Faith vs. Fear

It seems as if bad news is everywhere these days. Hearing about the current economic crisis, along with natural disasters, war, disease, and increasing levels of filth in the world, I have found myself feeling increasingly stressed, anxious, worried and even scared about my future and the future of my family. These emotions were starting to take center stage in my mind more often than the emotions of optimism, happiness and gratitude. I was in serious need of a shift in thought.

Luckily, two weeks ago was General Conference. I watched the Saturday sessions on TV all day while Brandon was at work (while I folded laundry and made a ginormous batch of mini pumpkin chocolate chip muffins to freeze for later enjoyment). It was like every single talk was written just for me. The whole day seemed to have an underlying theme of faith, hope and joy. A couple talks in particular really stood out to me. One was by Neil L. Anderson, who said: "Faith and fear cannot coexist in our hearts at the same time. In our days of difficulty, we choose the road of faith. Jesus said, 'Be not afraid, only believe.' "

President Uchtdorf (don't you just adore him?) gave a fantastic talk called "The Infinite Power of Hope." This talk was a beam of light shining down on my discouraged self. Some of my favorite quotes were:

"Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness."

"It [hope] is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance."

"There may be times when we must make a courageous decision to hope even when everything around us contradicts this hope."

"This kind of hope is both a principle of promise as well as a commandment, and, as with all commandments, we have the responsibility to make it an active part of our lives and overcome the temptation to lose hope."

His words were a wake up call for me to stop wallowing in pity and worry and CHOOSE to be optimistic and full of hope. I needed the reminder that I am in control of whether I decide to let fear creep in and crowd out faith and joy, even if I'm not in control of what goes on in the world. These talks truly were answers to my prayers, and I'm not too proud to say:

LESSON LEARNED.