Climbing our Mountains

I told my daughter that I was feeling Nimbuscollecti. That’s an odd phrasing for what I was feeling. Where did these words come from? I looked them up in my online dictionary. Nimbus –dark clouds,Collecti, the plural of the masculine colluctus, gathering. All right that was how I was feeling. The dark clouds are gathering. Outside the sky is leaden with black clouds, full of moisture, soon to turn to a flooding of the atmosphere. Inside I too feel the gathering of heavy dark clouds. Something is coming,happening. Will I be able to handle it? I don’t know. I’ll know more Tuesday.

In his conference talk Mountains to Climb this April Henry B. Eyring said,

“If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing.

I heard President Spencer W.Kimball, in a session of conference; ask that God would give him mountains to climb. He said: “There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly,‘Give me this mountain,’ give me these challenges.”

I remember many long years ago when my two oldest children were babies, a woman I knew said she wished she had more trials. Everyone gasped. She continued, saying, During her trials came her greatest humility, the closest she felt to God. It’s true. As I faced my mountains, the deaths of my husband, and then my younger son, there was no one to rely on but my Father in Heaven.

Many people say when they face their trials in life,

“When I have tried all my life to be good, why has this happened to me?”

You know how the Lord answered that question for the Prophet Joseph Smith in his prison cell:

“And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.”

“The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

“Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass.Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.”

President Eyring continues, “You and I have faith that the way to rise through and above trials is to believe that there is a “balm in Gilead” and that the Lord has promised,“I will not … forsake thee.” That is what President Thomas S. Monson has taught us to help us and those we serve in what seem lonely and overwhelming trials..”

When hard trials come, the faith to endure them well will be there, built as you may now notice but may have not at the time that you acted on the pure love of Christ, serving and forgiving others as the Savior would have done. You built a foundation of faith from loving as the Savior loved and serving for Him. Your faith in Him led to acts of charity that will bring you hope.

It is never too late to strengthen the foundation of faith. There is always time. With faith in the Savior, you can repent and plead for forgiveness.There is someone you can forgive. There is someone you can thank. There is someone you can serve and lift. You can do it wherever you are and however alone and deserted you may feel.

If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing. In all conditions, we can choose the right with the guidance of the-spirit. We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ to shape and guide our lives if we choose it. And with prophets revealing to us our place in the plan of salvation, we can live with perfect hope and a feeling of peace. We never need to feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord’s service because we never are. We can feel the love of God.The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word.”

As I was singing the closing Hymn last Sunday one particular verse hit me. I didn’t just sing it, I believed it and finished it in tears. Reverently and Meekly Now

At the throne I intercede; for thee ever  do I plead.

I have loved thee as thy friend, with a love that cannot end.

Be obedient, I implore, Prayerful watchful, ever more,

And be constant unto me, that thy Savior I may be.

Joseph L. Townsend

May you have the Savior's love and help climbing your mountains.