How many of us can relate to this?

[Guest mirancs8]

I was watching BYUTV and they had the devotional that Elder Holland gave on Jan. 13, 2009 the topic was Remembering Lot's Wife.

Towards the end he told the story of when he and his wife were first married and that feeling of being overwhelmed... wondering if you can even take on the challenge ahead of you. I broke down in tears listening to him talk about those tough days. I think we all have had at some point in our lives a time of such an overwhelming struggle (marriage, financial, career, life) as he describes in this devotional. Though this was address to the students I think everyone can relate to this message.

This was the part that touched me very deeply.

"Sister Holland and I were married about the time both of us were reading poems like that in BYU classrooms. We were as star struck ‐‐ and as fearful ‐‐ as most of you are at these ages and stages of life. We had absolutely no money. For a variety of reasons neither of our families were able to help us finance our education. We had a small apartment just south of campus ‐‐ all of two rooms and a bath. We were both working too many hours trying to stay afloat financially ‐‐ but we had no other choice.

I remember one fall day ‐‐ I think it was in the first semester after our marriage in 1963 ‐‐ walking together up the hill past the Maeser Building on the sidewalk between the resident's Home and the Brimhall Building. Somewhere on that path we stopped and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Life that day seemed overwhelming, and the undergraduate plus graduate years we still had before us seemed monumental, nearly insurmountable. Our love for each other and our commitment to the gospel were strong but most of the other more temporal things around us seemed particularly ominous. On a spot which I could probably still mark for you today, I turned to Pat and said something like, "Should we give up? I can get a good job and carve out a good living for us. I can do okay without a degree. Should we stop trying to tackle what right now seems so difficult to face?" In my best reenactment of Lot's wife I said, in effect, "Let's go back. Let's go home. The future holds nothing hopeful for us."

Then my beloved little bride did what she has done for 45 years since then. She grabbed me by the lapels and said, "We are not going back. We are not going home. The future holds everything hopeful for us." She stood there in the sunlight that day and gave me a real pep talk. I don't recall that she quoted Paul but there was certainly plenty in her voice that said she was committed to setting aside all that was past in order to press toward and seize "the prize of God" that lay yet ahead. It was a living demonstration of faith. It was "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). So we laughed, kept walking, and finished up sharing a root‐beer, one glass, two straws, at the then newly constructed Wilkinson Center."

Edited July 18, 2010 by mirancs8

[beefche]

They are an amazing couple. I remember him recalling that moment in a talk while he was President of BYU. He said the place where they stopped was near the site of the BYU president's home. How ironic that he had such an epiphany that day overlooking the future home of he and his bride. The very thing that he was so fearful of later enabled him to become president and inspire so many students.

[Tarnished]

I think at some point most people, if not everyone comes to a point where giving up seems easier than going on. In my life since marrying my husband we have come up against many circumstances where life seemed to be almost too difficult. For us one of the most trying parts of our marriage was at the beggining of our second year. That year for an anniversary present we had received the news that he had cancer for the second time. Just after his mission he had been diagnosed with cancer and the round of chemo he had then had not taken care of it all. The next year was brutal on us. We were still newly married college students, trying to eek out a living, go to college, and deal with the emotional, physical and financial stress that cancer brings.

During that time it was my husband that helped to hold me up, even though it was him who was going through the cancer and the treatments for it. I remember that during that time I had a little mantra that I said to myself often. I would say, "If I can make it through this, I can make it through anything." And we did make it through the cancer. It has been eight years now and he has not relapsed. And that mantra has held true. We have made it through many things that would destroy many other marriages, and plan to be together forever.

I really think that is something everyone needs to remember. Giving up doesn't make you stronger, it doesn't make things better, and you really don't learn what you needed to from the experience. Sticking with it though causes you to grow in ways you would have never guessed. And it gives you strength to rely upon when things get tough again.