Never a Happier Time

I remember a walk I took with my dad when I was in 6^th grade in which he asked me if I was going to get a 4.0 in 7^th grade. He knew I was a good student and had high expectations for me. I felt that everybody did, and as I started 7^th grade I became overwhelmed and just about had a nervous breakdown because I felt so much pressure to do well, mostly brought on by myself. I don’t know exactly how I got over those feelings, but as I think about it, at least one part of it was that I simply went to work. As I worked as hard as I could, I eventually got into the routine of things and learned that I could do what was required of me despite my fears and anxiety. About four years later when I was a junior in high school, I remember my AP History teacher said something about me to the whole class. I was known as being smart because I did well in school, and he said something like this in front of everyone, “I don’t think Morgan is that smart. He just works hard.” I don’t remember why he said that about me, but he was one of my favorite teachers and I don’t remember being bothered by the comment at all. For working hard was what I knew how to do, and I think he was spot on in his assessment. If I had any success it was due more to hard work than intelligence. If there is one thing I have learned in life, it is that hard work goes a long way, and it is the best way to obtain what we need most: help from the Lord. As President Nelson famously put it, “The Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it.” I learned how to work hard from my parents. My mom never seemed to stop working around the house to take care of the family, starting at 4:30 am Monday mornings when she would be up cleaning the bathrooms. She wore herself out cleaning and cooking and sewing and running kids around and doing the other million things that needed doing around the house and for the children (only after I became a parent did I realize how much she did!). My dad always worked hard in his job, up early and working late and often into the weekend. He also taught me about perseverance when he tried to make a runner out of me, and those endless laps we did around the high school track helped me realize that with great effort I could do hard things.

               As I have tried to follow my parents’ example of hard work, I have realized that there is great joy and satisfaction that comes from hard work that can’t be found any other way. This description about a time of righteousness among the Jaredites teaches us about the benefits of hard work: “And they were exceedingly industrious, and they did buy and sell and traffic one with another, that they might get gain. And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work. And they did have silks, and fine-twined linen; and they did work all manner of cloth, that they might clothe themselves from their nakedness. And they did make all manner of tools to till the earth, both to plow and to sow, to reap and to hoe, and also to thrash. And they did make all manner of tools with which they did work their beasts. And they did make all manner of weapons of war. And they did work all manner of work of exceedingly curious workmanship.” These verses stressed that they worked and worked and worked, and what became of it? “And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord. And they were in a land that was choice above all lands, for the Lord had spoken it” (Ether 10:22-28). They were exceedingly blessed by the Lord, and I believe it was because they worked so hard that He blessed and prospered them. At a difficult time in Nephite history, Moroni helped the Nephites prepare for impending attacks from the wicked Lamanites. They worked extremely hard to fortify the Nephite cities from the Lamanites, and despite the fact that they were living in a time of war, Mormon said this about them: “But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni, yea, even at this time, in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges” (Alma 50:23). They were so happy not because they didn’t have worries or because life was easy; rather, they were happy because they had worked so hard to prepare and the Lord had blessed them with peace and joy despite their circumstances. Ultimately our blessings come from the Lord, and as we work hard in whatever we are trying to accomplish and reach out in earnestness to Him, I know that He blesses and helps and prospers us in His own way. There is a quote attributed to St. Augustine which says this: “Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on you.” In whatever we are doing, we need hard work and the help of God obtained through prayer.