Higby's Joy in the Journey

This is the talk I gave in Sacrament meeting a couple of weeks ago. It tells our story, so I thought I should post it here to add to our family journal.

Faith—an Eternal Perspective

My name is Wendi Higby and I am Kevin and Debbie Montague’s oldest daughter. We just moved here from Arizona a few months ago and I am happy to be here--to be near family and to be reunited with old friends. We’ve been away for 13 years other than a short period after Jed’s college graduation.

We had finally both graduated from BYU. We had 3 kids and were leaving our cozy 500 sq ft apartment. We came here to Sacramento to await Jed’s acceptance into McGeorge Law School. We did the tour of the school, looked for a home to rent, planned out our financing. We were ready. I was happy to finally be home after being gone for the first 6 years of our marriage. We worked hard to get back here. Well, we waited and waited but the letter of acceptance to law school didn’t come. We had called the school before, but this time someone actually looked up Jed’s application and they had no application on file for him! In order to get an application to a law school, you have to go through what’s called the Law Board. They compile your test scores and application and then send it to the schools you choose. Somewhere in that process, a signature on one of the application pages was missing and Jed’s application didn’t get submitted. We never received any notice of this and in fact, had been given wrong information that everything was fine and we just needed to wait. We redid the page they were missing and it was finally sent to McGeorge, but by this time, it was too late to be accepted with the testing scores Jed had. When we first applied, his score was right in the range they were looking for and he should have had no problem being excepted into the program, but this late in the summer, they were only accepting a few more students with elite testing scores. We weren’t getting into law school.

So the scramble began to figure out what to do: should we work then reapply?
We looked for a home, but we couldn’t find a thing in the area we wanted and the houses we did find just weren’t for us. They all just felt wrong. Finally, we took a trip to the Oakland Temple to find some answers. A picture in the endowment looked just like Arizona to me. My heart began to pound and I knew the Spirit was telling me we needed to move. That’s all I thought about during the session. I was sure Jed had just as strong an impression and I couldn’t wait to get to the Celestial room to talk to him about it. To my surprise he didn’t have the same prompting. He was shocked actually that I would suggest a move like that! We prayed over the next few days and knew that was the right choice—that’s what the Lord wanted us to do.

I was finally near family and now we had to leave again! The Lord knew that I needed that inspiration to come to me so that I would be willing to go. In this great leap of Faith, Jed left for Arizona to look for work and a home for us to stay in. After about 5 months, he did find work and home that seemed to be just waiting for us. It had sat empty for the last 9 months and they had just lowered the rent to be within our price range. It was perfect, not to mention about 4 times the size of our apartment!

We had faith that the Lord had a plan for us. We knew that there were places we needed to be in order to effectively raise our family and help build the kingdom of God .
Through that leap of faith, we experienced many great things
· Jed helped a co-worker get to the point that she was able to go to the temple
· We provided a home for Jed’s sister as she returned from serving an honorable mission
· We developed great relationships with some of Jed’s family
· We met some dear friends that were in the right place and just the right time to provide the support and help we needed through struggles we faced
· I was able to hold leadership positions out in the community which fulfilled a portion of the promises made to me in my patriarchal blessing
· We struggled, we learned, and we grew stronger as a couple and as a family.

All these and many more blessings we received because we had the faith to follow the promptings of the Spirit and to lean on the Lord’s hand to guide our family. Don’t get me wrong, it was difficult and we had many, many struggles.
We also received many blessings that we had asked for in our prayers , having faith that we would receive them someday. It’s kind of like what they say about praying for patience. When you ask for patience, the Lord doesn’t just pour a bucket of patience into you; instead He gives you many opportunities to practice being patient!
We had qualities we wanted to develop as a family and these prayers were answered and we are a much stronger, closer couple and family because of our experiences in Arizona.

Sister Anne Pingree, the second counselor of the general RS Presidency in 2003, described faith as
“ the spiritual ability to be persuaded of promises that are seen “afar off” but that may not be attained in this life. Faith is a sure measure of those who truly believe.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie expressed this truth in these words: “Faith in its full and pure form requires an unshakable assurance and … absolute confidence that [God] will hear our pleas and grant our petitions” 9 in His own due time. Believing that, we too can “stand fast in the faith” 10 today and tomorrow.”

Many of us are experiencing some troubling times. For us, our struggle with unemployment has been a long hard struggle. We pray, we fast, and we attend the temple in faith, knowing that our Father in Heaven hears our prayers and wants us to be able to support to our family. We have faith that our prayers will someday be answered.

