But I really wasn’t capturing the full depth of those words.  Maybe I needed some time and distance as well as some more experience with the world to appreciate what he gave all of us.  Indeed, you could say that’s one thing I’m learning.  And after the program today, perhaps we all can say it’s one among many of what we are learning.

Addressing the global pandemic, President Nelson shared four lessons he hoped we’ve all learned and won’t forget.  I sense a greater sense of optimism in his words now than I did six months ago.  That optimism increases my appreciation for his first lesson: The home is the center of faith and worship.

I think most of us recognized the prophetic nature of the 2018 announcement regarding home-centered church.  But I’m not sure that was true before COVID hit.  I certainly didn’t recognize the significance of some of my pre-COVID promptings.  For instance, shortly before the first lockdown I felt impressed to purchase white tablecloths.  What do I need white table cloths for? I thought to myself.  When am I ever going to use a white tablecloth?

I found out soon enough.  What a blessed privilege was mine to partake of bread and water in memory of my Lord and in my own home!  I truly felt closer to my Heavenly Father in those moments than I had in any worship service in a chapel.

In response to such an experience, President Nelson asked,

Considering what we need to do to increase the security and serenity of our own homes would be time well spent.

President Nelson’s second and third lessons, that we need each other and your priesthood quorum is more than just a meeting, seem especially intertwined.  We really do have a unique opportunity to leverage the present pandemic to unify God’s children like the world has never before seen.

But that will become reality only if, as President Nelson asked, our shared trial has drawn us closer to one another.  These days it seems the pandemic is driving us farther apart.  But if that’s true, it’s because we’ve forgotten the two commandments President Nelson declared could guide us — first, to love God, and second, to love our neighbor.

I especially love President Nelson’s teaching that

Flip that around, and see the profundity of the Prophet’s teaching.  Why has God sent us to earth in families and wards and stakes?  He wants us to work together and help each other.  Why has He asked us to serve and minister to each other?  He wants us to work together and help each other.  Why has He asked us to live in but not be of the world?  He wants us to work together and help each other.  One could apply that answer to this question: Why has God organized priesthood holders into quorums?  Priesthood is indeed more than a church meeting.

President Nelson’s final lesson from the pandemic ties the others together.  The home is the center of faith and worship.  We need each other.  Your priesthood quorum is more than just a meeting.  And we hear Jesus Christ better when we are still.

As I just mentioned, the pandemic seems to be driving us further apart.  We seem more agitated and contentious than ever.  President Nelson confirmed we’re living in prophesied days of commotion and fear.  He didn’t declare that commotion would be temporary.  Rather, it’ll increase.

But we need not be in commotion.  If we can be still, we can hear the Savior’s voice speaking peace and confidence to us.  As President Nelson taught,

Making time for quiet reflection will become more and more essential as the world becomes more and more contentious.  If we will do as the Prophet instructs, we will see the fulfillment of his promise that “the future is bright for God’s covenant-keeping people.”  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

The answer my stake president gave included a twist.  He extended the ideas of agency and God’s respect for agency in a way that promotes faith in our use of agency.  And the conclusion, if you honestly desire to do right, is to let faith guide you through whatever challenges you face in life.

We all have the choice of how we’ll act when confronted with challenges; that’s agency.  And agency means not everyone will choose unicorns and rainbows.  Some will choose to inflict hardship and even pain on others.

But agency is independent, meaning the choices others make don’t determine our own.  We might choose in response to what others choose, but we don’t have to.  We can make a completely irrational choice, because the agency we each have is independent.

That independence is vitally important because it transforms this life into a test to “prove [us] herewith, to see if [we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command [us]” (Abraham 3:25).  That independence allows every choice we make in life to be one of faith.  Will we choose to exercise faith in God?  Or will we choose a different path?

The question we ultimately face in the midst of any challenge is one of faith.  In many cases, not knowing the end from the beginning contributes to the challenge confronting us.  If we choose the path of faith, will we have a happy ending?  That question speaks to the essential part of walking by faith; how could faith be faith if you always knew how your choice would result before you made it?  In this way, every choice we make in life is one of faith.

