Stepping Stones

"...I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." Alma 36:3

This verse is one of my favorites. To me, it takes all the principles and puts it into this verse. It starts from the foundation and works its way to the top of the world.

It all starts with trust. If faith is the foundation of our lives, then trust must be the building blocks to the foundation. Trust builds up our faith. It starts with a little then brick by brick it will grow.

Trust is the base of our faith. Faith is not having perfect knowledge of something but we know it is true. We trust our Heavenly Father that is is true.

"But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words. Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me." Alma 32:27-28

It we place our trust in the Lord, our hearts will be opened up to to what is there. If you just open your minds up and listen and you just want to believe then you will want to take in more. Your trust and faith will grow and it will continue to grow for an eternity.

With our faith we have hope. With this hope we can be in comfort for we don't need to fear. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." (Psalms 23:4). Through our trust, faith and hope, we don't need to fear because we know what our future holds. Even when we walk along the dark abyss we can hold onto the iron rod with faith and place our trust in it that we may not fall. We can over come fear and face the future with faith (Elder Russell M. Nelson).

Sometimes in our lives our trust, faith, and hope will be tested. We face test everyday. Some are tough and some are easy. These test will strengthen our faith and we will see the blessings for holding strong. Some days we just want to give us when we are faced with challenges. The Lord will be there with you always and he gives us that hope so that we may be able to stare into the howling darkness and flood it with light and good. "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment." (D&C 121:7). The stuff we face will only last for a short time compared to the time we will have in joy and happiness.

Finally, after we face the adversity, we may sleep easy knowing that we will return home, back with our Heavenly Father. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Revelation 21:4). We may rest easy knowing that everything will be alright. Our joy and happiness will over top any sorrow. We will return to see our family and our friends.

As a way to end this, I say this: Our lives in this world are just for a small time but we can get so much from this world. Our bonds between our families and friends our strengthened. Just trust the Lord and have faith. If you do, there will be no limits on what you can do in your life. Take that dark abyss and build bridge across it. Trust is a building block so share it with others. Life is good.