Have you felt defeated? I never met my maternal great-grandfather, Christian Larsen (“Chris”), but I heard a lot about him. He had a good head for business and making deals. Chris was wealthy. He put so much money through the Bank of Ephraim, making such huge deposits and withdrawals, that the bank told him they could no longer handle his account and he would need to find a bank in Salt Lake City. He often bought and sold thousands of sheep without ever seeing them. He had the nicest house in town and the first car. For a while, his kids had all the best of everything. Unfortunately, he lost his dear wife, Sarah, at a young age and never remarried. He thought no one could ever measure up to her.
Wanting to provide for his children and the community, Chris had a bold idea to tunnel through a mountain and bring water into Cane Valley to make it more fertile and productive, so his children would all be able to own productive farms and provide for their families. Unfortunately, the company he contracted with to do the work went way over budget and, eventually, absconded with his equipment and borrowed money and fled the country. The former richest man in town was now deep in debt and struggling to make ends meet. When my grandfather got married, Chris moved in with him and his new wife and took a room upstairs in their home because he could not afford his own place.
Chris used to say, “I am never beat until I give up. I’ll never give up, so I’ll never be beat.” He ultimately found a way to finish the tunnel and, as a result, all of his children inherited working farms with a good supply of water. By the time Chris died, he had paid off every penny of the mountain of debt he had incurred on the tunnel, though he never got back to the financial abundance he had lost in his tunnel debacle.
Notwithstanding setbacks, Chris was still planning 20 years ahead. If he had lived those 20 years, I have literally no doubt he would have made twice as much money as he had before. As he lay on his deathbed, Chris looked up at his sons and said, “Well boys, we did the best we could, didn’t we?” It wasn’t actually a question. It was a one sentence self-evaluation of the way he had chosen to live his life. What a happy thought to end his life on—that he had done the very best he could.
I believe what kept Chris going through the heartbreaking loss of his wife, his fine home, and his huge setback in business was his soaring sense of optimism, and his unwillingness to give up. Even though he died before he recovered all of his wealth, he never lost the dreams of what could be—and that vision sustained him in difficult times.
Sometimes we suffer a series of things that look like setbacks, and we trip and fall running toward our dreams. From there, we are often tempted to wallow, to think we have missed our chance, or that it is too late to make anything of our lives.
I recently met a delightful woman, 28 years old, who has already been through two divorces. She recently broke up with a man who she had some really big hopes for. She was understandably emotional. The thing I find inspiring about her is that she has not given up. I think most of us might consider two divorces in 10 years and think, “I give up. Love and Marital happiness are not in the cards for me.” I encouraged her to continue to develop as a person and keep trying. I assured her that God is preparing someone for her that is better than anything she’s ever had before. How could I confidently tell her this? Because God has promised it.
The apostle Paul wrote: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philipians 4:13). The promises that God has made in your heart will all be fulfilled. How can I know this? Because He said so and He keeps his word. While he was walking the earth, Jesus Christ said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7).
This doesn’t mean God answers every prayer immediately. If God fulfilled every dream in the moment we asked for it, we wouldn’t need any faith. When we received it, we wouldn’t have sufficient gratitude. What we do know is that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). That includes the setbacks, the trials, and the things we may view as tragedies. As Pastor Joel Osteen says, “Sometimes trouble is transportation.”
Joseph was sold as a slave and then went to prison in a foreign land for crime he didn’t commit. That was the way God opened the door for him to meet the Pharaoh and become a ruler over all of Egypt—13 years later. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a furnace heated up to six times its normal temperature—before they were delivered and raised to power in Babylon. Jonah was thrown overboard in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea—before he was swallowed by the whale and delivered on the shores of Nineveh where he did miraculous things—converting an entire city. I could go on with many, many other examples from the scriptures. The point is that God is a God of miracles. If you calculate your future by what you personally have the power to do, your sense of possibilities may be very limited. If your faith is in God, you have access to His limitless power and He is the source of abundant blessings to come.
Exercise the faith to put one foot in front of the other, to keep following the dreams God put on your heart, to keep believing when nothing you see tells you that your time is coming, and to keep your heart hopeful and peaceful, even when the storms of life are raging all around you. When the children of Israel were pinned up against the Red Sea with the armies of Egypt advancing toward them, with no apparent way to escape, Moses declared, “Fear ye not. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14:13). I say the same to you now.
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About the Author
Jeff Teichert, and his wife Cathy Butler Teichert, are the founders of “Love in Later Years,” which ministers to Latter-day Saint single adults seeking peace, healing, and more joyful relationships. They are co-authors of the Amazon bestseller Intentional Courtship: A Mid-Singles Guide to Peace, Progress and Pairing Up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeff and Cathy each spent nearly a decade in the mid-singles community and they use that experience to provide counsel and hope to mid-singles and later married couples through written articles, podcasts, and videos. Jeff and Cathy are both Advanced Certified Life Coaches and have university degrees in Family & Human Development. They are the parents of a blended family that includes four handsome sons, one lovely daughter-in-law, and a sweet baby granddaughter.
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HelenCJanuary 9, 2024
I’m not single but I do still have dreams! My husband is an ex-member RM and my three surviving children are decidedly less-active. I’m also struggling to find clients for my Grief Coaching business which, at age 72, sometimes seems like “too little, too late. In grateful for your kind, hope-filled words, today. Thank you.