When we view our choices through this lens, choosing faith becomes easier regardless of the challenge confronting us.  For example, the older I get as an LDS single, the more I face the question of whether the blessings of marriage and family will ever be mine.  My patriarchal blessing describes those promises, worded such that the fulfillment is in this life, not the next.  But the older I get, the more single I seem to be and the less likely those promises seem to be true.

So what do I do?  Do I continue in the path of faith believing in promises that seem less and less likely to come true with each passing day?  Or do I surrender to doubt, discouragement, and despair in the belief those promises are not true?  Ultimately my question of what to choose in the face of my challenge is a question of faith.  Will I choose faith in God?  Or will I choose another path?

You could extend that application to any challenge.  Ultimately there comes a moment in any challenge when you must decide what you believe.  Will you choose to believe God?  Or will you choose to believe a different voice?

I’ve faced that point multiple times in my life.  I haven’t been perfect, but ultimately I’ve always chosen to believe God, even when that choice meant great sacrifice or hardship.  And God has always supported me.  Moreover, God hasn’t just seen me through; the man I am on the other side has always been better than the one I was before.

Ultimately every choice you make is one of faith.  Will you choose faith in God?  Or will you choose a different path?  Thinking on your life and remembering times when God supported you after you chose Him makes it easier to choose Him again.  So let faith guide you through whatever challenge you face in your life.  Walking in faith will open you to feel God’s love for you, see God’s hand move to support you, and allow God to make more out of your life than you can yourself.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Then I thought I might have the wrong focus.  Maybe what I need to focus on, I thought, is focus.  After all, Mother’s Day is hard for many single sisters because of where they place their focus.  Your focus determines your reality, so when you focus on what’s missing, your reality feels like it’s missing something.  When you focus on what’s wrong, your reality can’t help but feel wrong.

But when you focus on what’s right, your reality feels right.  And that focus works not just for Mother’s Day but for every day.  So instead of letting a holiday focus you on what’s wrong or missing, use that holiday to focus on what’s right.  When you focus on the best parts of your life, it’s easier to celebrate the best in you.

Admittedly that’s a hard row to hoe when you’ve got an ideal you’re not even close to reaching pressed in your face at church.  Many wards are stepping up and exercising more sensitivity to their single members, but many wards still have a lot of work to do.  And that begs the question: What can LDS singles do when they find themselves in such a ward?

The worst that can happen is you have a horrible experience at church and then you go home and brood about it.  If church wasn’t what it should have been, why would you torture yourself further by brooding about it?  Your focus determines your reality, so wallowing in the muck of negative experience just brings you the muck of a negative reality.

Choose instead to focus on what’s right.  If church wasn’t what it should’ve been, remember babes in sacrament meeting, go home, and move on.  Have your own celebration that highlights what’s best in you.  Refuse to focus on the negative, and your reality will refuse to be negative.

That may be hard, especially if you have a habit of immersing yourself in negativity.  But like all new habits, actions become easier and more entrenched the more you practice them.  Holidays that traditionally present challenge to singles also provide opportunities to rise above those challenges.

The key is to remember that practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.  You can practice how to approach something the wrong way, and you can practice it so much it becomes a habit.  But in the end, all your habit will deliver you are less effective results.  Practice doesn’t make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.

So if your habits produce less effective results, here’s some free advice: Change them!  You have the power of agency.  Use that power to play the victor, not the victim.  Change what you need on the inside so you can more readily see the changes you want to see on the outside.

Whatever holiday comes to your door, others don’t have the final say in how you feel.  You have the final say with the focus you choose for yourself.  Control your focus, and you control your reality.

It’ll be hard if you haven’t practiced perfect, but that’s OK.  That just means you need to keep trying.  Keep reaching for the light and the positive choice.  No matter what others decide, determine you will decide your focus.  Determine you’ll celebrate the best in you.

Your focus will determine your reality regardless of what you choose.  The universe obeys its laws irrespective of any of us.  Time is continually moving forward.  You can choose to use that time to embrace the negative or the positive.

