Now the joy of (Tova) was so great even that (she) was full; yea, (she) was swallowed up in the joy of (her) God, even to the exhausting of (her) strength; ...
Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness.
A hospital nurse led a tired, anxious serviceman to a bedside in the emergency wing. “Your son is here,” she said to the old man lying on the bed. She had to repeat the words several times before the patient’s eyes opened.
Heavily sedated due to his heart attack, the old man dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man’s limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.
The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. All through the night, the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man’s hand and offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile. But he refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital — the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, and held tightly to his son all through the night.
Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding, and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited. Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her. “Who was that man?” he asked. The nurse was startled. “He was your father,” she answered. “No, he wasn’t,” the Marine replied. “I never saw him before in my life.” “Then why didn’t you say something when I took you to him?”
“I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed."
A couple weeks ago, we adopted two little kittens: Tsunami and Noemi ("No-Amy"; it's Hungarian). We were heading out of town, so on Wednesday we dropped them off with their supplies at a friends house. Just as the second group of us were heading out, the friend called us saying that Noemi was looking sick, and that we should come pick her up.
I thought that it might just be the motherly instincts of the friend seeing things that weren't there, but when I went in to pick up the little kitten, she was laying stretched out on her towel while her sister climbed around her. The friend told us Noemi had diarrhea, and needed to stay hydrated.
For the two-hour drive I cradled the prone little body in my hands, feeding her water through a baby dropper one drop at a time. I watched for each sign of improvement: She blinked! She kicked her leg! She rolled over!
While I chose to take these as good signs, I also knew that they may also be signs of her final struggle.
Finally, we made it to Andover where we'd be spending the weekend. I handed off the little kitty to her owner, my nine-year-old sister. At first they took the cats (we'd brought both) to the barn, but then in order to give Noemi more water more often, our friends let us bring them into an outer room in their house.
Despite almost constant care, little Noemi died that night while I was holding her.
As she started leaving, I burst out crying. I'd worked for hours to keep this little kitten alive. Why couldn't she stay?
Comforting me, my mom said, "At least we were able to give her love and a home before she died."
Another woman told of her experience. She was finally fulfilling her dream to go see Mother Theresa. When she landed in India, she went off in search of the famous nun. The woman was directed to a hospital. When she entered it, she found herself in a long hall. Along one wall were 10 or so rocking chairs, and on the other side were dozens of babies lying on the ground.
The door at the other end opened and Mother Theresa walked in followed by some nurses. As she slowly advanced towards the woman, Mother Theresa would point at a baby and then point at a nurse, saying "That one. You. ... That one. You. ..." Obediently, the nurse would pick up the child and rock it in a rocking chair.
At last, Mother Theresa was standing in front of the woman. But as the woman opened her mouth to say something, Mother Theresa pointed at a baby. "That one. You."
Without another word, she left the hospital, leaving the woman who'd come so far to meet her.
Stunned, the woman stood there for a moment. Then she angrily began to leave. "Wait!" a nurse called. "You have to help."
"I'm not a nurse, I don't know what to do." The woman protested.
Quietly, the nurse explained. "There isn't enough care and medicine to save all of these babies. Mother Theresa knows which of these babies are going to die today. Our job is to rock them, and make sure they feel human love before they leave this world."
The woman looked back at the little baby that Mother Theresa had assigned her to love. Then she went over, picked it up, and then rocked it until it slept.
By that time, she needed to rush to catch her plane home, and she never saw Mother Theresa again. But she said that it wasn't a wasted trip. She learned what she needed to learn.
Mosiah 16: 7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. 8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. 9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.
Oh my goodness. Talk about divine help. I just finished a long, exhausting day. Got onto my email, and what did I find? A list of more things to do :S.
Also in my email, I found this quote:
"My dear brothers and sisters, there will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Church. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose. He is the Son of the living God. And He will help you.” —President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
The very presence of the quote in my inbox was a manifestation of His awareness of me. I'm so grateful for the Holy Spirit and inspired leaders who are able to send us comfort and guidance.
Death is a scary thing.
