Hope or Hopeless?

The thought crossed my mind this morning...do I have hope?  Somewhat of a random thought, and may even be taken as depressing. I have hope in myself, or in myself accomplishing something. But, do I have hope in general?  The more I thought about this idea, the more I wondered what hope even is.  How does having hope affect me?  In my trail of questions, I decided to pray and then flip open the scriptures.

I found a verse that shed some light on my hopeless topic. (2 Nephi 31:20)

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a ^asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of ^bhope, and a ^clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and ^dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have ^eeternal life.

This verse brought to me some HOPE.  Hope is something to strive for.  Hope is trusting that God will keep His promises with us.  Hope is the willingness to press forward with steadfastness not knowing the end result.  From this verse we find a blessing of being hopefully, to receive eternal life ( To life with our loving Heavenly Father again!!).

Hope is the attribute that keeps us cheering for the underdog.  I have always found enjoyment in seeing the not so victorious win one, or to see the nobody become a somebody.  Other people need us to have hope in them. 

“Being blessed with hope, let

us, as disciples, reach out to all

who, for whatever reason, have

‘moved away from the hope of

the gospel’ (Col. 1:23). Let us

reach to lift hands which hang

hopelessly down.”

– ELDER NEAL A. MAXWELL

“BRIGHTNESS OF HOPE,”

ENSIGN, NOV. 1994, 36

  

Hope lets us see the rainbow through the rainy days.  Hope gives us a happiness to look and strive forward to!  Hope makes the world a great place.  Hope allows us to see pass our circumstances or our restrictions and to reach our full potential our Heavenly Father is longing to see.

Hope in my opinion is an attribute we all to often under estimate.  Hope leads to a drive to change. Change allows us to reach to our happiness.  I invite all to take this helpful quiz found in Preach My Gospel (with a few minor changes), that helps us see if we are hopeful or hopeless....

 

-One of my greatest desires is to inherit

eternal life in the celestial kingdom of God.

(Moroni 7:41)

-I am confident that I will have a happy and

successful life. (D&C 31:3–5)

-I feel peaceful and optimistic about the

future. (D&C 59:23)

-I firmly believe that someday I will dwell

with God and become like Him. (Ether 12:4)

Do you have hope?

Hope

Strive towards Christ

Right now I am trying to focus on knowing Christ better in my life.  I came to the conclusion the best way to come to know someone, is to become like them.  Becoming like Christ is no simple task, He is perfect, but it something to continually strive for.

Once I had set my mind to this focus of Christ, it seemed like opportunities to put it to the test kept arising.  These opportunities were not always ones looked forward to.  Christ is Christ because He loves perfectly.  No matter what the situation maybe or how unfair the circumstance He still loved perfectly.  My opportunities came from loving in tough situations.  We all come across a lot of people in our lives, some are not the easiest to love.

How does Christ do it??  How can He keep His cool, and not get frustrated??  How does He only show this perfect type of love, and not even complain or expect praise back??

I don't think I will ever fully know how He does it in this life.  But I am sure grateful that He does.  I am grateful that He has mastered the art of Love, giving us all an example to follow.  I have realized in my focus on Christ, as I come closer to Him it seems like I see more and more areas I can personally improve on.  How awesome is that, as we strive to come closer to Christ, Heavenly Father shows us our imperfections and gives us the chance to work on them.

I know becoming like Christ is a lofty goal, but it is one I desire to work towards.  It brings lots of self reflections, and helps me realize where true happiness comes from.  Christ didn't have eternal happiness because of riches and gold, but because the perfect love He had developed for others.  His love did not have bounds or confound by pride.  He did not see people for their outward worth or appearance.  Christ loves all, the righteous and the sinner.

I invite all of you in joining with me in attempts to become more like Christ.  He is the light and life of the world.  He is perfect.  He is the Lamb of God.  He is our older brother we can all look up to and diligently strive to become like!!