Choose to Believe

Belief is a choice. "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend" (Mosiah 4:9).

When we choose to believe, we understand and see things in a different way. When we see and live that way, we are happy and joyful in a way that only the gospel can bring.

Sometimes we do our very best to understand a question. We study it out in our mind and try every way we can to come to our best decision. At that point, we will sometimes receive additional guidance—things we hadn't thought of, protection from dangers we couldn't anticipate, an open pathway we wouldn't have thought of.

Normally the Holy Ghost doesn't tell us things that we know we should do. I've never had the Holy Ghost tell me to go to bed on time. I knew I was supposed to do that. Usually, the Holy Ghost helps alert us to things after we've done everything we can.

When I was deciding about graduate school, I had been granted a scholarship at a wonderful school. Yet, after studying things as best I could and coming to what I thought was my best decision, I had a very clear feeling that I should apply to a different school.

So I did and ended up attending a different graduate school than I had initially planned. At that critical juncture, after I had done all I could, quiet guidance took me from one set of opportunities to another that opened many possibilities and blessings I would never have anticipated on my own.

We do everything we can. We live as obediently and faithfully as we can. And then we allow the Lord to prompt us toward opportunities to find and experience joy in our lives and in the lives of our friends and families, in our professional and academic experiences, and in our dating and marriage to our eternal companions.

My father used to say we make three great choices in life. First is our faith, second is our spouse, and third is our profession. I testify that in each of those key areas, we can choose joy. We can choose obedience, and we can choose faith. Our Heavenly Father wants us to be blessed with that which is good for us.