{"id":3621,"date":"1986-06-01T16:44:25","date_gmt":"1986-06-01T22:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/?p=3621"},"modified":"2021-03-15T10:48:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T16:48:18","slug":"prince-peace-peace-give-unto","status":"publish","type":"speech","link":"https:\/\/speeches.byu.edu\/talks\/robert-d-hales\/prince-peace-peace-give-unto\/","title":{"rendered":"The Prince of Peace: \u201cPeace I Give unto You\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
It is a privilege to be with you at a fireside this evening. I have pondered what message would be helpful and meaningful for you in your life at this special time of learning and preparation for the future. May the Spirit be with us as we discuss some gospel teachings is my prayer.<\/p>\n
To Strengthen Our Faith<\/b><\/h2>\n
President Spencer W. Kimball, in a 1966 talk entitled \u201cTragedy or Destiny,\u201d said:<\/p>\n
I am positive in my mind that the Lord has planned our destiny. We can shorten our lives, but I think we cannot lengthen them very much. Sometime we\u2019ll understand fully, and when we see back from the vantage point of the future, we shall be satisfied with many of the happenings of this life which seemed so difficult for us to comprehend.<\/i><\/p>\n
We knew before we were born that we were coming to the earth for bodies and experience and that we would have joys and sorrows, pain and comforts, ease and hardships, health and sickness, successes and disappointments; and we knew also that we would die. We accepted all these eventualities with a glad heart eager to accept both the favorable and unfavorable. We were undoubtedly willing to have a mortal body even if it were deformed. We eagerly accepted the chance to come earthward even though it might be for a day, a year, or a century. Perhaps we were not so much concerned whether we should die of disease, of accident, or of senility. We were willing to come and take life as it came and as we might organize and control it, and this without murmur, complaint, or unreasonable demands. We sometimes think we would like to know what is ahead, but sober thought brings us back to accepting life a day at a time, and magnifying and glorifying that day. <\/i>[Spencer W. Kimball, \u201cTragedy or Destiny,\u201d Improvement Era, <\/i>March 1966, pp. 216\u201317]<\/p>\n
Ten years ago I was left alone to ponder this very idea in the stark white, sterile environment of a hospital room. My dear wife, Mary, had just been wheeled away to have an operation. My first response was to pray for her to be returned to me alive and well. My first prayer was almost one of a demand for her return because of the good life she had lived, her husband and children needed her loving care, and because in some way, because of our lives of service, her return to health was a debt owed us. Upon concluding the first prayer a heavy feeling lay upon me. There was not the feeling of peace, comfort, or reassurance I had anticipated. What was wrong? Why hadn\u2019t I been comforted? Why did I still have so much fear?<\/p>\n
After a few minutes of apprehension and deliberation, I knelt to pray again for a second time. This time, however, my prayer was one of acknowledging the Lord\u2019s hand in our lives, giving thanks for the many blessings we had received together as companions in over twenty years of marriage, and expressing that I would accept the outcome of the operation to be in God\u2019s hands and that his will would be done. After concluding the prayer, I was ready to accept the will of God as it affected Mary\u2019s life and mine.<\/p>\n
At the conclusion of the prayer a sweet, comforting spirit of peace rested upon me\u2014not because I was assured of Mary\u2019s safe return to health, but because of the assurance that I would accept my Heavenly Father\u2019s will and trust in him and in his son Jesus Christ to be given the strength to meet the trials of this mortal probation.<\/p>\n
After a few more minutes of reflection, I felt the need of more spiritual strength. I reached for my Bible that was on the bed stand and casually thumbed through it, stopping at the book of Job, and began to read, preoccupied at first and then studying more and more intently because my searching questions were being answered.<\/p>\n
The book of Job is a profound poem, yet hard to understand, outlining the challenges of life. Job was a good man, almost perfect. One day Satan appeared before God to tell him of the sinful ways of his children on earth. God said to Satan, \u201cDid you notice my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him\u2014a perfect and an upright man who never sins\u201d (see Job 1:8).<\/p>\n
