one is the loneliest number

sunday a group of girls all ages 18 to 30 sit together in my relief society.  the topic being discussed is loneliness.  as sisters share why loneliness is universal i look around me at the faces on the sisters in my ward.  they are beautiful...but in almost everyone of them, at this exact moment their faces reflect sadness.  the sadness i see is the kind that only comes when they think no one is watching, the kind that involuntarily etches it's way across their faces as their mind is going through a slide show of their life.  each face shares the pain they mask each day, the pain they usually ignore, but in this moment of vulnerability it is clearly evident.  i know most of these girls personally, and as i look at them i think of their stories they have shared with me.  i think about what might be on their mind, and am reminded of the pain caused by my own moments of loneliness.
sitting there in this lesson sisters begin to share scriptures that have strengthened them in times of loneliness.  as i ponder over all the hundreds of people i love who have shared their stories with me, i think of where their lonely tales have led them.  i think of my own scripture, my own strength, and i share it with those lovely sisters. 
alma 32:41-43  (as you read imagine your times of loneliness and the things you have been willing to give up)
41-but if ye will nourish the word, yea nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great dilligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.
42-and because of your dilligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is pure above all that is pure, and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not neither shall ye thirst.
43-then, my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your faith , and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you.

i happen to believe this.  a ces talk forever ago by president james e. faust left me with this phrase forever etched in my mind, "anything worthwhile requires sacrifice."  i guess what i'm trying to say is that loneliness is satan trying to tell us we are worthless, that no one will want us or to be around us.  then if we believe him we take the first shadow of what we want...not what we really want, only the shadow that is easily accessible.  the real thing takes time to find or work for, but it is real, and no matter how long we have to wait it is always going to be better than the shadow.