sustaining

The Savior is not absent from our mortal journeys. For the past two days we have heard Him speak through His chosen leaders that we might draw closer to Him. Time and again, with His pure love and mercy, He sustains us as we face the drama of life. Nephi describes: “My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions. … He hath filled me with his love.”

That love is evident when we sustain one another in His work.

We sustain our living prophet at general conference, and the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, General Authorities, and Officers of the Church. To sustain means to hold up another person, to give them our attention, to be faithful to their trust, to act upon their words. They speak by inspiration of the Lord; they understand the current issues, the moral decline of society, and the adversary’s increasing efforts to thwart the Father’s plan. In holding up our hands, we are committing our support, not just for that moment but in our daily lives.

Sustaining includes holding up our stake presidents and bishops, quorum and organization leaders, teachers, and even camp directors in our wards and stakes. Closer to home, we hold up our wives and our husbands, children, parents, extended family, and neighbors. When we hold up one another we are saying, “I am here for you, not just to hold up your arms and hands when they ‘hang down’ but to be a comfort and strength at your side.”

Ronald A. Rasband

“Behold I Am the Light Which Ye Shall Hold Up” General Conference October 2024

lifted up by the Lord with peace

We all need to be lifted up by the Lord with peace, with comfort, and most of all with personal revelation to counter the fear, darkness, and contention encompassing the world.

Ronald A. Rasband

“Behold I Am the Light Which Ye Shall Hold Up” General Conference October 2024

magnify Christ and not ourselves

If Christ were physically here, He would visit the sick, teach the Sunday School class, sit with the heartbroken young woman, and bless the children. He can do His own work. But He lives this principle of letting us act and learn, so He sends us in His place.

With participation in God’s work comes “the right, privilege, and responsibility to represent the Lord [Jesus Christ].” When we serve to magnify Christ and not ourselves, our service becomes joyful. When others leave our class, meeting, ministering visit, or activity remembering Christ more than they remember us, the work is energizing.

In earnestly seeking to represent the Savior, we become more like Him.

Steven D. Shumway

"Participate to Prepare for Christ’s Return", General Conference April 2025

the promises of the sacramental covenant

Last year I met an inspired bishop and his wonderful wife. On a recent Saturday morning, they were driving to their son’s baptism and suffered the tragic and sudden loss of their darling two-year-old daughter, Tess.

The next morning their ward members gathered for sacrament meeting filled with compassion, also suffering over the loss of this perfect little girl. No one expected the bishop’s family to be at church that morning, but a couple of minutes before the meeting started, they quietly entered and took their place.

The bishop went to the stand and walked past his usual seat between his counselors and sat down instead between his priests at the sacrament table.

During that anguished and sleepless night before of searching for understanding and peace, he had received a strong impression of what his family most needed—and what his ward most needed. It was to hear the voice of their bishop, their ward Aaronic Priesthood president, their grieving father, pronounce the promises of the sacramental covenant.

So, in due course, he knelt with those priests and spoke to His Father. With the pathos of that occasion, he pronounced some of the most powerful words that anyone is ever allowed to say out loud in this lifetime.

Words of eternal consequence.

Words of ordinance.

Words of covenant.

Instruction that connects us to the very purposes of this life—and to the most magnificent outcomes of Heavenly Father’s plan for us.

Can you imagine what the congregation heard in that chapel that day—what they felt in the words that we hear every Sunday in our chapels?

“O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:77).

And then: “O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this [water] to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:79).

This good father and mother testify that that promise has been fulfilled. They do, in fact, to their everlasting comfort, “have his Spirit to be with them.”

Steven J. Lund

"Divine Authority, Sublime Young Men", General Conference April 2025

the HUGE majority of discomfort

Unless you are currently suffering from constant or recurring physical pain, the HUGE majority of discomfort that you face in any day will be psychological in nature. In other words, you are uncomfortable because you are thinking. As such, managing your thoughts will be the biggest part of your self-care practice.

Jason Seib

The (dis)Comfort Zone Workshop: Make peace with discomfort for better self-care almost immediately. Accessed 3/5/2024

oh, how it mattered!

It was a crisp fall day when I first heard the words “You have cancer.” My husband and I were stunned! As we drove home in silence, processing the news, my heart turned to our three sons.

In my mind I asked Heavenly Father, “Am I going to die?”

The Holy Ghost whispered, “Everything is going to be OK.”

Then I asked, “Am I going to live?”

Again, the answer came: “Everything is going to be OK.”

I was confused. Why did I receive the exact same answer whether I lived or died?

Then suddenly every fiber of my being filled with absolute peace as I was reminded: We did not need to hurry home and teach our children how to pray. They knew how to receive answers and comfort from prayer. We did not need to hurry home and teach them about the scriptures or words of living prophets. Those words were already a familiar source of strength and understanding. We did not need to hurry home and teach them about repentance, the Resurrection, the Restoration, the plan of salvation, eternal families, or the very doctrine of Jesus Christ.

