Winter Blues

Anyone else feeling the winter blues? Supposedly, January and February are the most depressing months of the year. Even with all that bright snow out our windows, we may start to feel a little gloomy—cooped up as we are in this cold weather. With that in mind, I’d like to share with you something I recently learned about light and darkness.

Last month, our family studied the Book of Mormon story about Nephi and Lehi, prophet brothers who were imprisoned by Lamanites about 30 BC (Helaman 5:21–52). Nephi and Lehi had been in prison for many days without food when a group of Lamanites came in to kill them. As soon as the Lamanites entered the prison, Nephi and Lehi were encircled about by a fire that did not burn them. The Lamanites were astonished and wouldn’t go near them because they were afraid of being burned. Nephi and Lehi took courage, stood up, and testified to the Lamanites that the fire came from God. As soon as they spoke these words, the ground began to shake and a dark cloud descended upon all the Lamanites in the prison, “and an awful solemn fear came upon them” (vs. 28).

As we were reading about this with our daughters, my husband, Tim, made it a point to tell them that the dark cloud did not come from Heavenly Father. I had to think about this for a few days (it took us a good week to get through the story with them). So many strange things happen at once in this story: the fire, the earthquake, the dark cloud, a voice that pierced them to the soul. It never occurred to me to sort out the source of each bizarre event.

Tim told our girls that Heavenly Father doesn’t ever send darkness. He’s right (I finally decided).

Heavenly Father didn’t send that dark cloud upon the Lamanites. Jesus Christ is often referred to in the scriptures as the “light and life of the world” (D&C 39:2; John 12:46). Darkness isn’t His style. Then who did send the cloud? We told our girls it was Satan.

What’s interesting to me about this whole thing is that Heavenly Father didn’t immediately remove the cloud. His prophets had only just barely finished testifying of Him—initiating what could have been aspiritual moment for all—when Satan tried to unravel everything. Instead of pushing the cloud aside, Heavenly Father left it and spoke to the Lamanites from above the cloud, calling them to repentance.

He also gave the Lamanites a way to overcome the darkness. Knowing what would happen, Heavenly Father arranged in advance for a man named Aminadab, a former Nephite, to be in the prison that day.  It was Aminadab who told the Lamanites how to disperse the darkness: “You must repent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ, who was taught unto you by Alma, and Amulek, and Zeezrom; and when ye shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you” (vs. 41). The Lamanites cried unto the Lord until the cloud dispersed and all of them were encompassed by fire, “and they were filled with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory” (vs. 44).

Heavenly Father does not send darkness—or feelings of gloom, frustration, anger, depression, contention, despair, etc.—into our lives. He also does not immediately disperse those feelings when they come, but He always, always, always provides a way to overcome. Often that help comes in the form of another person. But what about Aminadab? He experienced the darkness as profoundly as everyone else in that moment, and yet Heavenly Father expected him to open the way for others to overcome.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe Heavenly Father expects us all to be a little more like Aminadab. As profound and real as our dark moments may be for us, our own ability to overcome is usually assured in our efforts to help others. This January and February, maybe we could all try harder to look past our feelings of being cooped up, lonely, and frustrated with below-freezing temperatures and look for ways to help others overcome their dark clouds.

—Erica Royer