Ready to enjoy the glory

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Welfare Session of the April 1978 Conference.
As I was reading through the talks from the April 1978 Welfare Session, I knew immediately which quote I wanted to write about. It stuck out to me above everything else. But I've spent all week trying to figure out WHY I was so moved by it, and I still don't quite know. I thought maybe it was because it's about looking forward with hope, but sometimes when I read it, it seems more about disappointment than about hope. So maybe I like it because it encompasses everything at once: the difficulty of mortality, the stumbles, but also the glory that will follow. Or maybe I like it because I want so much to believe in the beauty and glory of the future, and this reminds me that the glimpses I've had of that beauty and glory—no matter how immediately they seem to be followed by uncertainty and second-guessing and confusion and distraction—are real. Anyway, here is the quote (from Elder J. Richard Clarke, quoting Brigham Young):
“If any of you had a vision of Zion, it was shown to you in its beauty and glory after Satan was bound. … You did not see a vision of driving cattle across the plains and where you would be mired in this or that mudhole. You did not see the stampedes among the cattle, and those of a worse character among the people. 
“But you saw the beauty and glory of Zion that you might be encouraged and prepared to meet the afflictions, sorrows and disappointments of this mortal life and overcome them and be made ready to enjoy the glory of the Lord as it was revealed to you.”
As I write this on Christmas Eve, I'm thinking about the glory of the Lord, and wondering what Isaiah had in mind when he said that glory would "be revealed." The birth of Christ, revealed to shepherds and wise men and Nephites thousands of years ago? The resurrected Christ, revealed to "all flesh together" when He comes again? The visions prophets have seen, where the plan of salvation is unfolded and laid before them like a grand story? Probably it is all of those—but I like to think maybe he also meant the glory we see revealed in tiny pieces as we walk these rough roads, flashes of light that come but are almost immediately gone again. Sunsets, babies, skies and stars; moments of understanding between friends, phrases of music that catch us by surprise. That small, accumulated glory that encourages us to keep walking, keep watching, hoping to see more of it.

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  1. NancyDecember 27, 2017 at 11:18 PM

    OH that was a lovely and good and hard and glorious quote. I've been so consumed with anxieties over things with my kids lately -- and the cattle stampedes and mud holes -- that I have been hardly able to look up and see the visions to keep me encouraged. I hardly feel I have a moment even to read or pray or do the things to give me those visions. But this was a good reminder that they have come a million times before and that if I am patient and make a little effort they will come more times again.

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  2. AflyonmyhomeschoolwallDecember 28, 2017 at 4:54 AM

    I'm glad I waited to read this post until this very morning when I just finished reading and studying sections 124-129 of the Doctrine and Covenants. I'm so boggled by what the saints struggled through. Of late I've struggled with some very, very hard hurts in my family (hurts far too private to write publicly about), and I've kind of lost sight of the reality that this life is full of mudholes and is meant to be. I've had ever so many lovely glimpses of eternity to keep me going, and good Brother Brigham's quote reveals a truth worth remembering. Between my own studies and your post this morning, I feel ready to square my shoulders, put my chin up, and "just keep swimming."

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