Joy in the Journey

This is from a Relief Society lesson I taught in the fall of 2008. I think I might have lost a page of it, though, because there isn't really any conclusion. 

Finding Joy in the Journey—President Thomas S. Monson

When I was preparing this lesson, I thought about some of the hymns about joy, and I learned something new. One of the hymns I listened to is “You Can Make the Pathway Bright,” and I think I’ve always focused on the second and third verses, which focus on making someone else’s life brighter through kindness and service. But I missed the first and fourth verses, which talk about our own individual pathways. Our lives can be happy—if there’s sunshine in our hearts. And if we turn to “There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today,” I think we can use “heart” from the first hymn and “soul” from the second to mean the same thing, so our pathway is bright, or we have joy in the journey, when there is sunshine in our souls, and there is sunshine in our souls when “Jesus is my light.”

What does it mean to have Jesus as our light?

What is light? It’s something that makes things visible—so it’s something by which we can see.

And there are different types of lights and different degrees of light. Usually there are times throughout the day that you could either turn your lights on or off. We can see better based on what type of light, how much light there is.

Jesus is the Light, our ultimate source of light. To me, when He is the light be which I see, things look at lot better than what they look like without Him. Have you ever noticed that, how a day can look so gloomy but then something happens and your heart is touched by the Spirit and your vision changes and the day looks a lot brighter?  The pathway is brighter and we can find joy in the journey when Jesus is our light.

So, how do we have Jesus as our light, to help us find joy?

President Monson mentions a few ways, including having gratitude for the Savior, and Sister Bonnie D. Parkin, former Relief Society General President, said, “Gratitude is a Spirit-filled principle. It opens our minds to a universe permeated with the richness of a living God.” When we are grateful, it changes the way we see.

So, why should we have gratitude for our Savior? What things should we be grateful for?

President Monson mentions a few things in his talk. He says:

“I pray that all of us will reflect gratitude for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His glorious gospel provides answers to life’s greatest questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where does my spirit go when I die?

He taught us how to pray. He taught us how to serve. He taught us how to live. His life is a legacy of love. The sick He healed; the downtrodden He lifted; the sinner He saved.”

So, we can be grateful for His gospel, which gives us answers to life’s greatest questions, for the lessons that He taught us about how to pray, how to serve, how to love. For the fact that He did and does heal the sick, lift the downtrodden, and save the sinner—that He does those things for us.

How do we express gratitude to our Savior?

President Monson says, “He beckons, “Follow me.” 15 He instructs, “Go, and do thou likewise.” 16 He pleads, “Keep my commandments.” ¹⁷

“Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His word. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude.”

President Monson also talks about having gratitude even in adversity and tells a story that I love to illustrate this principle:

“Many years ago I was touched by the story of Borghild Dahl. She was born in Minnesota in 1890 of Norwegian parents and from her early years suffered severely impaired vision. She had a tremendous desire to participate in everyday life despite her handicap and, through sheer determination, succeeded in nearly everything she undertook. Against the advice of educators, who felt her handicap was too great, she attended college, receiving her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota. She later studied at Columbia University and the University of Oslo. She eventually became the principal of eight schools in western Minnesota and North Dakota.

“She wrote the following in one of the 17 books she authored: “I had only one eye, and it was so covered with dense scars that I had to do all my seeing through one small opening in the left of the eye. I could see a book only by holding it up close to my face and by straining my one eye as hard as I could to the left.” ⁷

“Miraculously, in 1943—when she was over 50 years old—a revolutionary procedure was developed which finally restored to her much of the sight she had been without for so long. A new and exciting world opened up before her. She took great pleasure in the small things most of us take for granted, such as watching a bird in flight, noticing the light reflected in the bubbles of her dishwater, or observing the phases of the moon each night. She closed one of her books with these words: “Dear … Father in heaven, I thank Thee. I thank Thee.” ⁸

“Borghild Dahl, both before and after her sight was restored, was filled with gratitude for her blessings.

“In 1982, two years before she died, at the age of 92 her last book was published. Its title: Happy All My Life. Her attitude of thankfulness enabled her to appreciate her blessings and to live a full and rich life despite her challenges.”

I love that story and what we learn from it. I love the fact that this woman was able to be happy all her life, not just when things went how she wanted them to; when she finally got the blessing that she had probably wanted all her life. The title of her book isn’t “Waiting All My Life” or “Hoping All My Life.” It could have been, because she probably did spend her whole life wanting to see. But it wasn’t.

How do you think this woman was able to be happy all her life?

·         She had a life—she set goals and achieved them. She got an education even when other people told her she shouldn’t or it would be too hard. (Parable of the talents—take what your master gives you and do all you can with it)

·         She could find joy in little things, and I don’t know the details here, but I would imagine that’s not a quality she developed after she could see. I would think she probably spend her whole life being able to “see” a lot more than others could because she could be happy with the little things.

The Lord tells us to be grateful in all things, not just some of them, and since He doesn’t give us commandments that we can’t keep, that means there is a way to do it.

President Monson also says, “Said one well-known author: “Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.” ⁶

One way we have gratitude is just by picking which garden you tend; some days, gratitude seems to come naturally, but other days, it can be a lot harder. But if we really try, we can always find things to be grateful for. We’ve already talked about Jesus Christ, and we can certainly always be grateful for Him.

President Monson tells us focus on what is most important in life; he says, “Our realization of what is most important in life goes hand in hand with gratitude for our blessings.”

Why do you think that is?

When you realize what’s most important, you also realize what you have.

So what is most important? President Monson gives some very clear counsel: “Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.” ³ We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us.

“…Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.”

How does the light of Christ help us to know what is most important?

It helps us put things in perspective. For me, there are times when I’ve been prompted to do something first—call my little brother instead of starting my homework right away, or things like that. There are constant reminders from the leaders of the Church, who tell us what’s most important and what things to focus on. There a constant reminder in three-fold mission of the Church—perfecting the Saints, redeeming the dead, and proclaiming the Gospel—which all deal with helping people.

One we’ve realized what’s most important, why is life better and brighter when we focus on things that are most important?

Again, it helps put things in perspective, and the bad things, like doing poorly on an assignment or even in a class, don’t seem quite as important or as bad. It makes those things which are important stand out more and helps us to be grateful for them.