Continuing from a previous post (somehow I lost this post ? so it’s reposted here:
From Patricia T. Holland (deceased) and the book “On Earth as it is in Heaven” . . . . co-authored with her husband Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
One of my husband’s favorite scriptures is from Isaiah: “Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the earth, fainted not, neither is weary? . . . He giveth power to the faint and to them who have no might he increaseth strength. . . .They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary and shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31.)
Jeff’s ebullient attitude is so incredibly infectious that I don’t think many people can be around him very long before they, too, have wings. I have had the opportunity of seeing him put this scripture—and others—into action many, many times. One experience occurred was when we were in graduate school. It was a very demanding time for all of us, but especially for Jeff. He was a devoted husband and loving father of two small children, and was taking a full graduate load in a difficult program at Yale University. To make ends meet on a very limited budget, he taught an institute of religion class at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and one at Amherst College in Massachusetts; the latter required a ninety-mile each week. He also served as a counselor in the stake presidency. We seem to have very little money and even less time. And we seemed to be running out of both pretty regularly.
Because of our family situation and the responsibility Jeff felt for us, he determined, with the encouragement of his professors, to take his oral examination considerably ahead of the schedule of his classmates—nearly a year ahead of some of them. He threw himself vigorously into preparation for the exam, but the pressure was immense. He knew that his examining committee would be particularly that he was coming to the exam very early and they would certain not to let him slip past with poor preparation. Worst of all, to fail in an aggressive first try would almost certainly set our schedule back more severely than if we were to wait and go along with the mainstream of students.
For as long as I have known Jeff, the minute he has had a burden of any proportion, he has always begun a fast and taken a discussion of the problem directly to the Lord. I will never forget that night of decision when he had to schedule or not schedule — sort of “To be or not to be,” New Haven style. Those were hours of anxiety and unrest and yes, outright fear, fear of failure, fear of responsibility, fear of overconfidence or lack of confidence, fear of seemingly limitless number of consequences that would affect the lives of four people, not just one. It was a heavy burden of responsibility that we all felt, but one that was ultimately on Jeff’s shoulders.
We were fasting and we were praying. We were living the gospel aw well as we knew how. We were trying hard to be whatever God wanted us to be, and we were believers. At the close of that day of fasting and as we prayed earnestly over what seemed to us a very serious matter, I think I have never seen any human being so radiant in my whole life. Jeff truly radiated a “brightness of hope” and was filled with “unspeakable joy.” Even now the image of his countenance is still fresh in my mind. His whole being seemed to glow. The only words I remember him speaking at that moment were, “It’s going to be.” And it was. And it always will be. ~~~Sister Patricia T. Holland “On Earth as it is in Heaven” p.40-42
