The Infinite Power of Hope ~ Part One

      Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 

this post should take four minutes to seven minutes to read from start to finish.

What is your definition of the word, "hope"? Have you applied "hope" throughout your life thus far?

What does "hope" means to a immediate relative? What does "hope" means to a non-member friend? 

This post focuses on a October 2008 General Conference, and it is called "The Infinite Power of Hope" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. This post is part one. I hope you will be able to learn something new while reading throughout this post. 

President Uchtdorf has mentioned the following; 

"... Toward the end of World War II, my father was drafted into the German army and sent to the western front, leaving my mother alone to care for our family. Though I was only three years old, I can still remember this time of fear and hunger. 

... Finally, during the cold winter of 1944, my mother decided to flee to Germany, where her parents were living. She bundled us up and somehow managed to get us on one of the last refugee trains heading west. Traveling during that time was dangerous. 

Everywhere we went, the sound of explosions, the stressed faces, and ever-present hunger reminded us that we were in a war zone. Along the way the train stopped occasionally to get supplies. One night during one of these stops, my mother hurried out of the train to search for some food for her four children. 

When she returned, to her great horror, the train and her children were gone! She was weighed down with worry; desperate prayers filled her heart. She frantically searched the large and dark train station, urgently crisscrossing the numerous tracks while hoping against hope that the train had not already departed.

Perhaps I will never know all that went through my mother’s heart and mind on that black night as she searched through a grim railroad station for her lost children. That she was terrified, I have no doubt. I am certain it crossed her mind that if she did not find this train, she might never see her children again. 

I know with certainty: her faith overcame her fear, and her hope overcame her despair. She was not a woman who would sit and bemoan tragedy. She moved. She put her faith and hope into action. And so she ran from track to track and from train to train until she finally found our train. It had been moved to a remote area of the station. 

There, at last, she found her children again. I have often thought about that night and what my mother must have endured. If I could go back in time and sit by her side, I would ask her how she managed to go on in the face of her fears. 

I would ask about faith and hope and how she overcame despair. While that is impossible, perhaps today I could sit by your side and by the side of any who might feel discouraged, worried, or lonely. ...

"Hope in God, His goodness, and His power refreshes
us with courage during difficult challenges." 

The Importance of Hope

Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we 

might encounter at the time. 

The scriptures are clear and certain about the importance of hope. ... Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness. ... Hope is a gift of the Spirit. It is a hope that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the power of His Resurrection, we shall be raised unto life eternal and this because of our faith in the Savior. 

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. Hope in our Heavenly Father’s merciful plan of happiness leads to peace, mercy, rejoicing, and gladness. ...

But Why Then Is There Despair?

The scriptures say that there must be “an opposition in all things.” So it is with faith, hope, and charity. Doubt, despair, and failure to care for our fellowmen lead us into temptation, which can cause us to forfeit choice and precious blessings.

The adversary uses despair to bind hearts and minds in suffocating darkness. Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. ... Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward.

Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. ... It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear." 

Stay Tuned until next time.