Led by the Lord – Sunday, July 24, 1983
The past months have been hard for many of us. Economic recessions, harsh weather conditions and the usual struggles to keep up with the demands of a demanding world can sometimes leave us struggling for strength to go on. None of us would choose to endure discomfort and sometimes suffering, but there are great lessons to be learned in times of trouble.
No one learned these lessons better and under harsher conditions than those pioneers who first came to the mountain valleys of the west.
They had been driven from their comfortable homes and were forced to flee across the plains to what was called the Great American Desert, a land that nobody wanted. With each mile they more firmly committed their lives to the Lord. No one knew if there would be sufficient water or a suitable climate to sustain them. But they trusted the Lord to lead their steps.
Their way was hard. Six hundred died at Winter Quarters, near Omaha, Nebraska, and ten times that number were buried by the side of the trail between 1847 and the completion of the railroad in 1869. Thousands more exhausted, ill fed, afflicted with cholera, or frozen in the snows, could only seek the solace that comes from the Spirit of God. They sought, and they found it.1
They had a vision of what this arid wasteland could be, and they set about plowing their ground, building their homes, channeling the meager water reserves and they worked.
When the winters came early or the rains came late, when the locusts devoured their crops and the hostile forces of men and nature hedged them up on all sides, they were forced to their knees to pray to God for His strength to accomplish their purpose; their strength was not enough.
This proud heritage has been ours to draw on during these trying times.
And now as we look forward to perhaps better conditions, we should go forth renewed with the great lessons those pioneers left us. Let’s resolve to be led by the Lord as we plot our course in life. Let’s seek the solace of His comforting spirit when trials and tragedies come. And let’s seek His strength to sustain us in doing the work that he would have us do.
As we do so, we will not fear what the future holds. Trials, troubles, even tragedy will be for us, as the pioneers, a refiner’s fire to purify and help us learn to dwell together in peace.
1 Rulon S. Howells, The Mormon Story, Bookcraft Salt Lake City, Utah, 1957, p 42
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July 24, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,814