Never Give Up

by Joyce DiPastena

Last month when it was time to go visiting teaching, I’d misplaced my Ensign and my printer was broken so I couldn’t print the message off the Church’s website. So what did I do? I resorted to what I consider a “safe” fallback position in situations like this: I grabbed the most recent General Conference issue of the Ensign and pulled some thoughts out of one of the talks for my visiting teaching message.

The talk I chose was given by Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge, entitled: The Way. One of the quotes I shared with my sisters was this:

“Life is hard, but life is simple. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep on going. You don’t quit, and you will make it.”

These words, of course, were in reference to living the gospel and enduring to the end. But as I contemplated what to write for my ANWA blog this week, these words came back to me. I think they might be reworded this way to apply to each of us who have chosen the writer’s path:

“Writing is hard, but writing is simple. Get on the writing path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep on going. You don’t quit, and you will make it.”

Having fallen back into one of my writing slumps the past two weeks (knocked off my writing stride by a cold and a broken water heater that took more than a week to replace), this quote, reworded this way, came as much needed counsel and direction for me. I chose the writing path a long time ago. Now the trick is to “never, ever give up. Never give up. Just keep on going. Don’t quit, and…eventually, whether to publication, or to the end of my current manuscript, or even just to the end of my next chapter…I will make it.”

Thank you, Elder Corbridge!