Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Derrick Porter each Sunday during the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broadcast. This will be given Sunday, June 14, 2026. This week is No. 5,048 of the broadcast.
Please note: Reservations are needed to attend “Music & the Spoken Word” in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Find out more about how to make reservations here. Also, due to the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s upcoming performances at the Hollywood Bowl in California, there will not be a live performances of “Music & the Spoken Word” on June 28 (and no public rehearsal on June 25), and a past performance will be streamed.
Life is beautiful — though it is also challenging. Wins and losses, progress and setbacks, moments of joy and seasons of disappointment all come together to give us experience — and these things can shape us into who we are meant to be, the very best versions of ourselves.
Often, we begin like the Rocky Mountains — rugged and jagged. But as life refines us, we become more like the Scottish Highlands — worn smooth, steady and quietly confident in who we are becoming. As mountains form and settle over time, they bear the marks of what they have endured — evidence of the past and of progress over time. And like a mountain, we carry marks in our own lives — reminders of where we have been, where we are and where we hope to go.
Some of life’s greatest lessons come from experiences we would never choose. (For a more complete consideration of this thought, see “Eternity’s Great Gifts: Jesus Christ’s Atonement, Resurrection, Restoration,”by Elder Gerrit W. Gong, April 2026 general conference.) And often, it is these difficult moments that leave marks. But these marks, the evidence of hard challenges, can become sacred, reminding us and teaching others of the progress they represent.
Don Jessop, a 27-year-old husband and father, was living his dream as a cowboy when a tragic accident left him paralyzed from the chest down. Suddenly, life changed for his young family. They moved to a new home better suited to his needs, where Don learned to navigate each room in a wheelchair.
In doing so, he unintentionally left marks — scrapes and gouges along doors and doorframes. Over time, these marks accumulated and could be seen by all who entered.
Years later, after Don had passed, his children refurbished the home, adding new paint and new carpet, with great care given to its restoration. But one thing was not restored: the marks left by their father’s wheelchair.
To the family, these marks were sacred — evidence of a difficult life well lived — one that was characterized by growth, resilience and love.
We each carry marks from the difficult times of our own lives, but these challenges and their marks need not define us. Rather, they can inspire us and those around us to keep moving forward. May we embrace and even give thanks for the evidence of hard challenges in our lives. The scratches and gouges testify of experience, of effort, of progress and of faith in the future.
Tuning in …
The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast is available on KSL-TV, KSL News Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM (Ch. 143), tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir and Amazon Alexa (must enable skill). The program is aired live on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time on these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedules.
