Hope

I have been struggling to have hope lately so I decided I should read and study about hope.  When I feel depressed everything seems hopeless.  Feeling hopeless is a terrible feeling.  I think a lot of people are feeling that right now.  The virus, riots, earthquakes, fires, hurricanes and the divisiveness make it really hard to feel hope right now.  

I have never thought of hope as a commandment, I have always thought that faith and charity were commandments, but for some reason I never thought of hope as a commandment.  I am a pessimistic person by nature so hope does not come naturally to me.  I use the phrase "I don't want to get my hopes up" a lot!  I can't remember who said it, but I heard someone say, "why do we say we don't want to get our hopes up, we would never say I don't want to get my faith up or I don't want to get my charity up." 

Looking at hope as a commandment has shifted my mindset.  When I think of commandments I think of doing something, working, striving for something. I guess I have always thought of hope as something you just have or don't have, not something I should be striving for.  I need to start getting my hopes up!

One thing that gives me hope is nature.  Fall and Spring are always hopeful times for me.  The cool Fall air and the changing colors give me hope.  I also love water.  I love to watch and listen to water.  I've been walking in the canyon or the parkway every day.  I have a lot more hope in my day if I start my day with some exercise and nature.

There has to be opposition in all things so that we can exercise our sacred gift of agency.  I think one of the biggest things that keeps me from exercising hope is fear.  We live in a world where fear is shoved down our throat every day.  The media is full of fear and social media is full of fear.  I think most of the hate and anger in the world right now can be traced back to fear.  

I heard something recently that was very thought provoking: the only emotion Christ didn't ever show while he was here on the earth was fear.  Not only that, but he was constantly saying "Fear not."  That makes a lot of sense, if we react from fear then most likely we won't be acting like our best selves.  When I am coming from a place of fear I'm very angry and defensive.  

I've been thinking about how to overcome fear.  Today while I was walking I was listening to a podcast and I heard something I have heard a lot, but it hit me differently today: "perfect love casteth out fear." It hit me, of course Christ didn't have fear because he had charity, or perfect love.  I think it comes back to the two greatest commandments.  If we can have love for our Heavenly Parents and Jesus Christ, love for ourselves and love for other people then we will be able to cast out a lot of fear.  When we have this love for our Heavenly Parents then we can have hope for ourselves and for other people.  We don't have to worry and fear everything.  It also says that "the righteous need not fear" in the scriptures.  If we can really grasp the love that our Heavenly Parents have for us,  then we will find rest and hope in that love because of Jesus Christ.  We can hope and have faith that all things will work together for our good.  Another thing I heard that I think goes along with this is that to become like Christ we have to be willing to suffer.  Christ suffered and experienced the ultimate unfairness of life.  If we want to become like him and develop that perfect love, we have to be willing to suffer like He was willing to suffer.  We have to suffer ourselves and sit with and comfort other people who are suffering.   All of this is easier said than done, but I have hope that these new insights can help me learn and grow in new ways.  I needed to write them down because it's scary how fast I forget things.