Never Get Discouraged

To my son,  

              Yesterday your Grandpa told me that I should write something about how to deal with disappointment. He was mostly joking because we were both disappointed because of the result of a certain football game, but I believe it is a critical skill to develop in this life. We will all face disappointments and if we want to be happy we have to learn how to work through them and still keep hope and faith in the future. The Prophet Joseph Smith spoke to his cousin George A. Smith when the latter was very sick about dealing with disappointment and discouragement. George A. Smith recorded,  “He [the Prophet] told me I should never get discouraged, whatever difficulties might surround me. If I were sunk into the lowest pit of Nova Scotia and all the Rocky Mountains piled on top of me, I ought not to be discouraged, but hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I should come out on the top of the heap.” A few days before Joseph Smith died, when he knew that he and his people were in great danger, he said this to Abraham Hodge: “Now, Brother Hodge, let what will, come; don’t deny the faith, and all will be well.” In both of those statements, a key thing he mentioned was the need for faith. That is, I believe, the antidote for discouragement. As we exercise faith in Jesus Christ, we trust that all things will work out if we do our best to follow Him. The scriptures testify of this fact in numerous places. For example, Paul said this: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). We can trust that no matter what happens, the Lord can cause it to work for our good if we are faithful to Him.

               Several other scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants give a similar promise. One verse reads this way: “Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another” (Doctrine and Covenants 90:24). He used similar language in this promise: “Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:3). A short time later the Lord also said this: “Therefore, let your hearts be comforted; for all things shall work together for good to them that walk uprightly, and to the sanctification of the church” (Doctrine and Covenants 100:15). And to a group of Saints who had suffered great persecutions: “Therefore, let your hearts be comforted; for all things shall work together for good to them that walk uprightly, and to the sanctification of the church” (Doctrine and Covenants 100:15). I love all of these verses because they promise that everything will work together for our good as we are faithful to the Savior. No matter what setbacks or disappointment that we face in our lives, we can trust that the Lord will see us through so that everything works out in the end. The key to facing disappointment is indeed turning to the Lord, whether in items big or small, and as we center our faith in Him, He will indeed cause that everything works together for our good. 

Love,

Dad