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Let Hope Be Your Guide

Hey there Friend,

If you've been like me over the last few years you've wondered what the future holds. You've wondered if it's possible to keep going when everything around you seems bleak and uncertain. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, "Hope helps us to walk by faith, not by sight. This can actually be safer. When unaided spiritually, natural sight often shrinks from the odds (see 2 Cor. 5:7). It is immobilized by improbabilities. Mauled by his moods and intimidated by his fears, the natural man overreacts to, while hope overrides, the disappointments of the day." Often times I've found myself wondering if having faith is possible, if having faith is worth it, or if having faith is actually courageous. When I read quotes like this it helps me to remember that having faith will override all the disappointments and fears that life brings. We won't get through life without disappointment and fear. We don't get to travel this life without experiencing a range of emotions.

I want to illustrate to a small degree what this has looked like for me in a story from a few years back. After having my 3rd little girl I was struggling big time. Some of you may have heard this story but I was extremely frightened to be alone, I was scared of the unknown and I was terrified that my emotions were too big to handle. I would try and "hide" from my big feelings and do whatever I could to distract myself from actually feeling the things my brain was trying to get me to feel. I went to counseling, and then hired coaches to teach some of the skills I needed to help me through this time.

After some time I found gratitude and that brought me peace and hope. I could finally feel myself taking a deep breath after being in darkness for what seemed so long. Now after looking back I recognize that the bravest thing I could do in that situation was to hope for the future. To hope that life would get better and to hope that the heaviness and emptiness would somehow be lifted. To face my demons head-on and to recognize that my brain somehow makes things seem scarier than they really are. That was not a journey I could take alone, it was much too scary to take it alone, but with the right support, I finally look back and be proud of how far I've come.

I believe having hope is one of the answers to so much pain in the world. The kind of hope that brings us to our knees and helps us remember that we are enough, we do have infinite worth and potential and we will get through this!

Take Care,
Christy and the family

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