Your Happily Ever After

I feel good today. Last night, I babysat my sister's kids and had a lot of fun, and I borrowed my niece's Disney Pixie rubics cube, which I eventually managed to solve. (It was hard getting all their faces just right!) Then I slept well and slept in. (It's Saturday, so I can get away with that.) And this morning, I made a partly, if not mostly, inspired system for turning something important (and unfortunately too personal to share details) into something fun. Basically, through righteousness, I earn XP, which eventually translates into Skill Points, which I can use to increase my "Stats." Since I just started this system (and back-dated it to start last Monday), I only have a few XP, but I'm excited to earn more so I can earn my first Skill Point. I'm probably going to put it into my Magic Stat for versatility, or into my Defense Stat for endurance. It's a tough choice (even though it doesn't actually change anything), but I've got another week to think about it. (I don't want to "earn" XP or Skill Points too quickly or they wouldn't mean anything. Then again, they literally don't mean anything anyway. But anyway, I want to really earn them, and that should take time and effort.)

My new system is based off of fantasy-style, pencil and paper role-playing games, and it's got me thinking about knights and heroes and magic, and stuff like that. That leads me to a talk from President Deiter F. Uchtdorf, which I have actually never heard since it was given in a General Young Women Meeting, but I've wanted to share on my blog since the day I learned of its existence: Your Happily Ever After.

“Once upon a time” promises something: a story of adventure and romance, a story of princesses and princes. It may include tales of courage, hope, and everlasting love. In many of these stories, nice overcomes mean and good overcomes evil. But perhaps most of all, I love it when we turn to the last page and our eyes reach the final lines and we see the enchanting words “And they lived happily ever after.”

Isn’t that what we all desire: to be the heroes and heroines of our own stories; to triumph over adversity; to experience life in all its beauty; and, in the end, to live happily ever after?

It certainly has great appeal to me! I would love to have more courage, greater hope, and a deeper feeling of love, and I especially want good to ultimately triumph over evil. Thankfully, these are all blessings that God has promised to the righteous.

And, most glorious of all, He offers you a gift beyond price and comprehension. Heavenly Father offers to you the greatest gift of all—eternal life—and the opportunity and infinite blessing of your own “happily ever after.”

But such a blessing does not come without a price. It is not given simply because you desire it. It comes only through understanding who you are and what you must become in order to be worthy of such a gift.

The next section of President Uchtdorf's talk talks about trials, both in stories and in real life. He recalls a few classic fairy tale characters, then says, "Sandwiched between their 'once upon a time' and 'happily ever after,' they all had to experience great adversity." "Cinderella [had] to endure her wicked stepmother and evil stepsisters." "In 'Beauty and the Beast,' Belle [became] a captive to a frightful-looking beast in order to save her father." In "Sleeping Beauty," Princess Aurora was taken away from the home she'd grown up in and was enchanted with a powerful curse, while Prince Philip was captured by goblins and had to battle a sorceress/dragon.

And these are people living in fantasy worlds! When someone in real life is "living in a fantasy world," we imagine that they think that everything is wonderful and that it'll all work out in the end, but if we pay closer attention to the middles of those classic stories, we'll find that fantasy worlds aren't always as wonderful as we think. In that way, they're a lot like real life.

In stories, as in life, adversity teaches us things we cannot learn otherwise. Adversity helps to develop a depth of character that comes in no other way. Our loving Heavenly Father has set us in a world filled with challenges and trials so that we, through opposition, can learn wisdom, become stronger, and experience joy.

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My dear young sisters, you need to know that you will experience your own adversity. None is exempt. You will suffer, be tempted, and make mistakes. You will learn for yourself what every heroine has learned: through overcoming challenges come growth and strength.

One of my least favorite of the truths that we learn in church is that some lessons can only be learned the hard way, that there has to be adversity and opposition. And, even worse, just suffering through affliction is not enough.

It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life’s story will develop.

Enduring adversity is not the only thing you must do to experience a happy life. Let me repeat: how you react to adversity and temptation is a critical factor in whether or not you arrive at your own “happily ever after.”

So, we have to not only endure the trials of life, but we have to endure them well. This is starting to get depressing. Let's go back to the good news.

We all search for happiness, and we all try to find our own “happily ever after.” The truth is, God knows how to get there! And He has created a map for you; He knows the way. He is your beloved Heavenly Father, who seeks your good, your happiness. He desires with all the love of a perfect and pure Father that you reach your supernal destination. The map is available to all. It gives explicit directions of what to do and where to go to everyone who is striving to come unto Christ and “stand as [a witness] of God at all times and in all things, and in all places.” All you have to do is trust your Heavenly Father. Trust Him enough to follow His plan.

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I understand that, at times, some may wonder why they attend Church meetings or why it is so important to read the scriptures regularly or pray to our Heavenly Father daily. Here is my answer: You do these things because they are part of God’s path for you. And that path will take you to your “happily ever after” destination. 

“Happily ever after” is not something found only in fairy tales. You can have it! It is available for you! But you must follow your Heavenly Father’s map.

I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father that has such a glorious future planned for His children, and I'm grateful He shows us the way to achieve it. I'm very much looking forward to the "happily ever after" after all the struggles and conflicts of life are over. In the meantime, I'm grateful that Heavenly Father is always there to help us endure the storms of life and reach our divine potential. I'm thankful there's a "happily ever after" waiting for us all.