Angels Among Us

Dear Friend Jan put a thought in my head recently and I spent this morning reading the words of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from last fall's General Conference. In light of all I have been stressing out over and worrying about and keeping my heart heavy with fear and despair over the past several weeks, this was exactly what I needed to hear.

Elder Holland's talk was titled "The Ministry of Angels" and here are a few highlights I gleaned this morning that made me feel better.

• In the course of life all of us spend time in “dark and dreary” places, wildernesses, circumstances of sorrow or fear or discouragement. Our present day is filled with global distress over financial crises, energy problems, terrorist attacks, and natural calamities. These translate into individual and family concerns not only about homes in which to live and food available to eat but also about the ultimate safety and well-being of our children and the latter-day prophecies about our planet. More serious than these—and sometimes related to them—are matters of ethical, moral, and spiritual decay seen in populations large and small, at home and abroad.
• I ask everyone within the sound of my voice to take heart, be filled with faith, and remember the Lord has said He “would fight [our] battles, [our] children’s battles, and [the battles of our] children’s children.”10 And what do we do to merit such a defense? We are to “search diligently, pray always, and be believing[. Then] all things shall work together for [our] good, if [we] walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.”11 The latter days are not a time to fear and tremble. They are a time to be believing and remember our covenants.
• I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.”13 On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.

While I have never been visited by heavenly angels that I could see, I know that I have local, friendly angels who attend me regularly, and probably more than I deserve. I had a sense last night that I was protected by an unseen angel of the heavenly sort when I especially needed it as well, and while others were praying for me. This doesn't change the knowledge I have that God loves me, that I am His daughter and He will help me as I try to do what He has asked me to do. But it makes me feel better in between moments of strength and doubt.