*taken from a talk I gave a few weeks ago*
Letter to God.
A few months ago, I scribbled out a pleading letter to God. Yes. A letter: Something I tend to do many times when I’m struggling. Psalms 120:1 accurately defines this, “In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me.” So, in my letter I wrote:
“Dear God,
I am frustrated. I want to do something HUGE, but I feel completely stuck. I want to be the good, be the change, and embark on a new, pioneer way, but I don’t know how. I really want to impact the WORLD! What do I do, what message do I give, and where do I start? I just really want to do something big in the world; change LIVES. What’s my plan? … I’m not sure where to be, where to go, and who to save… Please answer me…. -Makenzie”
I was stuck—as I’ve been stuck many times in my life. And as I wrote that tear-splotched letter, I was completely WILLING to let God lead my life. I dropped down at His feet with trust–one of the only things I could offer.
We each have these moments where we feel like nothing as we try to “be the author of our own stories.” We do more than struggle. But soon enough, in each of our lives, we face a lonely time where we have to lay ourselves at Christ’s feet, with trust that He can do more with us than we can.
Let now be your moment as this new year begins. Let now be your personal moment with God as you weep at His feet, especially as we enter this new year, where the new theme states plainly: TRUST IN THE LORD. As I speak, seek to be WILLING. Seek to trust, just as I did.
Why the 2022 theme?
The youth theme is no coincidence. It was inspired to help us (YOUTH, ADULTS, AND CHILDREN) during this day when division, chaos, and hardship prevail. We need to realize that trust will be the only thing to lead us along. Without Him, we’ll surely be lost to the “beat of Babylon’s band”. But what is trust? Proverbs 3:5-6 reads boldly, QUOTE,
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
To me, Trusting in the Lord is without worry or falter, moving forward faithfully with whatever God asks us, leads us, or invites us to do and be. Trust can turn our lives in the right direction if we valiantly follow the Lord’s will and not our own!
Ezra Taft Benson explained trust in the following quote. QUOTE,
“Men and women who [trust and] turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.”
As we turn our lives over to God, we can become bound to Him as we overcome the trials in our lives. Let me share my experiences and steps of trust.
Learn of Him, Love Him, Hold His Hand
I believe the first step of trusting in God is learning of Him and loving Him.
I love my Savior. So much. My relationship with Him is special, divine, and unforgettable. I have loved him since the beginning as I’ve walked step by step through life.
I’ve grown my knowledge and love of Him through the scriptures, service, and recently through the book, Jesus the Christ. Through fervent prayer, I also feel His power encompassing around me. His power encourages me to live for Him and trust in His sacrifice. As I share His love with others through service, too, I feel His hands press firmly on my shoulder as if He is right there with me, urging me to love His people as He loves them. Let me testify, God does love you. Just learn of Him, love Him, and you will feel it!
Live For Him
The next step of trust is living for Him. Remember the post I wrote on my blog, titled, “I do it all 4 Jesus?” In it I explained,
“I do everything I can for Jesus. I live my life for Him [through the clothes I wear, the things I do, the comments I make, the music I listen to, the Sunday I keep, and the friends I hold dear], hoping that maybe, through following Him, I can save a few souls for Him—uplift a few hearts for Him. By living the standards of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, my goal is to bring the good of the world to everyone around me. And right now, I feel that I am succeeding. Because I live for Him, I have joy and I have a glow about me.
“Though it is sometimes tough, frustrating, or lonely, when I take the path with Him, my life is full of pure happiness, no matter the circumstance, because I know I am on the right path. Doing it all for Jesus requires stepping away from the world, and immersing yourself in the right and the good. That’s what I do, and though Satan mocks me, I have trust that it will all work out in the end.
“As YOU do it, you'll feel the glow. You'll immerse yourself in the better and will see that you are not alone! You'll feel noticed by Jesus, Himself, as you follow Him and trust in His love.”
Go and Do Without Falter
I find this “GO AND DO WITHOUT FALTER” to be the most important step. I want to share a story that is one of my favorites—the story from one of my hero’s: Karola Hilbert Reece, a faithful church member during WWII, as she showed pure trust in the Lord.
Karola was only a teenager when this experience took place. Because food was greatly rationed, leaving not enough to fill Karola’s family, she was solely responsible for food hunting, as she called it. Yet this was a great sacrifice, leaving a possible outcome of death as she passed a nearby Russian garrison. But her mother was sickly and ill during this time, leaving her even more responsible for the sustainment of not only her siblings, but her mother. So each Thursday she took the risk with her nets and traveled in the back of a wagon to a nursery where she collected vegetables.
It was one Thursday, after she collected the foods in her nets, she walked along the treeline towards home. However, as the iron gates of the garrison opened, there appeared a large crowd of Russian soldiers filing onto the street. There was no possible way that she could pass them without being seen. And if she passed them, she wouldn’t have survived. Recalling this moment in her book, she wrote:
“There was no earthly help for me to plead for. No one was coming to my aid. So I turned to the only One who could give me the heavenly help I so crucially needed. Creeping between two trees by the side of the road, I quietly laid my nets down, folded my arms and closed my eyes in prayer…. That day I did more than pray. I begged the Lord for his divine intervention.”
She continued:
“Dear Heavenly Father, I know Thou canst protect me. Please make me invisible to the eyes of those Russian soldiers so that I may walk through them unharmed, even as Thou has done for Thy prophet, Joseph Smith. Please help me reach the train.
“After closing my prayer, I immediately picked up my sacks and, without a doubt in my heart, walked straight toward the Russian soldiers. I literally had to plow my way through them. As I pushed one soldier with my right shoulder to have a pathway through, he turned and said something to the soldier on my left. I looked into his eyes and he looked right through me, his big, clear, blue eyes holding no image of me. I continued on my way unscathed. They never even knew I was there. I caught the train home.”
Closing
To close, I will tell you now that it will be hard to love the Savior when the things of the world seem more entertaining. It will be even harder to live for Him when your way seems easier. Yet, when the time comes that you have to STAND for Him with THAT TRUST just as Karola, it will all the more be liberating, lifesaving, and memorable.
Jesus is waiting. He is waiting for YOU to fall at his feet, willing to TRUST, just as I did this last summer. Miracles will come and you will rise up into His light, and into the tight embrace of HIS LOVE. He loves you. He loves me. And I choose Him.
-Makenzie Monson
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