So it might be weird that I've spent the last five minutes looking up scriptures on death.
But the scriptures offer a lot of comfort.
If you've lost a love one recently, have moments of grief remembering someone who's passed away, or if you have a friend who needs help coping with loss turn to the scriptures. They provide simple truths about the reality of death; not the giant wall our human minds have set up, but the doorway it is meant to be.
Here are some of the scriptures I found, and a basic summary next to them:
One of the most comforting beliefs in the LDS church is that families can live together FOREVER!! If you are sealed in the temple, and stay faithful to each other and to God then you can be together even after you die.
These are a few stories about people who have found comfort, and grown through this belief:
While
Catherine and Kimball Herrod and their four young children, ages nine
months to seven years, were driving home from a family dinner at their
grandparents’ place, a double wheel from a huge semitruck on the
opposite side of the freeway suddenly sprang loose, flew across the
median, and pounded into the driver’s side of the family van. Kimball,
the driver, husband, and father, was severely injured and unconscious.
Catherine somehow guided the car to the shoulder and called for
emergency help. While she watched the paramedics work on her husband and
two older children, she sat in a police car with her two little ones on
her lap and prayed vocally, “Heavenly Father, we know that Thou hast
the power to heal Kimball if it is Thy will, but if not, we have faith
that somehow Thou wilt sustain us through this.” Kimball was
life-flighted to the hospital, but he did not make it there alive.
After
the children were treated for cuts, bruises, and other minor injuries,
dismissed from the hospital, and safely home in bed, Catherine returned
to the hospital to say her final earthly good-bye to her husband. As
difficult as it was, she declared to her parents, who were with her, “I
know that Kimball and I are sealed by our temple covenants, and we will
be together again someday.” In the most terrible trial of a young
mother’s life, her covenants sustained her.
At
the funeral, we were reminded of the power of covenants to sustain us
in moments of distress and grief. As we joined in the closing song, we
all heard above the crowd the voice of Taylor, the five-year-old son,
loudly singing, “Families Can Be Together Forever” (Hymns, no.
300). It was joyous for the congregation to know that a child had been
taught of the sealing covenants that would bind him to his father and
mother. --Susan B Tanner (former YW's president)
I know that we can live forever with our families. I know that I can be with my little brother again, and remember him, know him, and love him.
First, here's a story told by Pres. Thomas S Monson:
In
about March 1946, less than a year after the end of the war, Ezra Taft
Benson, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, accompanied by
Frederick W. Babbel, was assigned a special postwar tour of Europe for
the express purpose of meeting with the Saints, assessing their needs,
and providing assistance to them. Elder Benson and Brother Babbel later
recounted, from a testimony they heard, the experience of a Church
member who found herself in an area no longer controlled by the
government under which she had resided.
She
and her husband had lived an idyllic life in East Prussia. Then had
come the second great world war within their lifetimes. Her beloved
young husband was killed during the final days of the frightful battles
in their homeland, leaving her alone to care for their four children.
The
occupying forces determined that the Germans in East Prussia must go to
Western Germany to seek a new home. The woman was German, and so it was
necessary for her to go. The journey was over a thousand miles (1,600
km), and she had no way to accomplish it but on foot. She was allowed to
take only such bare necessities as she could load into her small
wooden-wheeled wagon. Besides her children and these meager possessions,
she took with her a strong faith in God and in the gospel as revealed
to the latter-day prophet Joseph Smith.
She
and the children began the journey in late summer. Having neither food
nor money among her few possessions, she was forced to gather a daily
subsistence from the fields and forests along the way. She was
constantly faced with dangers from panic-stricken refugees and
plundering troops.
As
the days turned into weeks and the weeks to months, the temperatures
dropped below freezing. Each day, she stumbled over the frozen ground,
her smallest child—a baby—in her arms. Her three other children
struggled along behind her, with the oldest—seven years old—pulling the
tiny wooden wagon containing their belongings. Ragged and torn burlap
was wrapped around their feet, providing the only protection for them,
since their shoes had long since disintegrated. Their thin, tattered
jackets covered their thin, tattered clothing, providing their only
protection against the cold.