The choice is yours, so make the positive choice.  Choose to celebrate the best in you each and every day.  By insisting on making your focus more and more positive, you’ll make your reality more and more positive.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Many of us see challenges as we look ahead both for society and ourselves individually.  Elder Bednar’s remarks remind us of the essential nature of testing in our mortal experience.  Just as tests in school help us compare what we know with what we should know and thereby provide opportunity to grow in knowledge, tests in mortality help us compare what we are now with what we can become and thereby provide opportunity to grow in light and truth.  And the best way to pass those tests is to prepare and press forward.

Elder Bednar related how the pandemic revealed the state of his own family’s preparedness for difficult times.  In some ways he was prepared, and in others he was wanting.

For those instances in which he and we are found wanting, Elder Bednar pointed to the Savior’s example of incremental increase “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).  I love Elder Bednar’s description of this approach: “a blended balance of intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social readiness.”

As I examine my own readiness in each of those four areas — the intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social — I find I’m not that different from Elder Bednar.  In some ways I’m prepared, and in others I’m wanting.

We all are, in fact.  That’s why we need to use the time we have now to prepare for what may come.  I recall President Hinckley speaking in the April 2001 General Conference Priesthood session about setting our houses in order.  Five months later, the aerospace industry took a nosedive from 9/11, and many Saints in that industry lost their jobs.  Those who failed to heed a prophet’s warning to prepare suffered when the testing moment came.

I love what Elder Bednar had to say about such preparations.

The difficulties of the pandemic have revealed the state of our own individual preparedness.  Now is the time to act on that knowledge and prepare for what may come in those areas where we’re wanting.  Elder Bednar issued just such an invitation:

When it comes to action, it’s good to have a plan and better to act.  Plans provide the framework for moving forward, but they don’t actually move you forward.  Only action produces results.  Only action moves you forward.

Elder Bednar told the story of a father who lost his missionary son to a tragic accident.  The father shared his family’s feelings at the funeral service — feelings of heartbreak but also feelings of determination to remain faithful.  When the moment of trial came, this family showed they were prepared to learn eternal lessons through their suffering.  That preparation allowed them to press forward.

We likewise can press forward when our intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social trials come to us if we do the work now to prepare ourselves for those moments.  And that means making choices.  Elder Bednar shared the following words from Elder Jeffrey R Holland.

He then went on to say

Moments that test us will always come in mortality.  As Elder Bednar explained, “the process of proving ourselves is a fundamental part of Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness.”  He then promised those who prepare and press forward will be able to pass “the ultimate examination of mortality.”

You can live that promise when you prepare for what will come and then press forward, walking in faith the Lord will support you as you act upon your plans.  Preparation doesn’t always prevent or remove hard times.  But preparation can make burdens easier to bear.  Preparation can provide the eternal perspective needed to learn lessons of eternal import when those trials do come.

So prepare and press forward.  You don’t know when all your trials will come, but you do know they’ll come.  Assess yourself now, plan to supply what’s wanting, and then take action on those plans.  The Lord will do His part as you do yours.  You’ll then realize in your life the promised pronouncement: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

In his message to the world, President Nelson taught “Counting our blessings is far better than recounting our problems.”  To help us integrate that teaching into our lives, President Nelson suggested two specific actions:

1. Turn social media into your own gratitude journal for 7 days.
   
2. Say a prayer of gratitude.
   

These suggestions may appear to have little efficacy, but when you follow the Prophet, God’s blessings will always follow you.  So follow the Prophet, and let gratitude heal you.

Social media has never resonated much with me.  I recognize its benefits, like keeping up with family and friends as well as increased communication that otherwise would be difficult if not downright impossible.  I’ve just never felt the need to integrate everything about my life with social media.  I resonate much more with connections in the real world.

Yet I don’t feel that way about President Nelson’s invitation to use social media as a gratitude journal.  Contrary to my usual response, President Nelson’s invitation resonates greatly with me.  From the moment I first heard his 7-day challenge, I felt a desire to embrace it.  And that desire felt completely natural.

