Current Lessons
Lesson No. Forty-Seven

Living with Confidence, Right Now

Confidence in the Presence of God, right now was the theme of President Russell M. Nelson’s concluding sermon of the April 2025 general conference. President Nelson taught that life’s “challenges can knock our self-confidence. However, disciples of Jesus Christ have access to a different kind of confidence.

“When we make and keep covenants with God, we can have confidence that is born of the Spirit. The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith that our confidence can ‘wax strong in the presence of God’ (D&C 121:45). Imagine the comfort of having confidence in the presence of God!

“When I speak of having confidence before God, I am referring to having confidence in approaching God right now! I am referring to praying with confidence that Heavenly Father hears us, that He understands our needs better than we do. I am referring to having confidence that He loves us more than we can comprehend, that He sends angels to be with us and with those we love. I am referring to having confidence that He yearns to help each of us reach our highest potential.

“Now, how do we gain such confidence? The Lord answers this question with these words: “Let thy bowels be full of charity towards all men,…and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God” (D&C 121:45, emphasis added).

“Charity and virtue open the way to having confidence before God! Brothers and sisters, we can do this! Our confidence can truly wax strong in the presence of God, right now!”

Living With Confidence is the title of a booklet that Susan and I wrote to our family, particularly our grandchildren, in 2020 during the Covid-19 worldwide shut down. We continue to live in challenging times, and we agree with President Nelson that we need a boost of confidence. The following are some thoughts from our booklet that will strengthen our confidence, right now!

Preface to Our Thoughts about Living with Confidence: Yes, we live in challenging times, but being able to prosper in challenging times and do hard things is part of our DNA….Preparation is the key to successfully living in challenging times and doing hard things. The Lord said: “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear” (D&C 38:30). We become spiritually prepared as we keep the commandments, pray and study the scriptures daily, partake of the sacrament weekly, worship in the temple regularly, and serve others frequently. We are able to be prepared in our temporal needs by work and education. We need to develop personal skills to work with and get along with other people. The best place to learn this is in our families.

We live in the greatest time and dispensation in the history of the world. We are part of the Lord’s Church, and it will be in place when He comes again. We can have great confidence in challenging times and in our future if we stay in the mainstream of the Church and follow our living Prophet.

Have Confidence in Yourself: We lived with our Heavenly Parents in the premortal existence where we were being prepared for this life. In our premortal life we developed our personality and many talents and abilities that we would bring with us to this life. The most important of which is the talent of spirituality or the ability to recognize eternal truth. In your premortal life you chose to be obedient and to have faith in Jesus Christ. Premortal life could be compared to a midterm test, and you got an A on the mid-term so you can have confidence that because you did it once you can get an A on the final test of mortality. Have confidence that you were well prepared for your mortal experience, and that you can graduate from this life into the celestial kingdom with honors.

Have Confidence in Your Heritage: You are a child of heavenly parents. We believe that God created all things both on earth and in heaven. This includes animal and plant life of all kinds. However, human beings are different from all other creations. We are begotten, which means we are genetically spirit sons and daughters of a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother, and you inherited from them their attributes and potential. They love you with a perfect love and have given us the “great plan of happiness” (Alma 42:8) which if we follow, we will become like them.

You have ancestors who were on the Mayflower, in Plymouth Colony, and at the founding of our nation who prospered in challenging times. Your ancestors did hard things in Missouri and in Navuoo and in building many communities in Utah. They lived through the Great Depression and World War II. We married during the Vietnam War. We raised our family during the Cold War and 9/11. Your heritage includes many valiant missionaries who served the Lord world-wide.

Have Confidence in Marriage and Family: For many years we attended a draft horse pulling contest during the Oakley 4th of July rodeo. The object of the contest was to determine which team could pull the heaviest load thee feet. We learned some important dynamics about draft horses. First, a single draft horse can pull a load up to 8,000 pounds. Two draft horses can pull three times the weight one horse can pull or 24,000 pounds. If the team was raised and trained together, they can pull 32,000 pounds, four times the weight that can be pulled by a single horse.

