It's Going to Be Ok

My first time holding Maxwell (don't worry, my hand is supporting his head)

Tonight Julianne and I decided to meet up down at BYU and go for a walk around campus.  It was a little chilly at first, but it quickly warmed up and was just beautiful.  The combination of beautiful flowers in bloom and new little ducklings with their mothers in the streams and pond made for a wonderful walk!  I never realize just how much I love that campus until I come back to it from some time away.  It is just beautiful and the spirit there is so very special!  BYU isn't for everyone, but it is one of my favorite places on the earth.  For me, it will always be home.

I arrived at campus a few minutes before Julianne, so I had a little time to walk around and think before she arrived.  I have to admit that I had a lot on my mind.  I had been watching the news reports of the terrible tornado in Oklahoma and was moved by thoughts of those people who had lost loved ones, particularly the parents whose small children had died in the elementary school.  In addition to this, I was thinking about my comprehensive exams which seem so daunting and, I must confess, scare the living daylights out of me.  It seems like there is never enough time in the day to work enough to support myself and also to prepare for my exams and then also to spend enough meaningful time with Julianne and with my family.  Life can certainly be very busy and very stressful!

So, needless to say, I had a few things on my mind as I was walking around.  Thinking of all this, I looked up in the sky over Rock Canyon and saw a faint rainbow, ending somewhere near the Temple and the mouth of Rock Canyon.  I don't know what it was about that rainbow, but it seemed to be a revelation to me, in the fullest sense of the word revelation.  The beautiful colors set against a backdrop of storm clouds over the mountains immediately brought the phrase, "It's going to be ok" to my mind and heart.  My mind immediately went back to this small video of Elder Holland talking that I saw during much more unnerving and difficult circumstances a year ago.

As I pondered the message of that beautiful rainbow and the Lord's words to me, I thought back over the past couple of years and the number of times when I felt confident that things were falling apart and just wouldn't work.  In each of these difficult circumstances, I came to see and feel the hand of the Lord in my life and in my family.  Things did not always work the way that we had expected, and sometimes the Lord led us through some painful circumstances, but He did lead us and things turned out alright.  The Lord's message to me tonight was that He had never deserted me in the past and He would not in the future so long as I continued striving to follow Him and obey His commandments.  Things work out, miracles happen, and healing comes whenever it is necessary.

Life will almost never be an uninterrupted stream of blessings, prosperity, and cheerful circumstances, and in fact we wouldn't want it to be.  But as we remain faithful to the Lord through sunshine and shadows, blessings and challenges, we can rest assured that "It's going to be ok."

Brett