I of course have no idea what will result from my participation in that challenge.  Maybe something big will happen.  Or maybe not much of anything will appear to happen at all.  But that doesn’t matter.  What matters is that good men and women stand up and push goodness into the world to fight back against the emboldened evil that President Nelson declared in the last General Conference abounds.  That goodness begins with gratitude.

From my own experience, the best way to begin to embrace gratitude is through prayer.  I’ve spoken before about my habit of devoting my morning prayers to gratitude, and that one simple change in my daily routine has greatly transformed my life for the better.

About two years ago I adopted a habit of including in my morning prayers only expressions of thanks.  I intentionally do not ask for anything; I simply give thanks for what I’ve received.  Over time, those prayers have grown to include thanks for blessings not yet received.  At first, it was difficult; my mind wasn’t trained to think in strict terms of thanksgiving.  But repeated attempts brought that training, and the effect has been life-changing.

Hearing others express gratitude in prayer can open us to a new level of gratitude.  I was greatly touched by hearing the Prophet pray and express gratitude for the many blessings we all enjoy everywhere every day.  The wonders of nature, the glorious workings of the human body, and the beauty of art, literature, and music all bring joy in life.  Focusing on expressions of gratitude invites us to open ourselves more to that joy.

The Prophet has spoken, and now the next step for all of us is to follow the Prophet.  Take his challenge to express gratitude in social media every day for seven days, and then see whether you feel happier.  And begin to express more gratitude in your prayers to God.

When we were Primary children, many of us sang, “Follow the Prophet. He knows the way!”  I know that President Nelson is the Prophet for us today, and in his recent message to the world, he has shown us the way.  That way is gratitude.

Let us each claim the blessings of peace and healing that God wants to bestow upon us.  When you let gratitude heal you, you can feel peace in a chaotic world.  You can salve the wounds of hate.  You can find victory in defeat and abundance in loss.  Best of all, you can feel more of the love God has for you as His child.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Whatever the reason, I'm learning not to question promptings to do good but rather simply to follow them.  I'm learning to trust, without seeing the end, that the end will be better than I ever could have imagined it.  I'm learning to trust that the blessings I long for most in my life will come, as Elder Holland declared, by and by.

It's easy for all of us to get so absorbed in our own trials that we lose perspective.  And with that loss of perspective often comes also the loss of another sight — one that sees the way forward.

Many singles feel so burdened by the loneliness and heartache of singles life that all they see in their future is an eternity of loneliness and heartache.  Such an outcome should not surprise.  After all, your focus becomes your reality.

Singles who know the depth of that despair from seeming ever so out of reach of desired blessings intimately know loneliness and heartache.  So of course singles would feel comforted and appreciative of Elder Holland's early and earnest recognition of that familiarity.

But notice what immediately followed.  Elder Holland was just as eager and earnest in recognizing the depth of despair many trapped in a lonely marriage feel, seemingly ever so out of reach of escape from their familiarity with loneliness and heartache.

Without recognizing the pain others feel, it's easy to become so absorbed in our own pain that we can't see anything else.  Our pain becomes so enlarged we think it not only fills our world but that it is the world.

That's one of the comforting aspects of Elder's Holland's remarks.  He reminds us that, regardless of our individual situations, we all feel pain.  We all ache under the burden of trial.  We all long for relief.

Yet we often pray for freedom and relief on our schedule rather than for faith to rely on God's.  As we plead with heaven to lighten our load, our pleadings will be answered, though sometimes not how or when we would wish.

As Elder Holland reminds us all,

But then Elder Holland cut straight to the truth at the crux of the matter.

How did people come to believe that all suffering is necessarily bad?  Whatever its source, Elder Holland rightly suggests some suffering isn't bad.  In fact, I dare to declare some suffering is necessarily good.

No doubt those steeped in their own pain will find it difficult to believe any suffering could be good, let alone necessarily good.  As already noted, it's easy to be so absorbed in one's own troubles that it's difficult to see how those troubles could ever be stepping stones to tranquility.

