Life follows a simple plan, a simple layout. Eternity is
built on a simple concept, one could even call it a law. The law is this:
The Dream, The Struggle, The Victory
Every story
we know from history and the scriptures, the story of your life, your
neighbor’s life, the stories of countries, everything and everyone goes through
this process.
Think about
it for you. Eternally, we dream of becoming like our Father in Heaven, we
struggle here on Earth to learn, and having succeeded in the struggle we gain a
glorious victory. Or a smaller scale, you have a dream of rocking a
presentation, so you struggle in preparation motivated by the possibility of a
victory, and you are rewarded with an awesome presentation and land the job or
position or sale.
Life is
built on this principle of the Dream, the Struggle, the Victory. You can do
this by day, you can do it by year, eternity, minutes, by goal, any time based
objective or thought is tied to this principle and law.
The Dream
The Dream
is thought out. It is a thorough combination of thoughts and desires. A Dream
is a vision of who you want to be, something you want to attain, your
relationship with someone, how you would like life to be. The dream is what
keeps you motivated through the Struggle. If the Dream is strong enough, the
Struggle is worth the Victory.
The
Struggle
The
Struggle represents the obstacles between you now and the Victory of attaining
your Dream. It represents the roadblocks, the stumbles, the pitfalls, the
missteps. Anything hard, even to forgetting the Dream and why you started is
the Struggle.
The Victory
The Victory
is the realized Dream. It is the finish, the attainment of that which you set
out for. A beautiful family, eternal salvation, baptism, quitting an addiction.
The victory is happiness because you have become someone worthy of having the
Dream you once dreamed.
Now, some examples.
The children of Israel dream of salvation. They wander in the wilderness for 40
years, and finally obtain the Promised Land.
Lehi and
his family are given a vision of the Promised Land, wander in the desert for 8
years, all while listening to complaining brothers and fending off their
threats to kill Lehi and Nephi, brave a terrible storm. And eventually, they
too obtain the Promised Land.
Joseph
Smith, we have multiple accounts of his visions and revelations of the glories
of God, the promised blessings. He struggled his whole life for the attainment
of not only his own salvation but for millions of others to come. His victory
is not only his own exaltation but also the possibility through the restored
church for each of us to gain the same.
Jesus
Christ, the great Exemplar. Even early in his childhood he knew of His
potential as the Son of God. He struggled more than any of us will ever know or
comprehend. But through the struggle, the learned who each of us were, so that
we might in our struggles turn to Him for help. His victory is the offered
salvation for us each, and glory next to the Father.
Now it is
important here, to mention the proportions of each of these levels in your own
struggles and those you meet and talk to. A small dream, a small struggle leads
to a small victory. A big dream, comes with a big struggle, but results in a
big victory. The same with huge, ginormous, etc. The bigger the dream, the
bigger the struggle, but also bigger the Victory.
But now
what if we have great Dreams, but want a little Struggle? Then the Victory
matches the Struggle, not the Dream. Without the appropriate Struggle, you are
not the person worthy of the Victory. See, the Struggle changes who we are, we
rely on God, and we walk by faith, we find in ourselves strength, and become
worthy of the Victory.
I taught
this many times on my mission, investigators, members, and other missionaries. We
each begin this life with a Dream of returning to our Father in Heaven. The Struggles
of the world, the fiery darts of the adversary rain upon us. As missionaries we
taught each other and others of that memory, and it offered perspective to
conquer addictions, overcome a fear of coming to church, even to follow Christ
and get baptized.
Remember
the Victory will match the size of the Struggle. And that every thought, every
wish, comes with this law: The Dream, the Struggle, the Victory.
@MishReflections
@kenttbates
