Our busy lifestyles can be overwhelming. All of us get caught up in the everyday drudgery of our “to-do” list. And if it’s not things we’re having to do, it’s worries that weigh us down, or health and safety issues, and so many things that life in general subscribes to.

We have been told by Jesus Christ, and our leaders, that our burdens can be lifted. They can be made light and we will be able to perform the necessary things of life with the help of the Lord. I have been contemplating how much we truly believe this.

The responsibility to believe is on our shoulders. We will always have much to do and worries and issues to deal with. But where do we place our trust, our faith, our belief that the Lord is there to pull us through? What is required of us to have that assurance?

In other words, how do we consciously, and consistently, fit the gospel into our busy lives? And how do we teach this to our children?

Elder Russell M. Nelson says this: “The sequence of His pattern is significant. Faith, repentance, baptism, a testimony, and enduring conversion lead to the healing power of the Lord. Baptism is a covenant act–a sign of a commitment and a promise. Testimony develops when the Holy Ghost gives conviction to the earnest seeker of the truth. True testimony fosters faith; it promotes repentance and obedience to God’s commandments. Testimony engenders enthusiasm to serve God and fellow human beings. Conversion means “to turn with.” Conversion is a turning from the ways of the world to, and staying with, the ways of the Lord. Conversion includes repentance and obedience. Conversion brings a mighty change of heart. Thus, a true convert is “born again,” walking with a newness of life. (CR, Oct. 2005)

The way to live our lives best is to ingest into our very souls the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost–and repeat, every day, day after day. Once we are baptized, it’s a matter of taking the Sacrament every week and holding onto the power that symbol represents in the commitment we have chosen, and continue to choose.

When hands were placed upon our heads, we were told to receive the Holy Ghost, but he comes and goes according to how often we invite him to stay. What are we doing to invite him to stay longer and longer until he stays for good?

Faith and repentance must be constant in every waking breath. There are far too many things out there that would shake us, and pull us, and make us falter.

Elder David A. Bednar says, “Please note that the conversion [process] is mighty, not minor–a spiritual rebirth and fundamental change of what we feel and desire, what we think and do, and what we are.” We will know when our hearts have been changed and it is up to us to maintain that change within us. Our joy in ourselves will inspire enthusiasm to teach it to our children first, then others whom we encounter.

Read the accounts of King Benjamin’s people and King Lamoni, his wife, and their people. Their hearts became new and their spirits eternally bright. There are many of us, walking around amongst the children of men, who have received this change within our hearts. We recognize them when we greet them, because their “change” shows in their countenance. I’d like to share one such family with you.

Forrest and Esther Packard are the parents of seventeen children. Their home, in Idaho, was a working and demanding farm. A job opportunity came that would allow them to pay off the farm, but it was on Wake Island, in the Pacific Ocean. It was a heart-wrenching commitment to let him go for one year while she was expecting their sixteenth child.

To further wrench the family, World War II broke out, and Wake Island was overtaken by the Japanese. Forrest was held as a civilian prisoner for another three years. Not being able to hear if her husband was safe, Esther suffered three nervous breakdowns. But blessings were requested, faith was revitalized, and Esther picked herself back up each time to keep the family together.

Esther was determined to see that her family stayed together, worked together, and prayed together. All of the children had responsibilities around the farm and Esther, besides also working the farm, went out and got a job. She became a “Spencer Corseteer,” selling corsets to women door-to-door. She was so successful that she eventually was able to open her own shop in Boise. She was able to keep up the house, even add on to the house, and purchase a car–all paid for, by the time Forrest returned.

It was mother who presided over Family Home Evening, Family Prayer, and gospel teaching. The children understood that after school they worked and completed chores. Esther worked right alongside them, teaching them the gospel. “Once, two of them tried a cigarette they found, but the smell gave them away at home. Their mother sent them to find a stick–her way of taking time to calm down. When they returned, she insisted that they spank her for not teaching them correct principles! Her children never forgot the lesson.”

“Esther found many ways to teach her children the gospel. She paid them five dollars for every Church book they read, for example, and ten cents for every Church song they memorized. But principally, she taught them to work, and she taught them gospel principles while she worked with them.”

Holding on to her principles, Esther kept the family together during this very difficult time. Her faith was firm. Her testimony was true. Her conversion carried her to the feet of her Savior who picked up her burden and magnified her ability.

One last story. Their house caught on fire one night. All of her children were able to get out, one seriously burned. Gathered together on the front lawn, she called her family together, they dropped to their knees, and that mother called upon the Father for rain to come and put the fire out. The rain came. The fire fizzled out. The Lord heard her powerful prayer.

Because we are women of God, who have faith, who daily repent, who have covenanted to obey completely through baptism and additional ordinances, and have the Holy Ghost as our constant companion, we can be given power to call upon the Lord to take our burdens, to preserve us, and to save us.

He loves us that much.

 

“The Packard Family”, Ensign, Feb. 1984.