Elder Steven E. Snow: Hope brings richness to life
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181st Annual General Conference — Church News coverage
To illustrate his topic, hope, Elder Steven E. Snow of the presidency of the Seventy shared this anecdote in his priesthood session address: In arid southern Utah, a man and his grandson were at a small grocery store. A car from out of state pulled up. The driver asked the old-timer if he thought it would rain. The man replied, "I certainly hope so, if not for my sake for the boy's. I've seen it rain."
"Hope is an emotion which brings richness to our lives," Elder Snow said. "It is defined as 'the feeling that events will turn out for the best.' When we exercise hope, we 'look forward with desire and reasonable confidence' (dictionary.com). As such, hope brings a certain calming influence to our lives as we confidently look forward to future events."
He told of Roger Banister, a runner who, in 1954, was the first man to run the mile in under four minutes. Prior to that, some experts had hypothesized that the human body was incapable of that feat.
"Hope can inspire dreams and spur us to realize those dreams," Elder Snow remarked. "Hope alone, however, does not cause us to succeed. Many honorable hopes have gone unfulfilled, shipwrecked on the reefs of good intentions and laziness."
Parents hope their children will be righteous, he said, but that alone is not enough. "We must spend time with them in family home evening and worthwhile family activities. We must teach them to pray. We must read with them in the scriptures and teach them important gospel principles."
In the gospel, the Atonement of Christ "is truly the hope we all must have," Elder Snow said. "It is what sets us apart from the rest of the world."
He added, "Our hope in the Atonement empowers us with eternal perspective. Such perspective allows us to look beyond the here and now on into the promise of the eternities. We don't have to be trapped in the narrow confines of society's expectations. We are free to look forward to celestial glory, sealed to our family and loved ones."
He told of Mary Murray Murdoch, an example of pioneers whose hope motivated them to leave their homes and cross the plains to be with the saints in the Salt Lake Valley. She died en route near Chimney Rock, Neb. Her dying words were a message to her son John, already in the valley: "Tell John I died with my face towards Zion."