And yet that's precisely why some pain is necessarily good.  Henry Ward Beecher once said our troubles are "the tools by which God fashions us for better things."  It is through our trials that we become refined and more of our best selves.  It is through our trials that we develop the characteristics of godhood.  It is through our trials that we come to know God.

How else could He be known?  Elder Holland says as much when he declared,

We all have pain in this life.  But when we look beyond our own pain to see the pain in others, we find it easier to see our own in perspective.  We find it easier to reach out to help others.  We find it easier to see meaning and purpose in our own suffering.  And we find it easier to trust God through bad seasons as well as good ones.  We find it easier to walk in faith and confidence that the promised blessings will come to us by and by.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

Of course, Nephi is a key clue indicating direct applicability to singles.  After all, Nephi was a stud of a single adult.  Many of the epic faith-promoting stories about him — "I will go and do," for instance, or retrieving the plates from Jerusalem, or the vision of the tree of life — were realized while Nephi was a faithful single adult.

What inspiration has lit the world from that valiant example!  We LDS singles can foster a similar influence for good if we will do as Nephi did and look to the Savior.

That's exactly where Elder McCune's remarks went.  Addressing the general Church membership and not just the singles, Elder McCune admonishes all of us to exercise faith despite our challenges.  As we look to the Savior in those moments, we can feel the love and peace only He can offer.

Elder McCune shares a family experience after his son encountered a life-threatening accident to his brain.  In an almost empty hospital, all Elder McCune and his family could do was kneel and pour out their hearts to God.  "In the midst of this confusing and painful moment," Elder McCune recounts, "we were filled with our Heavenly Father’s love and peace."

Elder McCune continues,

Many LDS singles sometimes wonder whether the challenges of singles life will ever end.  To those with such thoughts, I invite you to look to the Savior and walk in faith.

Walking by faith isn't easy.  Especially in these times when the pandemic has turned the world upside down, many seem intent on walking in fear.  We who have the light of the gospel can inspire faith with a focus on the Savior.  And we LDS singles can play that part in our day just as Nephi did in his.

Already in my new calling, I've participated in discussions regarding the return to weekly Sunday church services.  Many of the Saints have concerns — and rightly so — about the risks of infection.  Yet the Brethren have asked local leaders to accelerate the return to regular worship services.

Keep in mind the Church is greatly exceeding what local state and county officials recommend.  Yet even with that, many members resist the idea of meeting together.  Far be it from me to judge others in these trying times.  I certainly don't blame anyone for wanting to stay away.

Yet I would invite these same people I hesitate to judge to look to the Savior and follow His servants in faith.  Elder McCune spoke of the support we can find in focusing on and following the Savior.

Nephi was able to do difficult things because he focused on the Savior and walked in faith.  As we focus on the Savior and walk in faith, so can we.

Elder McCune concluded his remarks by addressing the enticements some may experience to leave the spiritual safety of the Church.  He first mentions loved ones "who are questioning truth."  We don't want to abandon the gospel but also don't want our families torn apart.

I can't really speak from personal experience here, but I do like how Elder McCune responded.  He advocated looking to the Savior and remaining faithful to Him and His gospel.  It's hard to lift someone to higher ground from below.  As Elder McCune declared, "If our true desire is to rescue those we love, we ourselves must stay firmly with Christ by embracing His Church and the fulness of His gospel."

He then addressed those who think we don't really need the Church.

I too bear witness that we singles Latter-day Saints can do difficult things when we look to the Savior, focus on following Him, and walk in faith.  It's not easy, but it was never meant to be, because it was meant to be worthwhile.  When we look to Him, the Savior's peace and love can fill our souls.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

I actually had both of those events happen in the past few days.  The new calling came on Sunday.  When the stake president texted me to request a meeting, I knew it was about a calling.  I just didn't know what calling.

I learned soon enough amidst a mixture of surprise and overwhelm.  I expected a calling working with the singles.  That just makes sense for a man in my position.  But the calling extended to me was totally different.  I was called to be the new stake executive secretary.

