On Facing Life As It Is – Sunday, December 09, 1945
Sometimes in observing the lives of others, we may suppose that there are some who lead an untroubled existence—free from the heartaches, from the reverses, from the causes for worry and anxiety that beset the rest of us. The less we know about others, the more likely we are to make this error. You can’t tell by a casual and impersonal glance at a man what he is carrying around in his heart, but you may know with almost infallible certainty, that, whoever he is and whatever he is, life has dealt with him—-or will before he gets through with it.
We dream great dreams. We make our plans. We write our own specifications. We decide in the glorious and optimistic promise of our youth what life shall give us. We decide what we would like to be; what we would like to do; where we would like to live; with whom we would like to spend our lives; what we would like for our children, how we would like the days and the years to unfold —and then, the unforeseen, the unplanned intervenes: sometimes misfortune, sometimes opportunity, but almost certainly something different from what we had planned . Few men become what they expected to become.
They may become something greater or less, but in any case, something different. Life shapes us as we shape life. But when some of the things which we had our hearts set upon and were determined to have, do not come to us, sometimes we go to the extreme of railing. against the Almighty. Sometimes we refuse to accept the irrevocable and doggedly beat our heads against the wall—but, long after our heads are sore and bruised, we find that the wall is still there. When we stubbornly rebel against irrevocable decisions, we risk being crushed and bowed down in a bitterness that offers no reconciliation. Bitterly wishing that something which has happened had not happened, is understandable, but not profitable. It tends to clutter up the present with the wreckage _of the past. Fighting against something that can be changed and ought to be is thrilling. But fighting against what cannot be changed is futility itself. We all learn about disappointment and regret before we’re through. But it is a part of the business of living also to learn how to face life as it is, and to have the faith to recover from our disappointments. Surely we must make our plans.
Aimless living is intolerable. Surely we must keep the blueprints of our dreams before us. But, having done the best we can under all circumstances, we may find our greatest victory in what at first seemed to be our certain defeat, as Providence and forces beyond our control step in and take over, and overrule the best laid plans of men.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Dec. 9, 1945. Copyright 1945.
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December 09, 1945
Broadcast Number 0,851