no matter what the challenges you face, if you put your trust in the Lord you can do anything you need to.

Love,

Dad