February 23: Go On in Hope
Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens
About the Author
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) became the most beloved novelist of the Victorian age, but he began in humiliation. When Charles was twelve, his father was thrown into the Marshalsea debtors’ prison, and the boy was pulled out of school and sent to paste labels on bottles in a damp, rat-ridden blacking warehouse for ten hours a day. He felt utterly abandoned — a wound he kept secret for most of his life. Out of that early misery came both his social conscience and his genius: he gave the world Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol, and he spent his fame fighting for the poor, the imprisoned, and the forgotten children of England. He knew misfortune from the inside. That is precisely what gives his counsel about blessings its weight — it is not the easy optimism of a man who never suffered.
Historical Context
This line comes from Dickens’s reflective writing at midlife, and it reads almost like a discipline he had to teach himself. A man with his childhood could easily have spent his days rehearsing old wounds. Instead he prescribes a deliberate turning of the mind: reflect upon your present blessings. He is honest that misfortunes are real — “all men have some” — but he insists that where we aim our attention is a choice, and that the choice shapes the whole texture of a life. To “go on in hope” is not to deny the hard chapter. It is to refuse to let it be the only chapter we keep reading.
Scripture Cross-Links
Philippians 4:11–12 — “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
Doctrine and Covenants 78:19 — “He who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious.”
Alma 34:38 — “Live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.”
Doctrine and Covenants 58:27 — “Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause… and do many things of their own free will.”
Thematic Reflection
The mind has a gravity to it, and left alone it tends to fall toward grievance — toward the slight, the loss, the misfortune. Dickens is describing the work of resisting that gravity: not pretending the misfortunes away, but deliberately weighting the scale toward the blessings, which are nearly always more numerous than we admit when we are discouraged. Scripture calls this living in thanksgiving daily, and it is no accident that it is framed as a daily practice — because the pull toward the old wound returns every morning, and gratitude must be chosen again every morning. Dickens, of all people, had earned the right to dwell on his misfortunes. He chose instead to go on in hope. So can we.
Richard’s Personal Reflection
My natural temperament runs toward problem-solving — I am trained to scan for what is wrong and fix it, and that same instinct, turned on my own life, can make me very good at noticing deficiency and very poor at resting in abundance. I have had to learn, deliberately and imperfectly, the discipline Dickens describes. At the end of a hard day I try to name what was good in it — not to deny the difficulty, but to refuse to let the difficulty be the only thing I see. Grandma has been my best teacher in this. She notices blessings the way some people notice flaws. I am better for having spent my life beside her.
Grandfather’s Counsel
My dear ones, you will accumulate some misfortunes — everyone does, and some of you will carry heavier ones than others. I cannot spare you that. But I can tell you where to point your attention. Reflect on your present blessings; you will always find they outnumber your sorrows if you are honest about the counting. Do not build a home inside your worst memory. Visit your gratitude daily, the way you’d visit a friend. And whatever the chapter you are in, go on — in hope.