Hope

Elder Stevenson recently shared some beautiful counsel from the Doctrine and Covenants.

“There is hope amid the darkness as those of all faiths prepare to rebuild communities and continually encircle those who grieve with arms of love.”

When Meg Walter taught a Relief Society lesson one month after her father’s death, the topic felt unexpectedly personal and painful.

“I didn't see the big tragedies [coming] that have happened in my life. ... So, couldn’t the opposite be true?”

The Apostle says this is one of the best ways to maintain hope.

Feeling worried? This scripture could be just what you need to bring peace to your mind and heart.

You'll be turning to this verse in the Doctrine and Covenants for years.

“It is the one thing that I know for sure is going to succeed,” President Holland shared in an inspiring new video.

A reminder from Nephi and a step-by-step guide from Ether will give you cause to hope.

This verse is one of the best hidden gems in the Bible.

This principle can help anyone navigating the gap between where they are now and where they would like to be.

From missions to marriage, young adulthood involves big decisions. Elder and Sister Godoy recently shared their tips for navigating this crucial time.

“I hoped to gain clarity on the matter with my fiancé, and I did, just not in the way I expected.”

I think we all want to love Isaiah, but it can be challenging. Here is one confusing verse that, once unraveled, has beautiful application to life.

When pain or darkness “threaten our peace to destroy,” we can take courage in these three truths because of Jesus Christ.

Latter-day Saints in Maui who have been displaced are focusing on hope moving forward. Watch this footage from a Church leader's recent visit to the island.

We all want to feel loved and accepted. Here are nine ideas that may help those who are unable to fully participate at church know they are welcome among their fellow Latter-day Saints.

On Thursday, May 26, 2022, Elder David A. Bednar made a statement about the school shooting that took place in Uvalde, Texas.

As Sister Sharon Eubank said, we can take courage because the Savior’s light is always there for us.

We saw a lot of doors close in 2020—the doors to our homes, our churches, our schools. And as the months passed, many people watched their doors to opportunity swing soundly shut, often taking their optimism with it.

Editor's note: Our bi-weekly Friday column, “Found in the footnotes,” explores some of the footnotes from remarks given by General Authorities and General Officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In a new video published by the Church, a woman named Rebekah shares how her world was turned upside down when she discovered that she had been abandoned by her birth father before she was born. Already facing an identity crisis from this news, things took an even worse turn after she was sexually assaulted by someone she trusted deeply. It was then that she began feeling like the world—and God—were against her.

When Stephen Nelson signed on as the producer of the newly formed group GENTRI, he had a few conditions: he would not perform on stage, he would not travel, he would not be in any music videos, and he would not be in any social media posts.

Speaking in April general conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland testified that “the future is going to be as miracle-filled and bountifully blessed as the past has been.”

I think most if not all of us have experienced a hit to our mental health over the past few months. It’s hard not to think negatively in a time when disasters are dropping one after another, we have been isolated from others, and we’ve been at home with our social media more often than we might otherwise be. It is also becoming easier and easier to distrust others as we read the news, inundated with stories highlighting the volatile flaws of human nature and generating fear of interacting with others during this highly contagious pandemic.

The Tabernacle Choir on Temple Square has released a new music video for the hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.”

In Washington state, we are in our eighth week of our governor’s “stay at home” order to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Personally, I try to look forward to better times, but there is a lot of pessimism out there. I’ve stopped reading certain news outlets because it seems the only information it publishes is dire predictions and dismal forecasts. As a social scientist, I know that statistics can be adjusted to make almost anything appear factual, so it’s difficult to know which reports are accurate and which are exaggerations or half-truths. Sometimes it is hard for me to stay positive and endure well when negativity is often the prevailing sentiment; perhaps you have had a similar experience lately.

Pornography addiction.

This article originally ran on LDS Living in January 2015.

The following article originally ran on LDS Living in September 2015.

Sam Williams doesn't remember much of what happened before he arrived at the hospital.