In Alma 32:21 it reads,
“And now as I said concerning faith—afaith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye bhope for things which are cnot seen, which are true.”

Though we cannot see our Father in Heaven or Jesus Christ, the Spirit testifies of their existence and we have faith in them. Though we do not remember the council in Heaven before we came to this earth, the Spirit again testifies to us and we have faith in the Father’s plan for each of us.

With this faith, we can see afar off and have hope for our future both on this earth and in the eternities to come.

In order to keep this faith and have an eternal perspective on life, we must rely on our Savior Jesus Christ.
Faith is the most personal reflection of adoration for—and devotion to—our Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Anchored by this first and all-important principle of the gospel, we look to our Savior, knowing “Jesus [is] the author and finisher of our faith.”
In Moses 6:27, the Lord admonishes Enoch to preach repentance to the people “for their hearts have waxed hard, and their ears are dull of hearing , and their eyes cannot see afar off.”

Satan wants us to be consumed in the moment and to fall to temptations around us. As we do this, we lose our eternal perspective and our faith falls to the side as our hearts are hardened. But, Elder Boyd K Packer reminds us that,
"There is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no apostasy, no crime exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness. That is the promise of the atonement of Christ.”

As we turn to the Savior with a repentant heart, our burden is lightened and we will once again find faith and hope for things to come.

Faith is the key to finding joy now, amidst the trials we each face. Through the unemployment, the physical struggles, the sorrow of loved ones lost in sin, all struggles that have such weight to pull us down. We can have joy and feel a lessening of that burden as we have faith in Heavenly Father’s plan and love for each of us.

Jenny Phillips is one of my favorite LDS musicians and I love her song “Joy in the Journey”

Jenny Phillips
Joy in the Journey

How quickly we forget where happiness is.
It can be found in every place we’re in.
All the moments our hearts are turned to Him

Joy is in the journey
Joy is when I’m learning to become like Him.
So even when I’m hurting
When the clouds are grey and swirling
I can feel the beauty in their hue.
Happiness is a choice within me.
Joy is in the journey

When I look at the world with a thankful mind
I see so much more of His light
In my bliss and in my deepest pain
I can feel His sunlight on my face.

After living in Arizona for 6 years, we were faced with some big obstacles and some decisions had to be made. We had gone for several months without steady employment—just doing odd jobs to get what we could, but always falling short in our income.

Amazingly, through the church, family, and dear friends, we always had what we needed. So many times we had things show up just when we were at the end. Friends coming by with diapers and toilet paper, generous church members making extra donations during the holidays to make sure families like ours were taken care of, even money showing up in our mail box with a note that just said “from someone who’s been there.” All of these charitable gestures were answers to prayers and confirmation of our faith

This time a new pathway was laid before us and Jed received the prompting that we should move back here to Citrus Heights, CA. We were comfortable in AZ. We had a great home, amazing friends, and a wonderful community of like-minded families, a great school, and great friends for our kids.

Through much prayer and fasting, we knew this move was the right path for us.
Many things have happened to help get us here. I’m always saying there is no such thing as a coincidence. They are small miracles that confirm our faith.

Again another leap of faith. Again another turn in our journey. Again a choice—get caught up in our current struggles and stresses, or keep an eternal perspective of faith and find joy in our journey.

Sister Pingree said , “It matters not where we live or what our individual circumstances may be. Each day our righteous living can demonstrate a faith in Jesus Christ that sees beyond mortal heartaches, disappointments, and unfulfilled promises. It is a glorious thing to possess a faith that enables us to look forward to that day “when all that was promised the Saints will be given.”

For us, we have certainly struggled in our trials. But I don’t want to spend my life waiting to be happy. Waiting for this to end or waiting for the next great job or the next great house. My children aren’t getting any younger and neither am I. I have a short journey on this earth and I want to live it with joy.
I add my testimony to Sister Pingree’s, that God lives. He loves each of us and desires to bless us one by one. I know that our faith in Jesus Christ can sustain us each day as we “do all things that lie in our power,” knowing with the “utmost assurance” that those promises we may see “afar off” will one day bring all the blessings we hope for.
I pray that each of us will develop and nurture the Faith within us that we may keep our perspective on the eternal and know that the Lord is mindful of our struggles, but that we will come out of them stronger in character and in Faith. Remember to have faith and find joy in the journey. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.