As time passes, I find the number of clear memories from my days as a missionary has begun to dwindle. One day that I will never forget, though, was one where I found myself genuinely upset that the day had run entirely differently than my companion and I had very diligently planned that morning. We had missed buses, friends had canceled their appointments, and people had been generally unresponsive to us. I remember exactly what Sister Day, my very short, yellow-obsessed, British, force-to-be-reckoned-with companion said to me as we discussed this. She said, “Things did go according to plan. They just didn’t go according to OUR plan.”

Sister Day reminded me that struggles, difficulties, and unexpected interruptions are all a part of our earthly experience and that our role in it all is to face them with whatever amount of courage we can muster and trust in a being more gracious, more loving, and more boundless than we are. Perseverance is living and continually experiencing the fullest depths of life’s agony and struggles, even when the prospect of success seems painfully unreachable. Perseverance is hope.

A leader I once served with shared the insight that “hope is not a strategy.” I would like to amend this and clarify that wishful thinking is not a strategy. Hope is an action word that describes a mindset which guides our thoughts and actions where we instill in ourselves “an abiding confidence, grounded in [our] faith in Christ, that God will fulfill His promises to [us].” (1)

Living and persevering with strong hope is a lot more comprehensible when we understand in whom we are trusting and in the promises He has made to us. In 1 Nephi 17, Heavenly Father demonstrates His character as a merciful, kind, and patient being who is confident in the ability of His children to develop, grow, and expand their beings.

The scriptures share that Nephi was called to the top of a mountain where the Lord then said, “Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.” (2) If Nephi was anything like me, his first response would look a little something like, “Excuse me? You want me to do what? Build a ship?”

I can imagine that up until that point in his life, Nephi had received no education or training even remotely related to woodworking, welding, buoyancy, engineering or any topic necessary for the dependable construction of a ship that would carry his family across an entire ocean. He likely felt confused, overwhelmed, intimidated, surprised, and desperate for a simpler solution. He maybe even questioned, “You are an all-powerful being. Can’t you just give us a ship, God?”

Each one of us has a ship, or multiple ships, that the Lord has invited us to build that provokes us to question, “I feel incapable and unprepared. How on earth do you expect me to build this?” These unexpected, overwhelming ships may look like returning to get an education after many years of being out of school, the death of a sibling or parent, feeling vulnerable as you look for a new job, long stretches of difficult parenthood, or feeling uncomfortably alone.

In every case, our Heavenly Father gifts us grace, patience, and love as He reminds us “I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. …Ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and will deliver you from destruction.” (3)

I believe that Heavenly Father is confident in our capacities to learn and grow and He allows us to struggle in order to make our life experience meaningful and beautiful. As we trust Him to help us with whatever metaphorical ship we’ve been asked to build, we will see either in the moment or afterwards as the gift of retrospect, that with every question he shows us where to find the ore, how to make the tools, and how to put everything together, one step at a time. (4) He will not leave us in our struggle, He is aware, and He loves us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

1. Preach My Gospel, Chapter 6, Hope

2. 1 Nephi 17:8

3. 1 Nephi 17:13-14

4. 1 Nephi 17:10-12