When you hear the scriptural phrase “endure to the end,” what comes to mind?
For Laurel C. Day, president of Deseret Book Company, this phrase hasn’t always felt hopeful. “I’ve never been a fan of the phrase ‘endure to the end’—I just think it makes life sound like such a drudgery,” she explained recently on the Sunday on Monday podcast. “While certainly it can be really hard, I have to rely on a belief that we’re meant to have joy and goodness in life, too.”
What the Phrase Really Means
But last year, Laurel came across a phrase in the Book of Mormon that completely changed her understanding of enduring to the end. In Moroni 8:3, Mormon tells his son Moroni that he asked the Lord “to keep [him] … through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.”
Laurel says this emphasis on sustaining faith in Christ sparked a paradigm shift for her. She shared:
“For some reason, that’s the first time I think I’ve:
“A) understood what it means to ‘endure to the end,’ that it’s an endurance of faith, not just enduring through something hard, … and,
“B) [understood] that’s what our covenants do—is allow us, or allow the Lord, rather, to “keep” us through the endurance of faith to the end. …
“It changed the way I feel about that dreadful ‘endure to the end’ phrase because it’s not about enduring to the end just to endure. It’s about enduring with my faith. And that the Lord will keep me because of my covenants with Him.”
An Active Decision
These principles remind us that enduring to the end is an active decision to trust the Lord. Rather than gritting our teeth through the trials of life or simply waiting for hard times to pass, we can choose to demonstrate faith. As Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf has taught:
“Enduring to the end is not just a matter of passively tolerating life’s difficult circumstances or ‘hanging in there.’ Ours is an active religion, helping God’s children along the strait and narrow path to develop their full potential during this life and return to Him one day. Viewed from this perspective, enduring to the end is exalting and glorious, not grim and gloomy. This is a joyful religion, one of hope, strength, and deliverance.”
When we trust in the Lord and allow Him to sustain us through our covenants, we can find more joy and strength—even during difficult times. One reason for this outcome, according to Elder D. Todd Christofferson, is the covenantal blessings associated with obedience:
“What is it about making and keeping covenants with God that gives us the power to smile through hardships, to convert tribulation into triumph, to ‘be anxiously engaged in a good cause, … and bring to pass much righteousness’ (Doctrine and Covenants 58:27)? …
“[As] we walk in obedience to the principles and commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we enjoy a continual flow of blessings promised by God in His covenant with us. Those blessings provide the resources we need to act rather than simply be acted upon as we go through life.”
And as we take faithful action, the Lord will strengthen our hearts and lighten our burdens. As President Russell M. Nelson has taught, “Your responsibility to endure is uniquely yours. But you are never alone.”
Listen to the full podcast episode featuring Laurel Day on the Bookshelf+ app. Try it for free for 30 days.
For more insights on enduring to the end with faith, check out the articles below:
▶ This hidden gem in Doctrine and Covenants is the ultimate comfort scripture
▶ The spiritual power of righteous complaining
▶ What we get wrong about joy
