Building Emotional Resilience: Carolee Scowcroft

I really feel like I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors. Their stories have really touched me. I have a great-grandfather who lost his ear almost completely because he fell off a wagon. And his mother, hopefully, washed it and put it back on and bandaged it up. And with faith, that ear was as good as new. And I just think about her faith and the prayers that she offered, you know, on behalf of her son.

And then I think about a grandmother who found herself to be a single mother in the Depression with four kids, and she had to figure out how to support them. You know, there was nobody who was offering any money to her, and she became a successful businesswoman and did a lot of really wonderful things. So, I really feel like all of my ancestors have really impacted how I have—they’ve impacted me in that I am so grateful for the blessings that I have.

And I, like everyone else, like all of you, have faced emotional challenges. And I have learned that challenges—just like Christ is the way—challenges are the plan. And if we recognize that instead of fighting that, learn how to just be joyful in that and be grateful for those challenges, we will be so much happier. We’ll be able to learn how to help others when they go through challenges.

That’s another thing that I’ve learned is that we just take turns with challenges. And you might have a challenge and you learn things from it, and that gives you the opportunity to then help someone else when they are going through either a similar challenge or something that might be different but something you have more empathy for.

I certainly have a testimony that any challenges we face will be done in conjunction with our Savior. Whether or not it’s a direct feeling or through one of His emissaries—one of our Relief Society sisters or a son or a daughter, someone who’s close to you who comes and ministers to you in a way that helps you get through that experience.