Chapter 35: Attitude

"Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?"

Mormon 5:23

An incredible week here in Scotland! Life is absolutely the best and I am loving this new assignment! Aberdeen is wonderful, I love the area and I love the work! We work really hard here which I love, and the culture of this mission is just phenomenal. Everywhere I look I see just pure beauty, in buildings, the nature, the people. There is just so much goodness here and I really love it—I feel as if God has opened my eyes to see all of the light.

But there is light anywhere we are, right? The question is do we choose to see it? Is our attitude conducive to hope and joy?

Well, that's something I've been studying and pondering a lot recently. It adds much to the theme of faith which I've been diligently studying at the invitation of President Nelson from this most recent General Conference.

I'll explain.

To begin, our attitudes that we have are conditional only on our agency. We simply can choose to have a good attitude about anything in life—regardless of the circumstance (with the exception of those suffering from various mental illnesses). That is the agency offered freely to all mankind. To say otherwise is, as they say here in Scotland, rubbish.

Faith is in God, in His plan for us. When we have faith in God, we believe in him as the supreme creator of all things, that he has infinite wisdom and love for us. If we truly believe this, then surely we must believe that the purpose of our mortal experience is to benefit us and help us grow. If God is all knowing, and if he loves us, then we have to believe and trust that the circumstances we are given in life are for our good and to bring us joy.

Now, with this perspective, any change that we face in life, any hardship, any strain, can and should be faced with an attitude of hope and optimism! The faith that we have in God allows us to feel such a way about life. If we don't have that faith, then we can't trust that God has got our back, and this will seriously affect our attitudes and abilities to feel joy and hope. If we are ever feeling negative about life, about a person, about something happening to us, we must ask ourselves the question posed above: know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?

We are all in God's hands.

In my opinion, life is so much better when it is joyful and hopeful. All joy and all hope come through Jesus Christ, through his love and sacrifice for us.

Find him.

Come to him.

Trust him.

I promise you, joy and hope will follow.

Life is good.

God is wise.

Don't give up

Elder Childers

Me with the Kimball Stone at the mission home with the mission moto on it: "What e'er thou art, act well thy part."

Aberdeen: the grey city

Dunnotar Castle

Slains Castle

Beautiful coastline of Scotland