Thank the Lord for the Journey

“Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride” (President Gordon B. Hinckley).

We have no guarantees in life except that by keeping the commandments we will be happy. It’s my testimony that there is no better guarantee. Regardless of how well we think we’ve planned our lives, generally, just like a train ride, there are bumps and setbacks and changes to the plan, but if we are counseling with the Lord we can be confident we are going in the right direction. I have no idea what my journey will yet be like, but this week I experienced a large bump on my journey and saw that I had the choice if I would continue the journey and with what attitude I would endure it. It’s become clear to me that the happiness of the journey is completely up to us. My stake president said to us today, “It is through pain that we find our most significant happiness.”

I found out on Wednesday that in order to be certified in English I would need to pass the French Praxis, since French was my minor. I had assumed that if I had passed the English Praxis I could teach English. Without getting into all of the logistics of it, I have a little over a month to pass the French Praxis if I want to teach right after student teaching. At first I was completely upset. I felt like I had done so much to follow God, I was doing everything I was supposed to, how could God expect me to relearn French after being away from it for over a year and half? Thank you to my dear friends who were my back bone when I needed it. Thursday morning I reflected on all I had learned and saw the decisions I would need to make. It was so unlike me to be so frustrated. I determined right then that I would find the good in this and do all I could to pass this test and if I don’t pass, then God must be working to make something happen that I am not aware of yet. By divine providence, I met someone from Africa who speaks and used to teach French. He volunteered to tutor me and said if I let him teach me that I would pass this test. I have no guarantee that I’ll pass or not, but I know as long as I do my part, God will not let me end up on a bad path. This is all part of the glorious journey that will not only take me back home, but make me understand home.

I have learned again that happiness doesn’t come as a result of an easy, “perfect” life. “Those who are successful and happy were happy before they were successful, and those who are unhappy and successful were unhappy before they were successful.  Happiness is what happens now, in the everyday moments. “The time to be happy is now.” My whole stake conference today was based on happiness and all the speakers taught and testified that happiness is not what we get after enduring to the end, finding happiness now is enduring to the end.

I love Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

 “Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”

This has become my goal. If everything I did was to help someone else I would always be happy, not by an intention to find happiness or success, but because by finding a cause greater than myself I will always be happy, and that is success.

If you are facing turbulent struggles on your train ride of life, if your train has left the beautiful vistas and turned to a more treacherous looking path, or if I you are asleep on the train not sure what is going on anymore, I ask you to trust in the Lord. Endure the trial, have faith when the Lord leads you in the unknown, and arise and find someone to help on their journey. The ride will go on and will bring you back home, but if you don’t understand the purpose of the journey how will you ever understand home when you get there? That is what God wants for us. He doesn’t want to just give us all He has, He wants us to become all He is. Thus we must learn from experience, from trials, all that He learned when He was in our position.

“To live is to suffer. Help us be worthy of our suffering” (Fydor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment).  

Be grateful for everyday of your life, no matter what you experience, it is a grand gift from God. Every day is a lifetime opportunity. Live worthy of all God has given you and will yet give you. Trust in Him. He doesn’t want you to wait to be happy. His commandments are what He has given so you and I can be happy every day, now and forever.

I have been grateful for my students and the faculty at Dobson High. I feel blessed to work with such wonderful people. Not many are LDS and they all seem to think I am a different breed of human to be as "virtuous" as I am. I don't mind being called out all the time for being "sweet and pure." I think that's one of the greatest things to be noticed for. They have also been amazed at my social life for having just moved here a couple months ago. I tell them it's all thanks to my church. At lunch one day, one of the ladies expressed her frustration with single men these days, they just drink and sleep around and she just wanted to find a good decent guy already. I told her she was more than welcome to come meet some honorable men with me at my church. At first she was like, no way, I don't want a Mormon, but after talking for awhile I asked if she'd want to come to a dance, or activity next time we have one. She actually said yes! I'm so grateful for God in letting me meet her. I've been really sad at not having done much "missionary work" but I realize that my example with my co-workers is my missionary work. Paul (my mentor teacher) said that was a big deal for that teacher to say she would go with me. I love this church and would live this life even if no one else was watching, but I'm grateful that my life is still a tool for God. Sometimes my students think I'm crazy, but they love me. I hope some of them gain a belief and testimony in living a "pure life."

I love them all, I love my family, I love the Hakes. Papa Glenn took me to the football game Friday, he was the best date I've had since being home! When one student jumped next to me on the bleachers, Glenn was like "Hey! She's my date!" Papa Glenn and Maman Josette are so wonderful. God truly does love us all more than we understand. Trust Him. Let His love transform you.