Endure

Dear Family,

I hope you have a lovely week.  Today’s message is for the days and weeks that are not so lovely.  There are unique trials that we all face.  It is in these moments, when we are in despair, that we learn the most about ourselves and whether we choose turn to or away from the Lord.  May we learn that as we come to Christ in our struggles, we can be strengthened and comforted.   I pray that we can gain testimonies of this important truth.

Love

DaD!

“Endure ... for Days of Happiness”

Given by Richard L. Evans

October 31, 1971

There is a short sentence from Virgil that says: “Endure, and keep yourselves for days of happiness.”

There are times when we feel that we can’t endure — that we can’t face what’s ahead of us; that we can’t live with the disappointments, the problems; that we can’t carry the heavy load. But these times come and go, as our strength and courage and circumstances run in cycles — from high to low to high — and in the low times we have to endure; we have to hold on until the shadows brighten, until the load lifts. “No one could endure adversity,” said Seneca, “if, while it continued, it kept the same violence that its first blows had. ...”

People often issue ultimatums. They say they can’t or won’t stand this or that — not another minute. “I’m leaving it all. I want out.” Such times could be likened to a circuit breaker or a fuse that blows when overloaded. We do wonder if we can take it at times — but there are built-in safety factors, and we find that the human soul — the spirit, the body, the mind of man — is resilient.

There is more built-in strength in all of us than we sometimes suppose. And what once we said we couldn’t do or couldn’t live with or couldn’t carry, we find ourselves somehow doing and enduring, as time, reappraisal, readjustment, and sometimes sheer necessity, modify our sense of values and our attitudes, and we find strength and endurance and hidden resources within ourselves.

“Life is real! Life is earnest!” as the poet put it, and facing facts, adjusting to life, isn’t always easy. But before we give up, we should most seriously consider what we are giving up — and what we are going to. “Out of the frying pan, into the fire” is an old phrase that has much meaning.

Well, thus endeth the lesson — to pause, to reappraise, to take time for hope, for faith, and for strength to return — remembering, as Solon said it: “If all men were to bring their miseries together in one place, most would be glad to take ... home again ... each his own.”

“Endure, and keep yourselves for days of happiness.”

From Music and the Spoken Word