Brothers and Sisters, Aloha!
Thank you for that wonderful music! It was absolutely inspiring. I feel energized to be in your presence. I love and admire the young adults of the Church. I hope you can feel how truly capable and noble you are.
My husband and I first met in the 4th grade and have been in love ever since. We were blessed with four beautiful daughters and have added incredible sons-in-law and grandbabies to our family. Our family is our world, including our exceptional parents and all of our beloved extended family. They say it takes a special man to be a dad of all girls. Let me tell you, my husband is a very special man who would do anything for our four daughters. Many years ago, I was out of town while my husband stayed home with our young girls. My preschool daughter wanted her hair to be curly for school and asked her dad for help. Not only did Brother Cluff tackle this request with gusto, he went way beyond and decided she should have a perm, which is a chemical process where her hair would remain permanently curly for months. Why have curly hair for just a day when she could have curly hair for months? And why stop with just her? He decided to give all the girls perms while I was out of town. Having never even touched a curling iron before, my undaunted husband went to a beauty supply store and learned all he could about the process of giving perms and left with a bag of perm rods and chemical solution. My daughters were a little skeptical that it would work, especially with their rookie dad at the helm, but Brother Cluff assured them to trust the process. If he followed the instructions correctly, they would have permanently curly hair, despite the awful smell, uncomfortable perm rods, and lots of hair tugging. I’ll never forget the beaming faces of my curly-haired daughters when I stepped off the plane, or my husband who was beaming the most. He had been right—by trusting the process, they had achieved the goal of curly hair.
I have thought a lot about the phrase “trusting the process,” which seems to be a buzzword right now. Trusting the process means having complete belief that when a prescribed process is followed, the predicted results will occur. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, trusting the process means having faith that God will bestow all the glorious blessings He has promised if we follow His plan. His divine process works! When the path seems challenging or impossible, we can have perfect faith that God will work everything out beautifully in the end for those who follow Him.
The Book of Mormon prophet, King Benjamin, assures us of the beautiful blessings that come from following God’s plan of happiness. In Mosiah 2:41, we read, “…consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.” [1] Oh how I want that blessing! It is worth trusting whatever the process requires of me to receive never-ending happiness.
Now, just a quick caution… we cannot change or tailor a process to our liking and then expect to receive the predicted results. If my husband had not precisely followed the instructions for giving perms, there would have been no curls produced. In regard to the gospel of Jesus Christ, making exceptions and casual excuses for ourselves is not following the process precisely and leaves us vulnerable to undesired results. In fact, it can even cause us to abandon God’s divine process altogether. Rather than choosing which commandments or teachings suite our lifestyle, we need to change our lifestyle to be in alignment with what God has commanded. We need to fit our lives to the gospel of Jesus Christ, not fit the gospel into our lives. [2] When we justify our actions instead of sanctifying them, we are essentially saying we know better than God what brings eternal happiness. [3]
What To Do When The Process Doesn't Seem To Work
There may be times in our lives when it feels like the gospel process isn’t working the way we expected. What do we do then? We may have questions like “Why do none of my efforts seem to make any difference? How can I know I’m on the right path when nothing is happening?” As I’ve thought about trusting the process and how it can help answer these kinds of deep personal questions, I remembered an “ah-ha” moment I had years ago while living in Nauvoo.
One morning, from the shore of the Mississippi River, I could see almost the entire length of a one-mile-long train that was stopped on the tracks on the opposite side of the river. While sitting there, I heard the engines of the train start to rumble to life. The sound got louder and louder, reaching a deafening volume that could be heard across the river, even causing a vibration in my car. I curiously watched as the stationary train was straining for all it was worth in order to get moving. Yet I saw nothing—not even the slightest twitch of the train for quite some time. It took several long minutes of great energy from the loud revving engines before the train inched ever so slightly forward. A continual enormous amount of effort was required for the train to overcome its resting inertia. All of that energy, time, and hard work in the beginning was required before any movement was perceptible. Eventually, the train slowly picked up speed and many minutes later the caboose finally left my view.
The Lord taught me a lesson about trusting the divine process as I watched the train. Sometimes in our lives, we might feel like we are putting in an incredible amount of effort to do all the right things, but we can’t seem to see any results. We feel like we are at a complete standstill or spinning our wheels. We question if the process works. My experience with the train taught me that every effort we exert in the process of becoming more like the Savior is making a tremendous difference in our ability to move down the path. In some cases, it takes time and a lot of patience before our actions start picking up enough momentum to be noticeable.
