August 6, 2025, 7:42am MDT
Last year I started bursting ideas. I knew they weren’t coming from my own busy brain.
They felt like shooters, stripes of light and hope, and while they were unexpected and fleeting, I wrote them all down.
Just before Christmas, I received a letter from the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, asking me to speak at the general conference in April 2025.
I knew I was supposed to talk. Then the opposition began.
I have felt opposition from my enemies before, and so are you.
It’s real.
As I prepared my talk and then prepared to share it, I felt it in the waves.
It was the voice in my head: “You’re not good at this. You’re not enough. What were you thinking?”
Do you know this voice? What will beat you?
What happens if I stop asking, “Is it useless what I’m listening to? Is it hurt?” “It’s important that we tell ourselves. They have the power to humiliate or help, hurt or heal.
Before speaking at the general conference, I had to literally say “You’re not the voice in your head.”
Because under this heavy feeling, there was a truly hopeful sense of hope that those stripes of light might lift up others who felt like me.
When you stand as a witness to Christ, when you accept the gift of the Lord’s repentance or help lift up others in his kingdom, there are very realistic enemies that you do not want to succeed.
I felt that.
But when we don’t act on the uplifting things that we are encouraged to do, it usually learns that it plagues us the way.
So, when you face this opposition, when “thick darkness” gathers around you, and you lose your heart and hope, remember that Satan is a thief of hope. (See Joseph Smith – History 1:15).
But your Savior is brighter than darkness forever. Turn to his light.
Don’t give up or give up.
And when you hear that harmful voice, remind yourself, “I am the child of my Heavenly Father, and he will never say those things about me.”
Considering this example, consider Elder Jorg Klebinbin River, 70 General Authorities.
“Have you ever loved a small child who just wants to burst? A daughter, son, nephew, young siblings, or, in my case, grandchild? For now, imagine a little five-year-old girl who you like more than life itself.
“From where you sit, you’re observing this beautiful child in the corner with a small table who is completely obsessed with drawing for you, the way they want to do.
“Imagine her little tongue sticking out from the corner of her mouth when she is enthusiastically focused. She’s working really hard. Now, imagine whether she walks towards you and her offering will make a cut. You realize that this is not a perfect horse or a home.
“Well, you’re not going to express disappointment. You’re not going to point out all the flaws. You’re not going to remind her that her brother did a better job at her age. Instead, you praise the girl and hold her.
“Even in your flawed, fatal state, you instinctively know what that little lover has done for you at this stage of her life today.
“So, imagine even imagining our loving, perfect heavenly Father, every day, receiving a flawed offering by default, straight into a celestial shredder, smacking us on our heads with a disappointing look, and doing it.
Think of your Savior.
Hear his voice and his voice, the voice that says good things.
Whatever his love and your worth is, he’s always wonderful.
The Bountiful people learned this on their own (see 3 NEPHI 17:15–17).
They kneeled beside the resurrected red Lord and heard the words he had spoken to his father about them – words that they could not write.
Jesus Christ is for you, not against you!
Don’t forget that his arms are always stretched towards you.
why?
I think he’s waiting for you to move close enough to accept you. To give you a hug.
Because he loves you so much. And I will do that too!
Let us look at his light, the brightness of our perfect hope. Then let others see him through us as well.
In a world filled with choices, choose him.
Over and over again.
