Notes from the talk by our stake president, President Michael J. Suhaka at our Ward Conference Sacrament Meeting on January 19, 2014:
Romans 15:13 says, “Now the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of
the Holy Ghost."
Paul refers to God as “the God of hope.” What a wonderful name! Heavenly Father is the God of hope, the God
of everything’s going to be okay.
May I suggest three things we can do or change in our lives,
so that He can be a God of Hope to us:
1 – Stop looking at
him so much as God. But think of him as
a dad—and not just any dad—but the best possible dad ever.
Some people think he is standing over us, just waiting for us to mess up and fall down. Some people think of God as the coach on the sidelines
watching us meticulously and just waiting to step in and call us out on our
mistakes. But that’s not how he is!
In one of the last moments of Christ’s life, he testified
that God is our dad. As he hung on the
cross, he cried out, “Abba!” which means “Papa!” or, from the lips of a child,
“Daddy!”
If Christ’s mission was to help us understand God, and if
his last reference to Him in this life was “daddy,” then what is he trying to
teach us?
My younger brother shared a story from when he was in
school. At lunch in the cafeteria, there
were kids who would grab a dessert at the front of the line, eat it as they got
their food, then hide the wrapper when they got to the registers and they would
get a free dessert! So one day he
decided to try it, but he got caught. He
was sent to the office and the punishment for stealing was being kicked out of
school for two days. So they called his
mom, and she picked him up, took him home, put him in his room and told him to
wait until his father got home. This was
at mid-day and his dad was at work, so he thought he would be waiting several
hours for dad to get home. But just a
few minutes later there was a knock at the door and in came dad. And just at the moment when a swift
punishment could have come, this is what our father chose to do. He sat by his son on the bed, put his arm
around him, and said, “Well, as long as you’re going to be home for two days,
we might as well spend some time together.
What would you like to go and do?”
In that moment, he was a perfect dad.
That is what our Father in heaven is like for us all the time.
A few mornings ago, I was still in bed when the door
opened. And there was my youngest son,
our toddler whom we just love so much. And he
stood there waiting. So we looked at him
and he looked at us, then finally my wife said, “Come here and get up on the
bed!” And he smiled big and came and
climbed up on the bed with us. But I
wondered—what was he waiting for? I
think sometimes we are that way with God.
We get all the way through the door, and then we stand there waiting. Maybe we’re waiting for him to say—You’re not
good enough. Or well done. Or you didn’t try hard enough. Or you let me down. Or come and get on the bed!! Don’t hesitate! All He wants is to have us jump on the bed!
2 – God wants us to
feel more hope in our lives by once and for all accepting the fact that your
best is good enough!
We are good enough! In fact, your best is more than good
enough. It’s more than he could ever
want.
One morning we woke up and realized that our oldest son had cleaned our whole
house! Sure, there were some clothes
thrown on the floor of the closet and some dishes that maybe didn’t get rinsed
all the way. But we didn't need to point that out. What a wonderful
effort! If God is the best dad in our
imagination, and he wakes up to find that his son has cleaned the whole house
but there’s still some tidying up to do, what is he going to do? Can he straighten up the clothes? Sure.
Can he rinse off those dishes a little more? Yes.
Is he going to tell his son that he’s not good enough? No.
He’s going to sweep him up in a big bear hug and thank him and love
him. His best is good enough!
The question He does ask us is: Did you try your best?
Mothers, your best is good enough. Fathers, your best is good enough. All of you in your callings, your best is
good enough.
To quote President Gordon B. Hinckley: “You are doing the
best you can, and that best results in good to yourself and to others. Do not
nag yourself with a sense of failure.”
3 – Give God the only
thing that he ever wants from any of us: Please try to bring someone else back
to him.
He doesn’t want praise.
He doesn’t want stuff. He wants
his kids back!
The whole gospel plan is simply trying to help a dad get his children back. And there are 2 ways you can
do this:
1 – Do
temple work for your family, living and dead.
2 - All of
us have a calling. There is someone in
your life that you can share God’s love with. Help bring some child back to
their Father.
I promise you that if this year you make this your goal, you
will come to understand and feel what it means to have a Father in heaven. And if you try to bring someone back (maybe
yourself), you will hear God saying to you that your best is good enough for
Him.
I testify that you can help bring someone back, and as you
do, your hopes, desires, and needs will come to you.
He is the God of hope.
He is the God of everything will be okay.
In the book of Revelation it says that God will wipe away
all tears from their eyes and there will be no more sorrow nor crying nor pain
(see Revelation 21:4). It will all be
fine. Because God, our daddy, will make
everything okay.