That the Lord would want me in such a position truly baffles me.  Am I the one who should be joining meetings of the stake president with his counselors and meetings of the high council and such not as a participant, mind you, but as an equal contributor?  I just never really thought of myself in that way, and so this new calling feels a little intimidating.

But I accepted the calling because I know the Lord governs His Church through revelation.  I responded by walking in faith the Lord will support me.  In so doing, I have committed to move ever forward.

If news of a new calling is a blessing, this one wasn't meant to last very long.  Later that night I began to feel stomach pain.  At the time, it felt like I had just eaten something bad.  I wasn't sure what that could have been, but I wasn't overly concerned as I laid myself down to sleep.

A couple of hours later I awoke to an even more intense pain.  The pain wasn't so large it debilitated me, but it was large enough to keep me awake.  Try as I might, I couldn't get back to sleep.

Tired from a night of almost no sleep, I went to see the doctor first thing in the morning.  Considering my previous visit after a near miss of a heart attack, the doctor reaffirmed the earlier diagnosis and extended it to include the possibility of an ulcer.

Actually, it was more of a probability than a possibility; left untreated, my condition would certainly worsen.  The pain I experienced was most likely created from bacteria that precedes most ulcers eating away at the wall of my stomach.  We can't be sure until the test results come back in.

But we can be sure walking by faith is once more the best response.  I have a contribution to make, and I'm not going to quit what the Lord gave me to fulfill because of any medical diagnosis.  Certainly the one I received concerns me greatly.  But I am determined to walk in faith the Lord will support me.  In so doing, I have committed to move ever forward.

Life will always bring its ups and downs, but we can live with confidence when we walk in faith.  My decision to walk by faith hasn't lessened the overwhelm I feel in my new calling or the concern I feel in my unfolding medical condition.  I still have those challenges.

But the point of walking by faith is not to remove our challenges.  The point of walking by faith is to strengthen our dependency upon God to see us through whatever life may bring us — all of the ups and all of the downs.  With Him, nothing is impossible.

Whatever challenge confronts you right now, I invite you to join me in the response I have given and will continue to give to my challenges.  Commit to moving ever forward.  Your progress may be slow or perhaps so small that it doesn't really look like progress at all.  But by placing your trust in the Lord and walking in faith, you can, in the due time of the Lord, overcome any challenge placed before you.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

That’s true for anyone, LDS singles included.  How much injustice have we endured?  How often have we been considered an “other” or somehow “less than”?  The bitterness we singles can feel — and indeed many have felt — isn’t fundamentally different from the bitterness behind all the chaos currently tearing the country apart.  Bitterness is bitterness.  Hate is hate.

And so as we approach Father’s Day this year, I reflect upon the never-married single men who want to be fathers but feel embittered against the single women who have constantly rejected them.  I reflect upon the divorced single fathers who feel embittered from a broken marriage.  I reflect upon the widowed men who feel embittered after tragedy forces singleness upon them.  For these and so many others, what we need is forgiveness.  Without forgiveness, there can never be healing.

I was once quite embittered.  In fact, I often joked, “I’m so jaded, I’m diamond!”  — a tongue-in-cheek jab at the single sisters who somehow couldn’t see what a real find I was.

But that attitude never made me less single.  If anything, it kept me more single.  After all, who wants to live with bitterness?

And the ironic part is that the hatred bitterness always breeds is most fully directed against self.  One may think all of the hatred is directed outward, but how can people truly love others without also loving themselves?  We’re all children of the same Heavenly Father.

Only after I embraced forgiveness — of both myself and the imperfect ladies making imperfect choices regarding me — did healing begin to take hold in my heart.  And only after my heart had healed could I broadcast a more positive energy that then led to more positive dating experiences

Simply put, the failure to forgive will hold everyone back from living their best life.  Many singles harbor ill-will for both perceived and real injustices related to their singleness.  However justified singles may believe their feelings to be, bitterness will always consume more the longer it’s held.  Healing can’t happen until we let the bitterness go.

