I Stand All Amazed

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Sometimes when I look around me and face the trials of the daily experiences of life, I am overwhelmed with the burdens of earth life. I look around and I see suffering on so many levels in so many people lives and I cannot comprehend the state of this fallen world.

I don't know if it is me, but it seems that everyone has something huge they are dealing with most of the time. There are the illnesses...some so devastating and life-taking, the heart breaks of every variety, the challenges and crushing power of poverty, the crimes and wars, and injustices, the wickedness. It is getting worse all the time and it is frightening and overwhelming in ways that can just suck you into despair on so many levels.

What has me amazed is that the Savior of the world could even breathe under this weight, so huge and incomprehensible to us as we try to imagine it from our tiny personal perspectives. When I hear of the pains and sufferings of people I love and care for my heart breaks sometimes for their pain. What amazes me is my heart full of compassion is but a minuscule speck compared to the love and compassion our Savior knows intimately and feels so deeply for each and every one of us. There just aren't words to describe how I feel about that.


What amazes me further is that in spite of our smallness, I see human beings every day that struggle and rise above so much pain. I marvel that we can still find all the good in life, the reasons to smile and be grateful, the desire to survive and rise above, to press forward having faith in God, ourselves and others. We are so resilient and I know that is the spark of the divine within each of us. As we cling to the light of Christ, we gain some of the power that faith offers and we move forward, onward and upward. When I look at some of my family and friends I am so humbled by their examples, I am lifted up and taught constantly.

The amazing thing about it all is that good will overcome evil and the Lord's plan for our happiness will prevail. Knowing that we can each get out of bed each day, face the unknown, with confidence that we are not alone, he is with us, we have each other, and there is hope. We can know that we have a Heavenly Father that truly loves us, an Elder brother who would and has done everything for us, and that we can feel complete comfort in that, is what I build my life and expectations and future hopes on every single day.

Without it what would be the point of any of this? And that is the message I have for some beautiful people that I know are suffering today because they have shared it with me and reached out for some answers. The answers to every problem, every trial, every concern is the same.

Liz Lemon Swindle

It is Jesus Christ, his mission, his love, his example, his promise. He has done it all for us...why try to reinvent the wheel? There is no need if we will just avail ourselves of what already is. I have lived long enough to know that if we just reach out, reach up, reach around another, his hand is always there. Believing truly is seeing~and then seeing is believing! It goes both ways and truly is amazing! Hold on to the Light!