Teamwork and common goals are the most important factors in a winning team whether it is horses or marriage and family. The winning team was not necessarily the biggest or the strongest, but the ones that had better teamwork and coordination. The winning team hit the yoke and pulled together. In marriage and family, like draft horses, there must be teamwork and common goals.

We marvel that the Lord has invited us to yoke ourselves with Him: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). We testify that His yoke is easy and His burden is light!

Have Confidence in Your Ability to Gain an Education: President Gordan B. Hinckley taught the youth of the Church: “The Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands, whatever your chosen field….You will be generously blessed because of that training, and you will need all the education you can get.” Elder M. Russell Ballard further explained: “You are investing now for eternity that lies ahead. I urge you to finish this educational journey you have begun….You will take all that you have learned and experienced with you after you depart this life.”

In your youth and as a young adults your primary work should be education. You live in a remarkable time where there are many ways to become usefully educated. You can attend public or private technical schools, colleges, and universities. Technology gives you amazing access to lifelong learning….There is power in education. With a useful education you can be a great influence for good in the world, and you will be able to help build up the kingdom of God.

Have Confidence in the Lord, His Church, and its Leaders: The restoration of the gospel and the establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the work of the Lord….We know that the work of God will never fail. (See D&C 3:1-3)…. Our confidence is strengthened by what the Lord said about His Church: “This is my church, and I will establish it; and nothing shall overthrow it, save it is the transgression of my people” (Mosiah 27:13).

“Have Confidence in the Future of Our Country”: Speaking of the Restoration of His Gospel in United States Jesus said: “For it is wisdom in the Father that they (we, as latter day gentiles) should be established in this land (United States) and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things (The Book of Mormon) might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed (latter day Lamanites), that the covenant of the Father might be fulfilled which he hath covenanted with his people, O house of Israel;” (3 Nephi 21:4, parentheses mine). Think of it, the United States was established and we were set up as a free people by the power of the Father so He could fulfill His covenant. Furthermore, the Lord established the US Constitution. (D&C 101:80) Regardless of political or economic uncertainty we can be confident in the future of our country.

Have Confidence and Show G-R-I-T – G = Be Grateful: President Russell M. Nelson spoke of gratitude and reminded us that “there is no medication or operation that can fix the many spiritual woes and maladies that we face.” These surely include hate, unrest, racism, violence, dishonesty, incivility, and bullying. He continued: “There, however, is a remedy – one that may seem surprising – because it flies in the face of our natural intuitions. Nevertheless, its effects have been validated by scientists as well as men and women of faith. I am referring to the healing power of gratitude.”

Have Confidence and Show G-R-I-T – R = Be Resilient: The dictionary defines resilience as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness; of the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape, elasticity.” We have found that it is the hardships, the struggling, and the stretching that helps us develop resilience – the ability to get up, dust ourselves off and continue on the straight and narrow path. As we do our part, the grace of Jesus Christ, His enabling power, makes this possible for us to always stay on the covenant path. (See LDS Bible Dictionary, Grace)

Have Confidence and Show G-R-I-T – I = Be Independent/Self Reliant: There is a growing tendency in our nation to expect and even demand that the government or others do what we should do for ourselves. Latter day prophets have warned against this trend. President Marion G. Romney said: “We believe that seldom do circumstances arise in which man (or women) of rigorous faith, genuine courage, and unfaltering determination, with love of independence burning in their hearts, and pride in their own accomplishments, cannot surmount the obstacles that lie in their paths.” Being independent and self-reliant, as discussed here, is consistent with our need to be completely and totally reliant on the Lord.

Have Confidence and Show G-R-I-T – T = Be Trustworthy: To be successful in life we must be trustworthy. If we have broken a trust we can repent and change. The atonement of Jesus Christ provides the way that we can do this. The description of the army of Helaman being true to their trust applies to all of “And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but this is not all – they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted. Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him” (Alma 53:20-21, emphasis added). In many ways it is more remarkable to be trusted than to be loved.

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Released on April 13th. 2025.