Hope
noun. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
I am someone who is constantly hoping. I hope there will be mint ice cream after dinner. I hope for pouring rain to fall from the sky. I hope for the health and wellness of my family and friends. I hope for someone to love me completely.
Hope is a very optimistic way of looking at anything, which I think is a very good thing. I have always tried to be happy and have made it a goal to make others happy and excited about everything that comes their way. But with hope comes waiting, and with waiting comes pain.
Like John Green said in The Fault in Our Stars, "Pain demands to be felt." We all have bad days and bad moments and bad qualities. But those don't define who we are. They don't define our situations. The good will ALWAYS outweigh the bad. When it comes to waiting it's never easy. If it was, then there would be no point in hoping because you would already have what you wanted in the first place.
So is hope good or bad? This goes two ways. Hope is equivalent to maybe. Maybe, they will have mint ice cream. Maybe, it will rain. Maybe, he will love me back. That middle ground is a dangerous place to be. If you get stuck there, you miss out on some amazing people and opportunities that walk right in front of you. You can't let "maybe" cloud your vision from the everyday tender mercies that are strategically placed in your path.
How can hope be good? If you are hoping for something, it means you really care about it. That isn't a bad thing. If you want something so good to happen that you can do nothing but hope that it will, who cares that you are waiting? You just have to watch that "maybe" middle ground.
I have thought a lot about why we hope and why we are allowed to hope. In Moroni 7:41 it says, "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." We hope for things because of Christ's atonement. In Alma 7:11 it reads, ""And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind." Through Christ's atonement we hope. He has felt our hope and the waiting and the pain. Although we suffer, we are not alone.
To have "hope through the atonement of Christ" is a big statement. It can mean a lot of different things to every person. For me it means faith. Christ suffered so we wouldn't have to. As I hope for good health, romance, the right careers, I turn to him. You must turn to him. Hope automatically brings with it faith. "Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope" (Moroni 7:42). Faith that things will work out. Faith that His plan for us is greater than what we can possibly imagine.
So hoping is ultimately not fun. But its an emotion that is real and alive and that is what makes it hurt. We are not alone in our wishful hoping. It isn't a good or bad thing really. If you need hope to keep going, then cling to it as tight as you can!
As for me, "I am half agony, half hope" (Jane Austen). And you know what? That is totally okay.
noun. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
I am someone who is constantly hoping. I hope there will be mint ice cream after dinner. I hope for pouring rain to fall from the sky. I hope for the health and wellness of my family and friends. I hope for someone to love me completely.
Hope is a very optimistic way of looking at anything, which I think is a very good thing. I have always tried to be happy and have made it a goal to make others happy and excited about everything that comes their way. But with hope comes waiting, and with waiting comes pain.
Like John Green said in The Fault in Our Stars, "Pain demands to be felt." We all have bad days and bad moments and bad qualities. But those don't define who we are. They don't define our situations. The good will ALWAYS outweigh the bad. When it comes to waiting it's never easy. If it was, then there would be no point in hoping because you would already have what you wanted in the first place.
So is hope good or bad? This goes two ways. Hope is equivalent to maybe. Maybe, they will have mint ice cream. Maybe, it will rain. Maybe, he will love me back. That middle ground is a dangerous place to be. If you get stuck there, you miss out on some amazing people and opportunities that walk right in front of you. You can't let "maybe" cloud your vision from the everyday tender mercies that are strategically placed in your path.
How can hope be good? If you are hoping for something, it means you really care about it. That isn't a bad thing. If you want something so good to happen that you can do nothing but hope that it will, who cares that you are waiting? You just have to watch that "maybe" middle ground.
I have thought a lot about why we hope and why we are allowed to hope. In Moroni 7:41 it says, "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." We hope for things because of Christ's atonement. In Alma 7:11 it reads, ""And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind." Through Christ's atonement we hope. He has felt our hope and the waiting and the pain. Although we suffer, we are not alone.
To have "hope through the atonement of Christ" is a big statement. It can mean a lot of different things to every person. For me it means faith. Christ suffered so we wouldn't have to. As I hope for good health, romance, the right careers, I turn to him. You must turn to him. Hope automatically brings with it faith. "Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope" (Moroni 7:42). Faith that things will work out. Faith that His plan for us is greater than what we can possibly imagine.
So hoping is ultimately not fun. But its an emotion that is real and alive and that is what makes it hurt. We are not alone in our wishful hoping. It isn't a good or bad thing really. If you need hope to keep going, then cling to it as tight as you can!
As for me, "I am half agony, half hope" (Jane Austen). And you know what? That is totally okay.
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