Chris Williams was a married man until a drunk teenage driver robbed him of his wife, then pregnant with their fifth child, and two of his other children.  He watched his wife’s last breath.  I can only imagine the sorrow this man endured.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story of Chris Williams, I highly recommend you watch the video in which Chris tells his story.  And if you’re anything like me, grab a box of tissues first because you will break a water main.

Of course, it’s not just single men who need to embrace forgiveness.  Everyone’s been wronged somehow.  Bitterness works the same way in anyone.  It knows no preference on whom it feeds.

And it doesn’t matter who is involved.  Bitterness will corrode and canker whatever soul contains it.  It works the same way on anyone.  Its antidote is also the same for anyone.  What we need is forgiveness.  Without forgiveness, there can never be healing.

So this Father’s Day, show your love for fathers by embracing forgiveness.  Forgive the man who was never the father you needed.  Or forgive the one who took your father from you.  Or forgive the man who has yet to be a father, especially if that man is you.

Whatever your situation, embrace forgiveness.  Let the healing begin.  Only then will come the peace and comfort you yearn to feel.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

That one part is completely true.  They are torturing themselves.  Your focus always determines your reality, so when you focus on what you don’t have, your reality becomes one of lack and emptiness.  Because each one of us has agency, we choose our focus.  And that means we choose our reality.  Indeed, these sisters are torturing themselves.  Their wanting serves only to amplify the effect.

Of course, that truth doesn’t excuse married Church members from lacking sensitivity.  In recent years, I’ve noticed more married Church members displaying more sensitivity.  Nevertheless, not every ward is like that.  We still have work to do.

In the meantime, it’s productive for all of us to shift our focus towards what Mother’s Day was intended to celebrate.  All of us have a mother who bore us and a mother who raised us.  For some those two women are one and the same.  But either way, we can each answer this question: “How’s your mother?”

Just as focusing on your lack produces a reality of scarcity, focusing on what you have produces the opposite reality — one filled with abundance and plenty.  Your life shifts substantially in the improvement direction when you exchange your expectation for appreciation.  It’s all starts with an attitude of gratitude.

So many create disappointment by expecting too much.  We want, want, want. And very often what we want, however righteous that desire, centers around something we don’t have.  Because our focus always determines our reality, focusing on what we don’t have produces a reality of lack.  And the more deeply we want, the more deeply felt that lack becomes.

But exchanging your expectation for appreciation creates something amazing.  By constantly expressing gratitude, we can shift our focus towards what we do have.  And focusing on what we do have creates a reality of abundance.  The more deeply we appreciate, the more deeply felt gratitude becomes.  We can bathe in the joy of feeling richly blessed.

That feeling is completely legitimate because it results from how we’re constructed.  Your focus determines your reality.  That principle applies to everything, including Mother’s Day.  Focus on what you don’t have, and you’ll take no joy in the celebration because your reality will be so full of emptiness you won’t want to celebrate.  On the other hand, if you can focus on the good about the day, then you can have a joyful reality you’ll want to celebrate.

I know that can be challenging.  As I said before, not every ward displays sensitivity to singles.  It’s hard to stay positive when the dream you don’t have but most desire gets highlighted every week at church.  I know what it’s like to get constant reminders of what you lack rubbed in your face every week.  I know it’s hard.

I also know what hard means.  It doesn’t mean impossible.  It just means difficult.  And difficult can become easy when you partner with the Lord.

The Lord can guide your focus towards the blessings you have today because your mother sacrificed.  When you trade your expectation for appreciation, you open yourself to receive more of the joy life has to offer.

And if your relationship with your mother needs work, you can focus on what you can do to improve that relationship.  Even good relationships can be improved, so focusing on doing something in that arena is good advice for all of us.  Even if your mother has passed on to the other side, you can still find ways to express appreciation and improve your relationship on your end.

So I ask once more, “How’s your mother?” which is really just another way of asking “How’s your focus this Mother’s Day?”  Your focus will always determine your reality.  So make the positive choice.  When you embrace a positive focus, you’ll receive a positive reality.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.