2013: My Faith in Review

At the end of every year, you see articles and TV shows that look back and assess the past year. Lots of different subjects – Movies, sports, world events, disasters, technology – all are analyzed and summarized.

I decided to write about how my faith and testimony were impacted by 2013.

Overall, it was a good year: My faith and testimony have grown. I have always felt that if a year goes by that I can’t make that statement, then we are missing the point.

That said, my faith is not anywhere close to perfect. I am definitely not ready to get out of the boat and start walking. The past year saw me grumbling too much, not praying enough, and not attending the temple enough. My faith was also challenged as health blessings that I gave were not realized, and I got bamboozled by misinterpreting promptings a couple of times. The frustrations that come with living life left some marks.

Rather than focus on those things, there are several areas where my faith and testimony were strengthened in 2013. Here are three specific area:

1) Living prophets exist and are amazingly current.

I love our prophets. I sustain them. My faith that they are chosen and called of God has been reaffirmed. One of the things that has greatly strengthened me is how current and topical they are. These men are not just old guys running the church from a closed room. They know what is going on in the world, and our society. They are in touch.

I admire their courage to stand up for God’s laws in the face of blistering attack from the media and naysayers that espouse an agenda contrary to God’s plan. Hearing Elder Oaks speak about marriage and family with no uncertain terms in October Conference (link) gives me renewed strength and courage to stand for truth.

Elder Holland’s masterful talk about depression and mental/emotional challenges (link) was a testimony that the brethren know what challenges we face, and reaffirms to me that the Lord is concerned with what we face in our day.

2) The light of truth is expanding.

In the past few months, the Church has released articles and information that many members of the Church don’t know much about. Conveniently, the agencies of Satan know about these things and try to contort them to diminish the Church. Here are some of those topics:

• Joseph Smith wrote four accounts of the First Vision – an event that is hugely important in our theology. As with the retelling of most any experience, there are some variations with each retelling. So it is with the First Vision. Recently the Church added an article to LDS.org that discusses the different versions, links to them, and discusses some of the seeming contradictions and arguments. (Link)

• Another recent addition is the new discussion on “Race and the Priesthood” on LDS.org. (link)  It delves into the topic of racism, culture, church history and early church leaders as it attempts to understand why the Priesthood was withheld from  some of God’s children until 1978.

• Just a few weeks ago, the Church released an article on LDS.org “Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah.” (link) It discusses where polygamy came from, how it was practiced, and how it was eventually done away with.

All three of these topics have some things in common: They make a lot of us uncomfortable, most of us don’t understand them well enough, and the world loves to use these topics to beat the Church over the head.

I am grateful that the Church is dealing with these topics in an open way. Warts and all. Truth is our best ally. Perhaps one day, we, and our youth, can be educated enough that when these topics come up, we won’t flinch, or be at a loss of how to explain them.

And, (as a friend of mine pointed out) maybe instead of focusing on these types of things, our missionaries across the globe can spend their time focusing on the restored gospel and our Savior Jesus Christ.

3) The Lord is directly involved with His children.

Everyone who has served as a bishop has had a front-row seat to witness how God has His hand in people’s lives. This past year I had another experience that reminded me that God loves His children, and that divine intervention is very, very real, and more frequent than many imagine.

This experience was the “2nd Annual Hug a Convert Day.” For those who don’t know what it is, I single-handedly declared that the first Sunday in June is IHACD. (This year it will fall on June 1, 2014) (To see last year’s, go to the search field over there —> and type in the word “Hugs.”) The purpose is to recognize and honor those who have embraced the gospel as a convert.

This year I received and published dozens of conversion stories from people all over the world who had been converted to the gospel. It was astounding. Every story was wonderful. Every story reaffirmed my testimony that God is aware of His children, and will sometimes move mountains to bless them. These wonderful people strengthened my faith, and my testimony of missionary work.

There you have it, my faith in review. I hope your faith had a good year too, and I hope you have a great 2014 – because hope and faith go really well together.

God bless! (And I’ll give you an update on the whole ‘walking on water’ thing as it gets a little warmer outside.)