I Will Go Before Your Face

To my daughter, 

               As you start school tomorrow, you will meet new friends, develop new skills, learn new information, and have some great experiences. As you do this, I want you to strive to always remember Jesus. There are two things in particular that I hope you will remember. First, know that Jesus loves you perfectly and will always be with you to help you if you seek Him. You are never alone. This is what the Savior said to His missionaries: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:88). I believe that promise is really for all of us when we remember Him and seek to follow Him. As you try your very best to make right choices, as you remember Him and try to live as He would want you to live, He will be there to comfort you and strengthen you even though you don’t see Him. Know that you can always pray, even in your mind, and the Lord will hear you and help you. I love this description of the Savior by Alma: “[He is] full of grace, equity, and truth, full of patience, mercy, and long-suffering, quick to hear the cries of his people and to answer their prayers” (Alma 9:26). In another scripture the Savior said this: “Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers” (Doctrine and Covenants 112:10). Mom and I will not always be there to hold your hand, but the Savior Himself has promised that He will do that job if you are humble and seek Him. Never forget that He is near and always sees you.

               The second way that I want you to remember the Savior is in striving to live as He would have you live. Some people wear little wrist bands which say WWJD, meaning What Would Jesus Do? This is a great question to ask yourself as you interact with others and make choices about what to say and what to do. As you think about the perfect love that Jesus has towards others, and His commitment to always do what His Father wanted Him to do, you will know how to act. When the resurrected Savior visited the Nephites, He gave them this counsel: “Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27). He wants us to be like Him—that’s not an easy instruction to follow! All our lives we should strive to keep that invitation, and though we will inevitably fall short and make mistakes, each day we can try to be a little more like Him. I hope that as you interact with your friends and teachers and others at school you will remember to treat them as He would treat them. You might try to remember this description of what the Savior did when He was on the earth: “They scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men” (1 Nephi 19:19). Can you imagine that? Even when people hit Him and spit on Him, He “suffered it” and did not react in anger to them because of His long-suffering and his great kindness. I know that you are also full of kindness and great love, and I hope you will think of Him as you strive to show that to those you meet at school. 

Love,

Dad