FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For media interviews or sale questions, contact:

Rodney Fife

(801) 489-4084

PR@Cedarfort.com

Review copies availableupon request.

Finding Peace in a Troubled World
SPRINGVILLE, Utah, (Nov. 19, 2014) -- Sherrie Mills Johnson and Cedar Fort Publishing & Media are pleased to announce the release of "Count It All Joy: Finding Peace in a Troubled World." 

You can find "Count It All Joy" at The Marketplace by The Blaze, Barnes and Noble,Books and Things, Amazon and many other great bookstores. 
About "Count It All Joy":
Learn to find your inner joy and overcome a fallen world. Capitalize on challenges as catalysts for growth and progression. Feel better -- even on hard days. In this inspiring book, popular speaker and BYU professor Sherrie Johnson shares her unique approach to facing life's obstacles. Insightful, informative and entertaining, this book will change your view of yourself, your trials, and your path back to the Savior.
Excerpt from "Count It All Joy":

Chapter Six: "Necessary Pain"

"Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience." -- James 5:10

Yesterday, I accidentally shut my fingers in a door. It wasn't a horrible accident; nothing was broken -- not even the skin. But as I type these words, the fingers throb just enough to let me know they didn't like what I did to them. Can I fix it, or do I have to live with it? I must live with it and endure the pain. It is what it is! Of course, there are a few things I can do to ease the pain, but once the fingers have been hurt, all I can do is wait for them to heal.

This is necessary pain because I can't control it. It must be endured, but enduring necessary pain well always brings physical, spiritual, emotional, or intellectual growth, and it is usually a combination of more than one of these.

Because of this, necessary pain could be called growing pains. But there is more. President James E. Faust explained, 

All of us benefit from the transcendent blessings of the Atonement and the Resurrection, through which the divine healing process can work in our lives. The hurt can be replaced by the joy the Savior promised. To the doubting Thomas, Jesus said, "Be not faithless, but believing" (John 20:27). Through faith and righteousness all of the inequities, injuries, and pains of this life can be fully compensated for and made right. Blessings denied in this life will be fully recompensed in the eternities. Through complete repentance of our sins we can be forgiven and we can enjoy eternal life. Thus our suffering in this life can be as the refining fire, purifying us for a higher purpose. Heartaches can be healed, and we can come to know a soul-satisfying joy and happiness beyond our dreams and expectations. (Faust, "Woman, Why Weepest Thou?" Ensign, November 1996)

As Elder Faust explained, part of the amazing gift given us through the Atonement is that we are promised that all the necessary pain we suffer in mortality will be compensated. The scriptures explain, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Revelation 21:4). Thus, even though mortal life involves pain and tears, we are promised help to endure it and compensation for enduring it if we just trust in Jesus Christ.

That is why we can count it all joy! We are never alone in our pain. As we learn in Isaiah: "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody" (Isaiah 51:3).

The amount of pain we suffer in life varies from person to person, but a certain amount is necessary for everyone in order for growth to take place. This necessary pain is caused by four things:

1. The natural laws of a telestial world 

2. The opposition we encounter as we strive to do what is right

3. The repentance process

4. The actions of other people

Learning to recognize necessary pain and accept it for what it is -- an essential experience that is preparing us for celestial life -- is crucial for our spiritual development.
About Sherrie Johnson:

Born and raised in Centerville, Utah, Sherrie Johnson married Carl M. Johnson and became the mother of ten children (nine daughters and one son) and is now Nana to 37 grandchildren (29 grandsons and 8 granddaughters). After raising her children, Johnson completed a doctorate in sociology at Brigham Young University. She is the author of 17 other books, including "A House With Wings"; "Gospel Insights for Everyday Living"; "Spiritually Centered Motherhood"; and "Man, Woman, and Deity." 

For the past seven years, Johnson has been teaching people how to count it all joy in seminars throughout the United States and at the BYU Campus Education Week.

Johnson has served in the Church as a Gospel Doctrine teacher, ward Young Women president, Stake Relief Society president, and member of the Church Curriculum Writing Committee. After 15 years of teaching, she recently retired as an adjunct professor in the Religion Department at Brigham Young University and is now motivating people through the company she founded, Hearken Institute.

Visit Johnson atwww.HearkenInstitute.com.