Soon
the snows came, and the days and nights became a nightmare. In the
evenings she and the children would try to find some kind of shelter—a
barn or a shed—and would huddle together for warmth, with a few thin
blankets from the wagon on top of them.
She constantly struggled to force from her mind overwhelming fears that they would perish before reaching their destination.
And
then one morning the unthinkable happened. As she awakened, she felt a
chill in her heart. The tiny form of her three-year-old daughter was
cold and still, and she realized that death had claimed the child.
Though overwhelmed with grief, she knew that she must take the other
children and travel on. First, however, she used the only implement she
had—a tablespoon—to dig a grave in the frozen ground for her tiny,
precious child.
Death,
however, was to be her companion again and again on the journey. Her
seven-year-old son died, either from starvation or from freezing or
both. Again her only shovel was the tablespoon, and again she dug hour
after hour to lay his mortal remains gently into the earth. Next, her
five-year-old son died, and again she used her tablespoon as a shovel.
Her
despair was all consuming. She had only her tiny baby daughter left,
and the poor thing was failing. Finally, as she was reaching the end of
her journey, the baby died in her arms. The spoon was gone now, so hour
after hour she dug a grave in the frozen earth with her bare fingers.
Her grief became unbearable. How could she possibly be kneeling in the
snow at the graveside of her last child? She had lost her husband and
all her children. She had given up her earthly goods, her home, and even
her homeland.
In
this moment of overwhelming sorrow and complete bewilderment, she felt
her heart would literally break. In despair she contemplated how she
might end her own life, as so many of her fellow countrymen were doing.
How easy it would be to jump off a nearby bridge, she thought, or to
throw herself in front of an oncoming train.
And
then, as these thoughts assailed her, something within her said, “Get
down on your knees and pray.” She ignored the prompting until she could
resist it no longer. She knelt and prayed more fervently than she had in
her entire life:
“Dear
Heavenly Father, I do not know how I can go on. I have nothing
left—except my faith in Thee. I feel, Father, amidst the desolation of
my soul, an overwhelming gratitude
for the atoning sacrifice of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. I cannot express
adequately my love for Him. I know that because He suffered and died, I
shall live again with my family; that because He broke the chains of
death, I shall see my children again and will have the joy of raising
them. Though I do not at this moment wish to live, I will do so, that we
may be reunited as a family and return—together—to Thee.”
When
she finally reached her destination of Karlsruhe, Germany, she was
emaciated. Brother Babbel said that her face was a purple-gray, her eyes
red and swollen, her joints protruding. She was literally in the
advanced stages of starvation. In a Church meeting shortly thereafter,
she bore a glorious testimony, stating that of all the ailing people in
her saddened land, she was one of the happiest because she knew that God
lived, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He died and was resurrected
so that we might live again. She testified that she knew if she
continued faithful and true to the end, she would be reunited with those
she had lost and would be saved in the celestial kingdom of God.8
From
the holy scriptures we read, “Behold, the righteous, the saints of the
Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in [Him], they who have
endured the crosses of the world, … they shall inherit the kingdom of
God, … and their joy shall be full forever.”
I know that through the Atonement and by knowing about the Plan of Salvation our sufferings can be understood, and maybe a little more appreciated.
How do you feel about dying? Is it the end? What will it be like? Will I see God? or Jesus?
I think that for most people, it will be a happy day; a day when they are finally at peace from worldy cares, and are able to be at rest in paradise. I think that the majority of people are good, and will be able to say that they loved God while in life.
How would you prepare for such a day?
I love these talks given in previous General Conferences (a bi-annual LDS event): The First Great Commandment by Jeffery R Holland Your Once Upon a Time by Dieter F Uchtdorf
I think that they really talk about preparing, and what you need to do, and how to keep perspective.
Here are two videos of songs that I L. O. V. E. LOVE!!
"Live Like You Were Dyin'" Time McGraw
"I can only Imagine" Mercy Me.
I think that those songs really cover what I want to say.
Bye! Best of Luck in Life!
Sophie