Sometimes we are doing the right things, but we simply need to persist in doing them patiently, not for a minute or a day, but sometimes for years to get the desired result. [4] Elder Neal A. Maxwell observes, “Sustaining correct conduct for a difficult moment under extraordinary stress is very commendable, but so is coping with sustained stress subtly present in seeming routineness. Either way, however, we are to ‘run with patience the race that is set before us’ (Heb. 12:1), and it is a marathon, not a dash.” [5]
The accumulation of our daily efforts will give us great power and momentum to progress down our path. Listen to what President Nelson says about this:
“With frightening speed, a testimony that is not nourished daily ‘by the good word of God’ can crumble. Thus, the antidote to Satan’s scheme is clear: we need daily experiences worshipping the Lord and studying His gospel. I plead with you to let God prevail in your life. Give Him a fair share of your time. As you do, notice what happens to your positive spiritual momentum. [6] Make sure you are having daily divine connections to heaven. That is a key part of the divine process and also a key to overcoming the “stationary” periods of our life.
For the gospel process to work, we simply must focus our daily energy and effort on the right thing. President Joy D. Jones reminds us, “If the love we feel for the Savior and what He did for us is greater than the energy we give to weaknesses, self-doubts, or bad habits, then He will help us overcome the things which cause suffering in our lives. He saves us from ourselves.
Let me reemphasize: if the pull of the world is stronger than the faith and trust we have in the Savior, then the pull of the world will prevail every time. If we choose to focus on our negative thoughts and doubt our worth instead of clinging to the Savior, it becomes more difficult to feel the impressions of the Holy Ghost.”[7] And oh how we need the Holy Ghost to teach us and help us trust the divine process!
There will be times in our life when we realize we have not followed the gospel plan the way we were supposed to and will wish we could start again. The most beautiful part of the gospel is that no mistake is permanent. There is an unlimited number of times we can try again, or in other words, repent. My dear friends, the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it safe for us to fail. Even if we find ourselves making the same mistakes over and over again, each and every time we attempt to change, we are gaining a bit more traction and momentum. Never quit! As Elder Lynn G. Robbins shared, “Our success, then, isn’t going from failure to failure, but growing from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.” [8]
The Lord has so many great things in store for you as you follow His gospel and keep your engines revving. You are just starting a glorious journey with a destination far greater than anything you can imagine. You can do hard things now and in the future as you trust Him and His divine process. This life is a profound experience in trust. I would invite you to continue to trust in the Lord, who knows you and loves you deeply. I testify that He is fully aware of your circumstances and through His plan, He can right every wrong, even if for now you can’t see how He can possibly do it. In the moments when you don’t want to trust God, I challenge you to choose to do so anyway.
I conclude with the words of our dear prophet, President Russell M. Nelson who said, “Please know this: if everything and everyone else in the world whom you trust should fail, Jesus Christ and His Church will never fail you. …He will not forsake His covenants, His promises, or His love for His people. Faith in Jesus Christ is the greatest power available to us in this life. All things are possible to them that believe.” [9]
May we all believe and trust the divine process to return to our heavenly home, no matter the effort required. I testify His promises are sure.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes:
[1] Mosiah 2:41
[2] Ali Baguibassa, "Are You Adjusting the Gospel to Fit Your Life?" Inspiration (blog), March 7, 2022, ChurchofJesusChrist.org
[3] Neal A. Maxwell, "Lest Ye Be Wearied And Faint In Your Minds," Ensign or Liahona, April 1991, 88
[4] Neal A. Maxwell, "Patience," [Brigham Young University devotional, November 27, 1979], speeches.byu.edu
[5] Neal A. Maxwell, "Endure It Well," Ensign or Liahona, April 1990, 34
[6] Russell M. Nelson, "The Power of Spiritual Momentum," Ensign or Liahona, April 2022, 99
[7] Joy D. Jones, "Value Beyond Measure," Ensign or Liahona, October 2017, 15
[8] Lynn G. Robbins, "Until Seventy Times Seven," Ensign or Liahona, April 2018, 23
[9] Russell M. Nelson, "Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains," Ensign or Liahona, April 2021, 104