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A Sweet Story of Peace and Hope

To share great examples of hope during his devotional address September 30, BYU-Hawaii Vice President for Academics, exemplified his pioneer ancestors during his devotional address September 30. Dr. Max L. Checketts used his ancestor’s pioneer stories, and stories from the lives of Book of Mormon and Bible prophets, to teach how hope is the way “for us to overcome our adversity and challenges.”

After sharing some life lessons learned from his young grandchildren, Brother Checketts told of an experience he had during a ward activity called a pai pai: a night activity in which a group of fisherman use two adjacent nets to entangle and catch large fish.

He shared the lesson he learned from this outing and the scripture that coincides, Doctrine and Covenants 88:86. “Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord comes.”

Furthering that lesson, Checketts explained how we sometimes feel entangled, lost and hopeless, just like the fish caught in the nets. Quoting Sister Dawn Young, a former General Primary President, he said, “Hopelessness may be the saddest word in our language. Despair is the enemy of our souls. It can paralyze us, halt our progress, and cause us to lose our way. But hope awakens us like a light shining in the darkness… The Lord wants us to be filled with hope–not just because it points is to a brighter tomorrow, but because it changes the quality of our lives.”

Vice President Checketts then used specific examples from the scriptures to help teach. “The brother of Jared had so much faith and hope that he was able to perform many mighty miracles to keep his family together. The people of Alma, as they were held within the nets of the wicked priests of King Noah, sought comfort as they tried to gain liberty in the land of Zarahemla. They tell [in Alma 27] that hope helped lighten their burdens,” said Checketts.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, in a poem about hope, captured the words of Thessalonians 1:3 when he wrote, “The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” Checketts expounded on these three essentials using the Prophet Joseph Smith as an example.

“Joseph Smith sets a great pattern of how he applied these three things. Following the first vision and the visitation of the Angel Moroni, he knew he had a work to perform, to translate that sacred work as a witness in testimony that he had indeed seen and heard that which he had described in the sacred grove. Joseph has always been described as a gentleman, but I sense that his love intensified for his brothers and sisters, each of us, as he sought to bring about the restoration of all things. And finally, he was so focused on the hope of the Savior’s second coming that, many of the writings of not only Joseph, but others of the apostles and church members, contained messages of hope focused on Christ’s second coming.”

Joseph and Polly Knight, associates of the Prophet Joseph, early members of the LDS Church, and ancestors of Brother Checketts, showed hope through the stories in their pioneer journals. After losing their wealth and man possessions, surviving persecution, and moving from town to town, the Knight family started their trek west with the rest of the pioneer saints. Joseph Knight died while on the trail, and Polly was the first saint to be buried in the latter-day Zion.

Speaking of Polly, Brother Checketts said, “Her last wish was that she could live long enough so that she could be buried in Zion. Her wish was granted, her health improved just slightly, [and] once they arrived she passed away… Her hope of Zion was not only a legacy for her descendents, but for all of us.”

Using the words of Elder Marvin J. Ashton, Checketts summarized his ideas: “We need to remove unworthy from our vocabulary and replace it with hope and work.” Checketts also borrowed from the words of President Ezra Taft Benson. “Only Jesus Christ is uniquely qualified to provide that hope, that confidence, and that strength to overcome the world and rise above our human feelings.”

“So brothers and sisters, whenever discouragement, hopelessness, or despair enters into your heart, the time has come for you to draw nearer to the Savior and let him into your life. When you do this, the light of his love will bring liberty and hope. Just as the master fisherman avoids the light of day to catch his fish, the nets of this world can be seen and avoided as we live as the savior has taught us. Those nets [can] be inconsequential for each of us. As we come to know and trust the Savior, he can redeem us from the nets, even the sins of this world. But we must come to the Savior and know that He is our Redeemer. We can have a belief in many things, but eventually we must know that our Redeemer lives.”

-Photo by Monique Saenz

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