After we were married Jeremy s first job was in Venice beach, CA. just walking distance from the ocean. I would meet him for lunch sometimes and we’d walk down to the sand and enjoy his hour together. One day I met him after work so we could go for a swim together. After growing up near the beach and with my awesome swimming ability….:) I was not prepared for for what soon would be some of the most terrifying moments in my life. “We’re in a rip tide” Jeremy said.  I was swimming hard to get to shore and somehow Jeremy knew what it was we were struggling against and reminded me what to do. “swim perpendicular to the shore until we are out of it.” Boy did we swim hard. He made it to the shore just before I did and we collapsed on the sand out of breath. No to be overly dramatic, But I thought I might die! I did have a faint hope in the fact that my pre-mortal dolphin bff would come out of the deep blue to give me a ride to safety…( dang you ,aqua blue! Where were you?!):0 I had to get there on my own Jeremy couldn’t help me , he would’ve drowned for sure! (he is a horrible swimmer and doesn’t float because he is a a 00.1 percent body fat) while drifting further out to sea silently with the shore looking like a speck of dust now, I felt a peaceful assurance that things would work out. I was scared, and uncomfortable. But I knew any minute things would change and it would be time to swim with all I had left.

Though I got a C in high school geometry I can understand this quote from elder Maxwell and think it goes swimmingly!:)… “In the geometry of restored theology, hope has a greater circumference than faith. If faith increases, the perimeter of hope stretches correspondingly. Just as doubt, despair, and desensitization go together, so do faith, hope, and charity. The latter, however, must be carefully and constantly nurtured, whereas despair, like dandelions, needs so little encouragement to sprout and spread. Despair comes so naturally to the natural man!”

Despair does come swiftly and without any needed coaxing, especially in our trials.  we must fight that ugly instinct and replace it with hope!!When we hope in something, like that I would live and not drown in the ocean that day, our faith increases. Then we can excersise  what little faith we may have and make it grow. But it starts with HOPE.

I am as certain that God is guiding our family as Kates is that there are unicorns. It is beyond a hopeful wish that some omnipresent being is out there watching us. It is a fact because I can see proof. Over the past 15 years there is definite quantitative actual conclusive proof that God is in the details of the warren family’s life. We took a step out into the figurative ocean as we did that day not knowing that a trial would be on the horizon one that would take all our spiritual and physical capacities. Some of it required patiently trusting in the Lord and then acting when the time was right. Through it all He has never left us alone. Never. Ever. Throughout my journey in mortality, whether it a calm or storm tossed sea, there is no one I want  beside me more than Jeremy. He always has been and continues to be the calm voice of reason and truth that  if followed will bring me safely home to the shores of my father’s kingdom. 

yup honey, I am talking about YOU! (stop looking so confused, I just told the world how you’re pretty much perfect)