For Holy Week, LDS Living has been preparing for Easter in two simple ways: 1) by focusing on the events leading up to Easter on our Instagram account @brightly.beams and 2) by releasing a video a day focusing on the perspective of those who witnessed the life and resurrection of our Savior. Here is our seventh and final video (watch the others here), featuring Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler of Don't Miss This as they testify of the significance of the empty tomb and that the Savior intervenes in our own lives, meeting us where we are at and helping us to become more.

For Holy Week, LDS Living is preparing for Easter in two simple ways: 1) by focusing on the events leading up to Easter on our Instagram account @brightly.beams and 2) by releasing a video a day focusing on the perspective of those who witnessed the life and resurrection of our Savior. Here is the sixth video (watch the first five here), featuring Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler of Don't Miss This as they explain what we can learn about Easter and our Savior from Thomas. While many focus on Thomas's doubt following the Savior's resurrection, what is even more beautiful is our Savior's reaction to Thomas's questions.

After the devastating shootings at mosques in New Zealand, it can be easy to focus on the darkness in the world. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the negativity and hate that permeates every country and corner of the earth.

I don’t know about you, but I had a “plan A” for my life. (Surely I am not the only girl who attempted to plan out her life.) I remember sitting around with some of my girlfriends one day when we were all in college. We were discussing my “plan A,” and that led to “plan B” ... which led me to think about “plan C.” I sort of wrote out my life plans and realized that I was already on “plan K.” (And this was a problem because I hadn’t even served a mission yet. By the time I went on my mission, I was beyond “plan K.”)

God spoke to the great prophets of the Old Testament in some rather unique ways, most of them deeply visual. Ezekiel had wonderful visions that would grasp his hearers’ imagination, causing them to pay attention and think profoundly. In one of those visions he saw a great valley of dry bones bleaching in the sun. Visualize that scene with me for just a moment. Before us is a wide valley, filled with bones as far as the eye can see in every direction. A great army or a mighty people have all died, and their bones lie exposed to the weather. Ezekiel stands “in the midst of the valley,” when the Lord enters the scene and causes Ezekiel “to pass by [the bones] round about . . . and, lo, they were very dry” (Ezekiel 37:1–2). After Ezekiel makes a circuit of the valley, the Lord addresses His prophet with a question: “Son of man, can these bones live?”

Forty hours before leaving to comfort Latter-day Saints who lost the neighborhoods, woods, homes, and church houses that built many of their family memories in Paradise, California, President Russell M. Nelson lost his daughter, Wendy Nelson Maxfield, to cancer.

How do families who have lost virtually everything in an instant—homes, jobs, loved ones—rebuild their lives and find peace again?

Jane Clayson Johnson shares an open and frank exploration of her own harrowing journey through depression.

One of the most distressing phone calls I ever received came late one evening while my husband, Dave, fairly recently sustained as the bishop of our ward, was out of town on business.

If I had to pick the most universal and painful human experience, I’d probably say heartbreak. It’s something all of us understand, as it comes in many forms and degrees throughout our lives. There’s the heartbreak of divorce or a hard breakup, the heartbreak of losing a loved one or watching a loved one make wrong choices, the heartbreak of seeing our families hurting, or the heartbreak of our lives going in a direction we never wanted them to.

We need not be guilty of serious sin in order to need, to appreciate, and to take advantage of a second chance. In fact, sometimes we may find ourselves hoping for a second chance that has nothing to do with sin at all. How many times have we made innocent mistakes—not out of rebellion but just out of ignorance or poor judgment—and wished we could try again? How often has a misunderstanding led to a strained relationship, and we wished we could go back in time to do things differently?

Grief and heartbreak are a part of life. We have all experienced loss in one way or another, but that doesn’t soften the blow when we lose a loved one or experience tragedy.

We’ve been taught that we all have spiritual gifts. I believe anyone can learn to have a more positive outlook, but I think it’s also possible for people to be born with the gift of being optimistic, of seeing things through a positive lens. Others of us get to develop that gift as we go along.

No one would have guessed that Debby Montgomery Johnson, a former paralegal, Air Force intelligence officer, and bank teller, would be taken for over a million dollars by a scammer on an online Latter-day Saint dating site. In fact, no one would even know if she hadn’t spoken up about it. Debby could have continued to hide behind her smile, keeping her secret buried deep.