WRESTLING WITH RETIREMENT

Well, tomorrow I go back to work. I haven’t been to work since the afternoon of December 17.
Going back will be hard. I am becoming more and more accustomed to being at home. I really am ready to retire. Or at least do something besides work for the Navy – or maybe just not something associated with the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
I thought it would be hard to walk away. That I had a lot invested in the job. Surprisingly it hasn’t bothered me being away. I don’t care if someone has messed with the programs I wrote. Just if I have to go back and undo their messes in order to do my job for the last two months. Then I’ll be put off.
So tomorrow I will call the human resources office about setting my date. I’m hoping for the last day of February.
I can’t say that I’m not apprehensive. I am. It’s a change. A big change. But I keep telling myself that I retired once before without any real problems. And we still had kids at home. I can do it again. That’s what I tell myself.
Now I have to believe it.

The gospel doctrine lesson today was a discussion of the last chapters of Moroni. And more specifically the verses dealing with faith and hope. The priesthood lesson was Teachings for Our Times taken from President Uchtdorf’s talk entitled “The Infinite Power of Hope.”
One of the quotes used by the gospel doctrine instructor was from “The Doctrinal New Testament Commentary” by Bruce R. McConkie.
“As used in the revelations, hope is the desire of faithful people to gain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God hereafter. It is not a flimsy, ethereal desire, one without assurance that the desired consummation will be received, but a desire coupled with full expectation of receiving the coveted reward.”

And from “The Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon” by Joseph Fielding McConkie, Robert L. Millet, and Brent L. Top:
“To have hope in Christ is to have the peaceful assurance that one is on course, the quiet confidence that in general terms the Lord is pleased with one's efforts, the anticipation of happiness here and glory and honor hereafter. ”

Can I make application of that principle in my ordinary personal everyday life?
Can I have a peaceful assurance that I am on course and anticipate a future of happiness in this life? Can I have hope for a comfortable life after retirement?

The scriptures state that without faith there can be no hope. So what or who is it that I need to have faith in?

And James wrote, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” And so what is the work that I should be anxiously engaged in?

The Lord has said, “If ye love me keep my commandments.”
It is also true that if I love myself I will keep the Lord’s commandments. As this is done, happiness and success will follow. Remembering always that the Lord has promised if we walk “in obedience to the commandments, [we] shall receive health in [our] navel and marrow to [our] bones; and shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.”
And again He has promised that He “will rebuke the devourer for [our] sakes.”

And as President Hinckley so often reminded us, “if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.”
These promises were made without respect to time of life.