Searching for Purpose

Nights like tonight are especially encouraging. Nights where you know you’re heard and know that even though you’re only one person out of billions, you matter.

I guess that makes it sound like something drastic happened, but that’s not the case. I just really love the little moments when I can receive the comfort and guidance from heaven that I can’t always seem to find on my own. For whatever reason, tonight was a little bit of a struggle for me. I was feeling down – maybe lonely or lost – because of the everyday trials that come along. As I knelt to say my prayers I expressed those emotions to Heavenly Father in the best way I could, and asked that as I did my nightly reading I would be comforted and guided to know what my purpose is.

When I ended my prayer I grabbed the book I’ve been reading from this past month – Pathways to Perfection by Thomas S. Monson – and opened up to a talk he’d given called The Search for Jesus. Just three paragraphs in is when I knew I’d been heard. “No search is so universal, no undertaking so richly rewarding, no effort so ennobling, no purpose so divine.” …Did you catch that? Purpose. The exact thing I prayed for. So I kept on reading and was trying to soak in everything I could, but as I read I was kind of having a little side conversation in my mind about what to do next. “Okay, so I need to search for Christ…how exactly do I do that? I feel like I’ve already been doing that…” Then the next thing I read let me know that He was still listening. “The formula for finding Jesus has always been and ever will be the same – the earnest and sincere prayer of a humble and pure heart.”

“Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

I don’t want to be a complete spoiler, so I won’t give away the rest of the talk. I highly recommend reading it, though, because it’s powerful. It gives a reminder that we need to make room and time for Christ in our lives. I’ve made some room and some time, but I think I should probably make a little more. I mean, Heavenly Father and Jesus have obviously made time for me in their lives. They sent that message to me tonight. Loud and clear.