In that moment every family home evening lesson, scripture study session, prayer of faith offered, blessing given, testimony shared, covenant made and kept, house of the Lord attended, and Sabbath day observed mattered—oh, how it mattered! It was too late to put oil in our lamps. We needed every single drop, and we needed it right now!

Amy A. Wright

"Abide the Day in Christ," General Conference October 2023

excited by posthumous fame

People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too. And those after them in turn. Until their memory, passed from one to another like a candle flame, sputters and goes out.

But suppose that those who remembered you were immortal and your memory undying. What good would it do you? And I don’t just mean when you’re dead, but in your own lifetime. What use is praise, except to make your lifestyle a little more comfortable?

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Modern Library. 2003. P.41, Book 4, #19. Also see The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu)

the ultimate measure of a man

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will ask his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.  

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr. Harper & Row. 1963. Fortress Press Gift Edition 2010. p. 26, 27

vain, frail, and foolish

Our Father’s commitment to us, His children, is unwavering. Indeed He softens the winters of our lives, but He also brightens our summers. Whether it is the best of times or the worst, He is with us. He has promised us that this will never change. 

But we are less faithful than He is. By nature we are vain, frail, and foolish. We sometimes neglect God. Sometimes we fail to keep the commandments that He gives us to make us happy. Sometimes we fail to commune with Him in prayer. Sometimes we forget to succor the poor and the downtrodden who are also His children. And our forgetfulness is very much to our detriment.

Thomas S. Monson, "9/11 destruction allowed us to spiritually rebuild." On Faith: The Washington Post. Posted at 11:38 AM ET, 09/08/2011

he died treated

“Sylvie, does the old lady have a chance of making it?”

“No, none at all. You know, there’s a cynical saying that surgeon’s patients die cured. Obviously, nobody’s interested in dying cured, but dying treated is something else. Sometimes people die in our hands, during the operation, and there’s nothing we can do. But the family still thanks us. They thank us by saying: “He was sick, or he was wounded, and you treated him, you prepared him to meet Allah. Thank you.” For us, who couldn’t save him, that’s hardly a consolation. But to them it’s very important that he died treated. And you know, when you give a dead child back to its mother – that’s happened to me – and, in return, she slips a handkerchief with a few walnuts into your hand... and she says, “Thank you, thanks to you he is ready to meet Allah”…”

“Must be heartbreaking.”

“Sure is.”



The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, Frédéric Lemercier, Médecins sans frontiers. Macmillan 2009.

lifted my spirits the most

In addition to the call to teach, all of us will be sent by the Lord to succor those in need....We need not worry about knowing the right thing to say or do when we get there. The love of God and the Holy Spirit may be enough. When I was a young man I feared that I would not know what to do or to say to people in great need.

Once I was at the hospital bedside of my father as he seemed near death. I heard a commotion among the nurses in the hallway. Suddenly, President Spencer W. Kimball walked into the room and sat in a chair on the opposite side of the bed from me. I thought to myself, “Now here is my chance to watch and listen to a master at going to those in pain and suffering.”

President Kimball said a few words of greeting, asked my father if he had received a priesthood blessing, and then, when Dad said that he had, the prophet sat back in his chair.

I waited for a demonstration of the comforting skills I felt I lacked and so much needed. After perhaps five minutes of watching the two of them simply smiling silently at each other, I saw President Kimball rise and say, “Henry, I think I’ll go before we tire you.”

I thought I had missed the lesson, but it came later. In a quiet moment with Dad after he recovered enough to go home, our conversation turned to the visit by President Kimball. Dad said quietly, “Of all the visits I had, that visit I had from him lifted my spirits the most.”

President Kimball didn’t speak many words of comfort, at least that I could hear, but he went with the Spirit of the Lord as his companion to give the comfort.



"Serve with the Spirit" by Henry B. Eyring, General Conference October 2010

friendship was the only comfort a man had

A friend came over from one of the rifle platoons that was to be in the next day’s assault. We sat near the gun pit on our helmets in the mud and had a long talk. I lit my pipe and he a cigarette. Things were quiet in the area, so we were undisturbed for some time. He poured out his heart. He had come to me because of our friendship and because I was a veteran. He told me he was terribly afraid about the impending attack. I said everybody was. But I knew he would be in a more vulnerable position than some of us, because his platoon was in the assault. I did my best to cheer him up.

He was so appalled and depressed by the fighting of the previous day that he had concluded he couldn’t possibly survive the next day. He confided his innermost thoughts and secrets about his parents and a girl back home whom he was going to marry after the war. The poor guy wasn’t just afraid of death or injury – the idea that he might never return to those he loved so much had him in a state of near desperation.

