How to Be Positive in a World of Bad News
20 Jul 2016 • Blog Post
Recently I’ve begun using news radio as my morning alarm. I’ve found this to be a worthwhile habit; the announcers’ engaging dialogue helps my consciousness kick in and helps jump-start my day. But over the last couple of months, I’ve noticed the news has created a fog that has settled on my spirits. Rather than energizing me, the news has deflated my mornings and left me distressed.
Like many, I have found myself apprehensively asking: how can I stay strong and positive in the wake of so much turmoil and sadness? I hadn’t shared this question with any of my peers, but soon after realizing that I needed to do something to disperse this gloom, a friend mentioned a BYU devotional talk given by Neil L. Andersen titled “A Compensatory Spiritual Power for the Righteous.”
Coincidence? Not likely. The insights and instructions given by Elder Andersen cut through the fog I was feeling and lifted my spirits. He reminded me of the power our Heavenly Father has and the concern He has for His children.
“The Lord will bless His Saints with the added spiritual power necessary to meet the challenges of our day,” Elder Andersen said. “As evil increases in the world, there is a compensatory power, an additional spiritual endowment, a revelatory gift for the righteous.”
Photo credit: M Reza Faisal
I am very grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior, who know what we are going through and in their love and wisdom bless us with the power, tools, and emotional support we need to get through this life. Elder Andersen mentioned a variety of ways a person can increase his or her spiritual power, and, similar to Alma asking us to “awake and arouse” our faculties (Alma 32:27), Elder Andersen also encouraged us to act.
Elder Andersen stated, “This added blessing of spiritual power does not settle upon us just because we are part of this generation. It is willingly offered to us; it is eagerly put before us. But as with all spiritual gifts, it requires our desiring it, pursuing it, and living worthy of receiving it.
These are difficult and sometimes distressing times, but it is also the dispensation of the fullness of times. It is a wonderful and exciting time to have a physical body and be alive on the earth. There are infinite possibilities for our intellectual advancement and spiritual growth. I am grateful to live, as Elder Andersen put it, during this time “when the fullness of the gospel has been restored and the world is being prepared for the glorious Second Coming of the Savior. These are days of looking forward, of beautiful anticipation. These are our days.”
—Nikilani Tengan, BYU Publications & Graphics
Nikilani Tengan is the full-time secretary at BYU Publications & Graphics. She relishes the opportunity to work with innovative and hard-working people and has learned a lot from watching the work that goes into producing creative communications. She thinks her coworkers are so clever that she’s compiling a quote book documenting some of their quick wit.
