A perfect instructor

Have you ever noticed in scripture how often the children of Israel are called to remembrance? Now this call comes to people in both the old and new world. As Moses prepares to leave the children of Israel he reminds them all that God had done for them, freeing them from Egypt, feeding them in the wilderness and preparing the promised land for them. Christ reminds the Jews of the many times God has watched over them and helped them. Nephi invites Laman and Lemuel to remember God parting the Red Sea for the children of Israel and sending manna in the wilderness. Alma reminds his son Coriantumr of the Savior's great mercy in saving him from eternal damnation and how his father's people were protected and guided in the wilderness. At the end of the Book of Mormon Moroni invites to remember the goodness of Christ.


In all of these stories why do you suppose we are invited to remember? Why do we partake of the sacrament each week and be reminded of the covenant we made at baptism? Perhaps a personal experience might be helpful in answering this question.

Last year I wrote a post entitled the supporters supporters field guide (http://ofchoicesandconsequences.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-supporters-supporters-field.html) in this post I told a bit more of what it is like living with someone who struggles with depression, it was rather cathartic for me and I hope helpful for others who don't know what to say.

Anyhow, that post helped me work through a lot of things I had been wrestling with and helped me past some struggles, it also gave me a case of amnesia. I think one of the hardest things about depression is that it goes through cycles in which you face the lowest of the low with this person that you love and then overtime things get better and you go longer and longer without a down turn and soon you start thinking that this person you love is cured, that all will be better from now until forever. And then old things start creeping back in, more negativity, sluggishness, seclusion, isolation, negative self talk, feelings of heaviness and darkness in your home and you start getting frustrated because you thought for sure you were past this. Then you have to be reminded that this is just depression, it isn't anyone's fault, there isn't a magic cure and you learn to accept a different reality than what you were expected. Overtime their sadness and heaviness gets shared with you and you stop getting your hopes up and sometimes you might even get frustrated.

I was facing just such a time in the temple yesterday when Heavenly Father placed me in a situation when I could speak with power and authority and I could feel what an amazing experience it is to speak for Heavenly Father. Then Father reminded me of a letter I received on my mission right after my husband had received the priesthood, how excited and thrilled he was to speak by the Spirit with power and confidence. For a moment I mourned that that isn't my current reality, then my dear patient Father taught me "if you think that you miss it, imagine how he misses it, he who feels like he has done something wrong to have lost it, when all that has happened is life beating him down and the adversary causing him to forget and feel far away from that feeling." In that moment I repented of my whining, yes it is normal to miss and mourn for what was, but I would be far better to remember the good where we have been and be a place of support to get back there, then to be a voice of complaint that we aren't there now. I had been so caught up in my own perspective, in desiring my own way, that I forgot there was more at stake and more blessing on offer than just what I could see in that moment.

Perhaps our Father invites us to remember because He knows mortal life can beat us down and close off our perspective. Satan wants nothing more than to think that today's less than pleasant is all there ever was and all there will ever be. The adversary wants us to think we are trapped, that life is monotony without better views and opportunities. When we remember what God has done for us in the past we realize that what He has done in the past He can do in the future, what once was can be again. This life is meant to be a test, our Father in Heaven would be a poor instructor if He didn't place things or allow things to be placed in our path that will prepare us for even greater tests in our future. He is preparing us for a bright future, yes that might mean some darkness now, but as we remember light in our past and have hope for an even greater light in the future today can be faced and lived through, perhaps not the most joyfully, but it can be managed and we can make it.

I testify that our Father is a great instructor, He is preparing us for the future and He does not leave us comfortless. He asks us to remember that we might know who He was, is and will be, He sent to us a Savior and protector, He gave us the ultimate reason for our hope. We are not alone, no matter what Satan might say. If you are in a dark moment in your life I pray that you will remember the light from yesterday and that it might kindle a hope in you for light for tomorrow. I don't know how many cycles of depression are in my future, but I know Heavenly Father and my Savior have been in all of them in the past, so I know they will be in those in the future as well, even if in the dark moments we might wonder where that is...