Life's about change

I was asked on Sunday at the last minute to speak in the singles branch in our stake. The assigned speaker had a last-minute change of schedule and was unable to attend. I did not know until I was introduced by the branch president that he had been on his knees in his office asking the Lord to provide a replacement sacrament meeting speaker. As he opened the door to office, I was walking down the hall to teach my Sunday School class in the same wing of the building where his office is. It's nice to be the answer to someone's prayer.

I spoke about change. I told the story of the unexpected death of our youngest daughter, Adrienne, on a cold winter's morning in 1992, just days before Christmas. I was reminded of a change in employment many years ago that precipitated our move to our current home at the Ranch in beautiful Pine Valley. I reflected on my most recent five-year odyessy only to have our long-sought outcome changed at the last minute.

I reminded my young friends that no matter how well we prepare ourselves, no matter how hard we work, no matter how well we live the gospel, change comes into our lives and not often as a welcomed guest. I encouraged them to live their lives in such a way that when the call comes from their Heavenly Father, no matter what that call to duty may entail, that they may be in a place with their faith in tact so they can respond and be the answer to someone's prayer.

Change is not something we think about while we go about planning and organizing ourselves for the future. We always hope things will turn out exactly as we hoped. However, it has been my experience that often the agency of others derails even the best of our well-laid plans, and that has been the acid test of discipleship. "Come what may," Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin taught just before his advanced age in his nineties claimed him in death, "and love it."

A life lesson, well taught.