Pictures Throughout Time - A Reflection

I have been MIA for a while but it’s for a good reason, I promise. For the last 3-4 weeks work has been an absolute disaster, so busy, I have had no time whatsoever. The other part of that is that I’ve been wanting to take a specific certification test for work for like 8 years and I finally had to actually take it, so I’ve spent every single spare minute of my time for the last 2 months studying for that. I finally took it and it was horrible, but I passed and am so glad to be done with it. There is another one I’m going to take in October, but hopefully there won’t be as much cramming last minute as there was with this one. Forgoing my in depth scripture study in order to study for my test actually motivated me to buckle down because every time I thought “I don’t feel like studying right now,” and was tempted to just watch TV or something I remembered, “you are sacrificing your scripture time right now, so focus,” and I did and it worked apparently. Before I get back into the actual text of scripture next time, because again I’m very busy at work and only have a few minutes, I wanted to share an experience that I had a couple of weeks ago that was very profound. I am the primary chorister for my ward and I was looking through all the gospel art kit pictures that we have in order to put them up to help the kids remember the words to one of the songs. There were probably a couple hundred pictures to sort through and I knew generally which ones I wanted, so I was sorting through all these pictures that were completely out of order chronologically and I was pretty irritated because I wanted them to be organized so that I could find what I was looking for. But as I spent time going through each of these pictures that spanned in time from Adam and Eve to our modern day First Presidency and throughout all the standard scripture works, I was able to see the continuity of the gospel throughout all of human history. I saw God teaching the plan of salvation and commandments and covenants and eternal principles from the very beginning of time, to so many people regardless of the time in which they lived, where they lived, what their social status was, people from all walks of life were taught gospel principles, and it was incredibly powerful to see the different ways in which these people tried to live those principles. I get so caught up in my own life and work and kids and all these different things, seeing the ways in which people throughout time had prioritized the gospel was very powerful for me. I also saw the ways in which people sacrificed for the gospel, how they stood alone in front of kings, rulers, mobs, masters and all other types of people who had power over their life and death. These people depicted in these pictures all stood for the truth and lived the best way they could according to the commandments, and it gave me strength that I could do it too. I saw that I’m not alone in my beliefs, even though my friends and family leave the church, and others espouse atheism and lambast a belief in God. I can do hard things and stand alone, just like so many others did and looking through those pictures was a powerful reminder that I won’t be the first to be the only one in a room who believes, and surely I won’t be the last either, and it’s my responsibility to set an example for other who will also stand alone. It was an incredibly powerful moment.