I remembered how Lt. Hillbilly Jones had comforted and helped me through the first shock of Peleliu, and I tried to do the same for my friend. Finally he seemed somewhat relieved, or resigned to his fate, whatever it might be. We got up and shook hands. He thanked me for our friendship, then walked slowly back to his foxhole.

There was nothing unique in the conversation. Thousands like it occurred every day among infantrymen scheduled to enter the chaos and inferno of an attack. But it illustrates the value of camaraderie among men facing constant hardship and frequent danger. Friendship was the only comfort a man had.



With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge. Presidio Press. 1981. p.217, 218

how to comfort those who grieve

Recently a woman was stunned by the news that her sister had been killed in an automobile accident. There was no preparation for this loss. In her grief and sorrow over the following months, the woman wrote, “I know all the nice things to say. I have used them myself before, but they don’t help. The pain still comes in waves that rush over me and leave me useless. If only someone would let me talk about my sister for a few hours, I believe I would feel better. Everyone wants to tell me something helpful, but no one wants to listen. I know ultimately that only the blessing of the Comforter and lots of time are going to ease the hurt.”

Later the woman wrote to a friend, “I need to know if you are disappointed in me for not handling my tragedy with greater faith, acceptance, and obedience. I’ve been disappointed in myself, but I feel like something inside me is broken and has only just begun to mend.”

There are many kinds of bereavement. Parents die, children leave the Church, husbands or wives desert their families, friends or family members are diagnosed with terminal or debilitating diseases, people lose jobs or are turned into puppets by bad habits.

Most of us would like to help, but most of us feel inadequate. So we place money in a collection envelope or send a card, thus avoiding a more personal expression of our sympathy. For some reason we feel embarrassed to show deep emotion or to be near someone who is showing deep emotion.

The Spirit can guide us to know how to comfort those who grieve. Some people want to talk about their feelings. Others need someone to talk to them. Some want visitors; others prefer solitude. Following are some guidelines:

1. Don’t say, “I know exactly how you feel.” Such a statement is never true, even if we have suffered a similar loss. It is far better to be willing to hear how that person really feels—or remain silent if the person prefers to work through the grief alone.

2. It is also tempting to say to those grief-stricken, “Don’t feel that way. Have faith. Everything will be all right.” Of course we should have faith that everything will be all right. President Spencer W. Kimball said, “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.” (Address given at Brigham Young University, 6 December 1955, quoted in Edward W. Kimball, ed., The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982, p. 37.) But having faith that everything eventually will be all right does not do away with our need to grieve. Even Jesus, with his perfect faith, wept when he learned of the death of Lazarus. (See John 11:35–36.)

3. We should also realize that feelings of guilt accompany grief—regret for things said and done. Guilt is useful only if it prompts us to repent. Though we may not be able to “make it up” to someone who has left mortality, we can change our attitudes and plan for better eternal relationships.

4. Do something, even though you may not know what to do. Provide a meal. Take care of the children. Iron clothes. Run errands. Listen. Pray. Pray again. One sister who lost her husband was grateful to her shy neighbor who, even though they didn’t know each other very well, came to her home and stayed with her all night and most of the next day until her daughter came. “She didn’t say much—she was just there. I was so grateful to her—it would have been terrible to have been alone.”

In our baptismal covenants we promise to be “willing to bear one another’s burdens.” (Mosiah 18:8.) This echoes the Apostle Paul’s counsel: “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another.” (1 Thes. 5:11.)


“‘Willing to Mourn with Those Who Mourn …’,” Ensign, Sep 1987, 45

turn their lives over to God

Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace.


Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson p.361 as found in Ensign May 1993 p.89 James 4:7

We need to recognize and acknowledge angry feelings. It will take humility to do this, but if we will get on our knees and ask Heavenly Father for a feeling of forgiveness, He will help us. The Lord requires us “to forgive all men” for our own good because “hatred retards spiritual growth.” Only as we rid ourselves of hatred and bitterness can the Lord put comfort into our hearts...

Of course, society needs to be protected from hardened criminals, because mercy cannot rob justice. Bishop Williams addressed this concept so well when he said, “Forgiveness is a source of power. But it does not relieve us of consequences.” When tragedy strikes, we should not respond by seeking personal revenge but rather let justice take its course and then let go. It is not easy to let go and empty our hearts of festering resentment. The Savior has offered to all of us a precious peace through His Atonement, but this can come only as we are willing to cast out negative feelings of anger, spite, or revenge. For all of us who forgive “those who trespass against us,” even those who have committed serious crimes, the Atonement brings a measure of peace and comfort.

Let us remember that we need to forgive to be forgiven. In the words of one of my favorite hymns, “Oh, forgive as thou wouldst be e’en forgiven now by me.” With all my heart and soul, I believe in the healing power that can come to us as we follow the counsel of the Savior “to forgive all men.” In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


James E. Faust, “The Healing Power of Forgiveness,” Ensign, May 2007, 67–69