Strengthening Testimony
Thank you for your prayers, the meals, the sweet messages of faith. Thank you for
shining a light on some nights that were, to us, very dark.
May I share some brief thoughts with you on the Light of the world, even Jesus
Christ, and how we can come to know Him.
Knowing Him equals having a testimony. This is a spiritual witness that is given by
the Holy Ghost.
I want you to imagine a pyramid in your mind.
The foundation of that pyramid is the knowledge that Heavenly Father lives and
loves you;
The next level of that pyramid is labeled: Jesus Christ lives. He is the Son of God. He
carried out the infinite Atonement;
The next level says: Joseph Smith is the prophet of God who was called to restore the
gospel;
The fourth level says: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Savior's
true Church on the earth; The Church is led by a living prophet today.
This image represents a whole testimony.
With this foundation, a testimony grows to include all principles of the gospel.
How do we strengthen our testimonies?
First, we begin with Desire – observe the fruits of a principle
Second, we begin to Believe - experiment
Finally, we are Converted – sure knowledge
The last month has felt like one continuous interview with the Savior.
His only question for me is, Do you believe?
Do you believe that I am the Savior of the world?
Do you believe that I can and will save you and your son?
Do you believe that I can make Max whole?
Do you believe that I will ease your burdens, and carry your load?
Do you believe that I will send angels to minister to you?
In short, do you believe that my atonement was for you?
Trials are really good at testing our faith. Trials take abstract ideas like the
atonement, and make them very real.
I used to believe that “life is too hard.” I’ve learned that every part of our experience
is perfectly designed, and that we had a hand in that perfect design. Through the
Savior, we can pass perfectly.
We named our firstborn after Neal A Maxwell, a master teacher and mentor for us.
He showed what it looks like to achieve conversion.
Let the kaleidoscope of life's circumstances be shaken, again and again, and the
"true believer of Christ" will still see "with the eye of faith" divine design and
purpose in his life.
On the same day as Max’s accident, a dear friend of ours lost their 3 year old Ben to
leukemia. Here is what she said that day:
I DO believe in miracles! Not just in healings but in generosity, in kindness, in
humility, in gratitude, in change. All the marks of Christianity that the world
scoffs at as foolishness. When I have, in the past, sunk into despair and
darkness and depression it has been "realism" that has taken me there. I can
honestly proclaim that every time faith has brought me back out. I am not
naive. I know that darkness exists for I have been there. When faced with
reality I have chosen darkness before. I love how Isaiah says that they who
walked in darkness have seen a great light (Isaiah 9:2)! I choose to see light. I
choose faith. I choose hope. I choose to believe in good things to come!
God is committed to our agency. He will let us choose faith or fear. He lets us choose
whether we see faith or fear, light or darkness.
Max has shown us how to choose light.
After Max had regained consciousness, the dressing changes were
This two hour process involves pulling the gauze off of the skin grafts (a very painful
process because they often stick together), washing (it gets pretty chilly for Max),
cleaning the wounds, pulling out staples, then rewrapping. Today they pulled out
over 80 staples. I remembered the Lord’s promise: I will go before your face. I will
be on your right hand and on your left,… my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine
angels round about you, to bear you up. That night, I asked Max to say our family
prayer in the hospital room. On a day that may have been the toughest of his life, he
said: “Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you so much for this wonderful day. I thank
Thee for the great time I got to spend with my family today [in the hospital]. I thank
Thee for all of my friends and all the wonderful people who are taking care of me
while I’m sick. I thank Thee for all of the angels, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
Max has been suffering terribly. Yet he is growing, learning, loving, and praising God.
If I could offer one piece of advice on how to choose light,
And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and
we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may
look for a remission of their sins. (2 Nephi 2:26)
He truly is the way, the light, and the life.
When we were sitting in the waiting room, waiting for the doctors to assess the
extent of Max’s burns, the head nurse came out and said. Your son is critically ill and
he may not live. People with burns half his size often die. After the nurse left, Natalie
and I immediately prayed. I pleaded, “Father, we need Thee every hour, and we need
Thee this hour. Spare our son. Sweet Jesus, have mercy. Father, we believe. Help
thou our unbelief. Let our son live. But if not, we will still believe.”
When they reduced his sedation, one of Max’s first questions was, When am I going
to die? We told him, Max, youre not going to die – you’re going to live a long life. We
adopted a new mantra, “I am whole.” We have heard him repeat those words many
times.
We can have our eyes fixed on God and heaven. When we do, our trials are merely
an invitation to enlarge our faith and love. They are a call to grow. Rather than
resent and resist them, we accept them. We learn from them. They help us
remember what is truly important in life.
We come to know that if we look to Christ, we will be made whole regardless of our
current circumstances.
God lives. We have come to know him and felt His sustaining power.
Jesus is His Son, and my Savior and yours.
Everytime we open a web browser, we choose dark or light, angels or demons. Will
we focus on the wars and calamaties, death and destruction, or will we walk in the
light by feeding our faith and share it with others? Will we be doomsday naysayers,
or will we fan the flame of our faith?
In the great battle for souls, the question is not whether God’s side will win. The
battle is for each of us, and whether we will choose God’s side or not.