Last year I started having bursts of ideas. I knew they weren’t coming from my own busy brain.
They felt like shooting stars, streaks 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 in the April 2025 general conference.
I knew what I was supposed to talk about. Then the opposition began.
I’ve felt opposition from the adversary before, and maybe you have, too — opposition as you’ve tried to get to the temple or minister to a person in need, opposition when you’re trying to do good and be good.
It’s real.
I felt it in waves as I prepared my talk and then prepared to share it, waves of doubt and discouragement.
It was a voice in my head that said things like: “You’re not good at this. You’re not good enough. What were you thinking?”
Do you know this voice? The one that sort of beats you up?
What if you stopped to ask, ”Is the chatter I’m hearing helpful or hurtful?” The things we say to ourselves matter. They have the power to humiliate or help, to hurt or heal.
Before I spoke in general conference I literally had to say out loud, “You are not the voice in your head.”
Because below this heavy feeling was a really hopeful feeling that those streaks of light might lift others who felt like me.
When you stand as a witness of Christ, embrace the Lord’s gift of repentance or help lift others in His kingdom, there is an actual being, a very real adversary, who does not want you to succeed and will do everything in their power to dissuade, distract and debilitate you.
I felt it.
But I’ve learned that when we don’t act on the good, uplifting things we feel prompted to do, it usually haunts us down the road.
So, when you face this opposition, when “thick darkness” gathers around you and you’re losing heart and hope, remember, Satan is the thief of hope (see Joseph Smith — History 1:15).
But your Savior is forever brighter than the darkness. Turn to His light.
Do not give up or give in.
And when you hear that hurtful voice, remind yourself, “I am Heavenly Father’s child, and He would never say those things about me.”
Consider this example from Elder Jörg Klebingat, a General Authority Seventy:
“Have you ever loved a little child so much that you just want to burst? A daughter, a son, a nephew, a younger sibling or, in my case, a grandson? For now, let’s imagine a little 5-year-old girl whom you love more than life itself.
“From where you are sitting, you are observing this beautiful child in the corner by a little table totally engrossed in drawing a picture for you — as children love to do.
“Imagine her little tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrates intently. She’s really working hard. Now imagine her walking toward you, hesitantly pausing and wondering whether her offering will make the cut. You notice immediately that this is neither a perfect horse nor a house. Yet her big, expectant eyes meet yours. What do you say?
“Well, you are not going to express disappointment. You are not going to point out every flaw, are you? You are not going to remind her that her older brother did a better job at her age, are you? Instead you will praise and hug that little girl, and then you will laminate her picture and put it on the fridge. Right? Why?
“Because even in your flawed, mortal condition, you instinctively know that what that little sweetheart did for you at this stage in her life today represents the best she could do, and you are good with that.
“So why, I ask, would we ever even imagine our loving and perfect Heavenly Father, upon receiving our daily and by default flawed offerings, putting them straight into a celestial shredder, whacking us over the head with a disappointed look and sending us off to do better? Let’s not do that. That’s hurtful and offensive to Him” (“The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Judgment Day and You” BYU Speeches).
Think of your Savior.
Listen for His voice and to His voice — the voice that says good things — because He is your truest and finest heavenly friend.
His love and your worth are always great, no matter what.
The people in Bountiful learned this for themselves (see 3 Nephi 17:15–17).
They knelt beside the resurrected Redeemer and heard the words He spoke to the Father about them — words so precious that they could not be written.
Jesus Christ is for you, not against you!
Remember, His arms are extended toward you always.
Why?
I believe He is waiting for you to move close enough to embrace you. To give you a hug.
Because He loves you so much. And I do too!
Let’s turn to His light — our perfect brightness of hope — so that others, through us, will see Him, too.
In a world full of choices let’s choose Him.
Again and again.
