Isaiah 40:8
When I was about the age of 23 years old, married to my wonderful wife Bethany and attending the University of Utah as an undergraduate student, there came a window of time that I remember quite well. Having bought my first car a year or so earlier, the day came when an oncoming driver ran a stop sign and my car was totaled. Thankfully nobody was hurt. But now I no longer had a car, which was certainly something that took time to get used to. Then only a couple weeks later, my phone began having problems and began losing many of its capabilities. And during all of this, my laptop had many problems, specifically related to the built-in wifi card. It seemed as if many of the valuable items I possessed were fading away into the past.
At the same time I had a couple friends who chose to disassociate themselves from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church that we together had been a part of for many previous years. It was heart-breaking for me to see individuals, who I considered friends, move away from what I knew to be a true source of peace and joy. And what made it more disappointing was the fact that I had introduced the gospel to them at differing times in the few prior years, and they both had accepted my invitation to join the Church. It seemed as if the testimonies of the restored gospel that my dear friends possessed were withering away as if such a testimony had never come into existence.
After all of this, I felt a yearning for something that does not fade away, but instead can be trusted to last forever. I'd thought that my electronic devices and the faith of my friends would fit into such a category, but I was wrong. But the day soon came when, during my personal scripture study of Isaiah, the following scripture caught hold of my mind:
Due to the, then recent, events of my life, Isaiah's symbolism immediately made sense to me. While almost everything worldly fades and withers away, I had the absolute reassurance that the word of God would stand true for all time. Upon reading this, many of my feelings of disappointment were replaced with gratitude for the scriptures and the words of modern prophets. And to this day it is practically impossible to describe my joy of knowing that the Lord's words are perfectly dependable and trustworthy at all times for everyone.
At the same time I had a couple friends who chose to disassociate themselves from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church that we together had been a part of for many previous years. It was heart-breaking for me to see individuals, who I considered friends, move away from what I knew to be a true source of peace and joy. And what made it more disappointing was the fact that I had introduced the gospel to them at differing times in the few prior years, and they both had accepted my invitation to join the Church. It seemed as if the testimonies of the restored gospel that my dear friends possessed were withering away as if such a testimony had never come into existence.
After all of this, I felt a yearning for something that does not fade away, but instead can be trusted to last forever. I'd thought that my electronic devices and the faith of my friends would fit into such a category, but I was wrong. But the day soon came when, during my personal scripture study of Isaiah, the following scripture caught hold of my mind:
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." ~ Isaiah 40:8
Due to the, then recent, events of my life, Isaiah's symbolism immediately made sense to me. While almost everything worldly fades and withers away, I had the absolute reassurance that the word of God would stand true for all time. Upon reading this, many of my feelings of disappointment were replaced with gratitude for the scriptures and the words of modern prophets. And to this day it is practically impossible to describe my joy of knowing that the Lord's words are perfectly dependable and trustworthy at all times for everyone.
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