Then Job was tested in similar ways that we must be prepared to be tested in this mortal probation: (1) physical possessions (house, cattle, children); (2) physical health (boils from head to toe); (3) mental health (depression): \u201cWhy died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I [was born]? I should have slept: then had I been at rest\u201d (Job 3:11, 13), \u201cSo that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life\u201d (Job 7:15); and (4) false accusations from friends who told Job he must deserve his pain and tribulations as God\u2019s punishment for his sins. Job\u2019s wife urged him to curse God, even if it meant he would be struck dead. But Job did not let these events destroy his testimony.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly\u201d (Job 1:22). As I studied Job in the hospital room, I found the key to enduring the trials and tribulations of this life is not to place blame on God the Father or his son Jesus Christ. Our trials and tribulations must be used to strengthen our faith. Job testified, \u201cAnd though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold\u201d (Job 19:26\u201327).<\/p>\n
Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote:<\/p>\n
No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . <\/i>. . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven. <\/i>[Quoted by Spencer W. Kimball, \u201cTragedy or Destiny,\u201d p. 211]<\/p>\n
Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery.<\/i>[Spencer W. Kimball; Faith Precedes the Miracle <\/i>(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1972), p. 98]<\/p>\n
After a few hours my sweetheart was returned to the hospital recovery room\u2014our crisis now a learning experience. I have often pondered what I would have done if she had departed this frail existence to leave me alone in this cold and dreary world without her love.<\/p>\n
Trust in the Lord<\/b><\/h2>\n
What are you going to do when faced with a tragedy? Can you prepare yourself and learn from Job, too? What is the real meaning of \u201cIf ye are prepared, ye shall not fear\u201d (D&C 38:30)? What preparations must you make in order to be comforted in times of trial and tribulation?<\/p>\n
You must learn to \u201ctrust in the Lord with all thine heart\u201d (Proverbs 3:5), for \u201cPeace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid\u201d (John 14:27). The Savior is the Prince of Peace. What beautiful words of hope, peace, and comfort.<\/p>\n
The hymn \u201cHow Firm a Foundation\u201d teaches us:<\/p>\n
In every condition\u2014in sickness, in health,<\/i> \nIn poverty\u2019s vale or abounding in wealth,<\/i> \nAt home or abroad, on the land or the sea\u2014<\/i> \nAs thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.<\/i><\/p>\n
Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,<\/i> \nFor I am thy God and will still give thee aid.<\/i> \nI\u2019ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,<\/i> \nUpheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.<\/i><\/p>\n
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,<\/i> \nThe rivers of sorrow shall not thee o\u2019erflow,<\/i> \nFor I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, <\/i> \nAnd <\/i>sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.<\/p>\n
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose<\/i> \nI will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;<\/i> \nThat soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, <\/i> \nI\u2019ll never, no never, no never forsake!<\/i> \n[Hymns, <\/i>1985, no. 85; emphasis added]<\/p>\n
I am touched this evening to have in attendance a father of seven children whose sweetheart passed through the vale after a sudden illness just a few weeks ago\u2014sweet Linda, thirty-two years of age, a devoted daughter, wife, and mother, taken home to our Father in Heaven for some inexplicable reason. The funeral was beautiful as Linda\u2019s husband, daughter, and parents spoke of her love and talents. No one charged God foolishly. The testimonies and examples were powerful and strengthened our faith.<\/p>\n
Individually, we should thank God for the examples of those about us who battle and conquer daily challenges that are intense, real, and continuing. There are some persons who in our human eyes seem to have more than their share of trouble, as we measure, but with God\u2019s help they are made special. They will not break. They will not yield. <\/i>[Marvin J. Ashton, \u201cAdversity and You<\/span><\/a>,\u201d Ensign, <\/i>November 1980, p. 60]<\/p>\n