Hope is Not a Strategy

 I was sitting in a session at a leadership conference this week and we were working as a team to analyze the work we were doing to reach and teach our children at our school.

As we listed some of the support and work we had accomplished this year we commented on different ways that we truly hoped that work would be reflected in our students outcomes.

Then the presenter shared a phrase that stopped me in my tracks. 

"Hope is not a strategy."

We all looked at each other and recognized the truth in that.  Hope is important.  Hope can motivate us, help us look forward with optimism and we do believe in our kids.  

But hope alone is not a strategy for success.  We have to all do our parts - leadership, teachers, parents and students - and we have to put in the work and build and follow a plan.  For kids to learn to read we need to determine what skills they are missing, build a positive environment and connection, help them learn in authentic and meaningful ways and follow up to make sure the plan is getting us where we wanted to be. 

Gospel learning is similar.

Hope is not a strategy.  

Hope in Christ is critical.  He offers us help in this life and salvation in the next, but he says to "Come and follow me."  

Coming and following are actions.  Our hope can inspire  us to take those first few steps when things seem so dark and difficult.  But we also need a plan to find the next piece we should work on, improve our environment, and change our hearts. 

Barbara W Winder stressed this as well. "Just as the people of King Benjamin found hope in Christ, so can we find respect for ourselves and others, rid ourselves of self-defeating habits, be nonjudgmental, be optimistic and of good cheer, be assured of his love for us, and find hope in him."

Find the hope in Him.  When we come.  

He knows exactly where we are and the struggles we are having.  He is waiting with arms open wide.  

As our team gathered under the Texas star in our atrium, we found meaning and purpose and added to our hope some true actions and strategies to move us forward.  

Let us use our hope in Christ to each take our own  next step. But let's not then just hope that was enough.  Let's trust his plan, follow Him and be changed for the better.