As I was pondering trials today, my thoughts turned to how I seem to have this innate desire for everything to be easy. True, that may be a common trait amongst all of us humans, but I think I have an extra dose of it.
All my life, it seems, I've been doing what I can to make things easy. During my schooling years, I only did the easy assignments or took the easy classes. Wouldn't want to challenge myself and make things too difficult! I rarely add extra things to my schedule, keeping to the most essential tasks. I keep my hobbies simple and few. I'm constantly evaluating the things in our home - do we have too much? What could I get rid of to make things easier?
I stress easily. I get overwhelmed easily. So I try to avoid situations where those feelings might occur.
Wanting things to be simple and easy is such a part of me that I began to wonder if I was this way before I came to earth. Surely life wasn't easy in our premortal existence - there was a war in heaven after all. I imagined how I must have run to our Heavenly Father for comfort many times. "Why does it have to bee so hard?" I'd ask. "Why must there be so much suffering?"
What would Father's response have been to such questions?
I don't know if this is right, or true, but this is what came to me today as I was thinking about it: he would have said, "If life was easy it wouldn't be worth living."
Really? Because I can imagine a wonderful life full of peace and no problems. Of course I'm kidding . . . mostly, because I know we need trials in our lives. Trials help us develop, mature, they help us grow closer to our Savior, they help us to appreciate the good times, they keep us humble, they teach us to empathize, trials test our faith. Apparently trials are awesome! I guess I forgot that.
What if, instead of being frustrated and stressed when trials come upon us, we welcome the challenge, knowing what opportunities trials bring? Could we welcome the hard times knowing that our Heavenly Father uses those times to shape us, to refine us, like in the refiner's fire?
In a conference talk, President Spencer W. Kimball retold a story of Caleb from the Old Testament in which Caleb, confronted with a problem, said to the Lord, "Give me this mountain."
President Kimball said:
There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, “Give me this mountain,” give me these challenges.
How many of us have asked for a trial? President Eyring has. He read President Kimball's talk and decided to pray to receive a trial.
He recounted:
Within a day or two my prayer was answered. The hardest trial of my life surprised and humbled me. It provided me a twofold lesson. First, I had clear proof that God heard and answered my prayer of faith. But second, I began a tutorial that still goes on to learn about why I felt with such confidence that night that a great blessing could come from adversity to more than compensate for any cost.
All my life, it seems, I've been doing what I can to make things easy. During my schooling years, I only did the easy assignments or took the easy classes. Wouldn't want to challenge myself and make things too difficult! I rarely add extra things to my schedule, keeping to the most essential tasks. I keep my hobbies simple and few. I'm constantly evaluating the things in our home - do we have too much? What could I get rid of to make things easier?
I stress easily. I get overwhelmed easily. So I try to avoid situations where those feelings might occur.
Wanting things to be simple and easy is such a part of me that I began to wonder if I was this way before I came to earth. Surely life wasn't easy in our premortal existence - there was a war in heaven after all. I imagined how I must have run to our Heavenly Father for comfort many times. "Why does it have to bee so hard?" I'd ask. "Why must there be so much suffering?"
What would Father's response have been to such questions?
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| Painting by David Bowman |
I don't know if this is right, or true, but this is what came to me today as I was thinking about it: he would have said, "If life was easy it wouldn't be worth living."
Really? Because I can imagine a wonderful life full of peace and no problems. Of course I'm kidding . . . mostly, because I know we need trials in our lives. Trials help us develop, mature, they help us grow closer to our Savior, they help us to appreciate the good times, they keep us humble, they teach us to empathize, trials test our faith. Apparently trials are awesome! I guess I forgot that.
What if, instead of being frustrated and stressed when trials come upon us, we welcome the challenge, knowing what opportunities trials bring? Could we welcome the hard times knowing that our Heavenly Father uses those times to shape us, to refine us, like in the refiner's fire?
In a conference talk, President Spencer W. Kimball retold a story of Caleb from the Old Testament in which Caleb, confronted with a problem, said to the Lord, "Give me this mountain."
President Kimball said:
There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, “Give me this mountain,” give me these challenges.
 |
| Grand Teton Mountains |
How many of us have asked for a trial? President Eyring has. He read President Kimball's talk and decided to pray to receive a trial.
He recounted:
Within a day or two my prayer was answered. The hardest trial of my life surprised and humbled me. It provided me a twofold lesson. First, I had clear proof that God heard and answered my prayer of faith. But second, I began a tutorial that still goes on to learn about why I felt with such confidence that night that a great blessing could come from adversity to more than compensate for any cost.
Adversity brings blessings. Great blessings.
Here, then, is a great truth. In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner’s fire, and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong. In this way the divine image can be mirrored from the soul. It is part of the purging toll exacted of some to become acquainted with God. In the agonies of life, we seem to listen better to the faint, godly whisperings of the Divine Shepherd.
Out of the refiner’s fire can come a glorious deliverance. It can be a noble and lasting rebirth. The price to become acquainted with God will have been paid. There can come a sacred peace. There will be a reawakening of dormant, inner resources. A comfortable cloak of righteousness will be drawn around us to protect us and to keep us warm spiritually. Self-pity will vanish as our blessings are counted.
I'm learning I need to be grateful for these hard times. We all do. It's good for us, it really is.
To all of us out there suffering right now, let's be happy. Let's be grateful. Let's feel blessed. And let's say, "Lord, give me this mountain." Because, I know, that with the Lord's help, we can conquer these mountains.
And we'll come out better, happier people on the other side.
2 comments:
I wish you guys the best in finding work. That has to be so extreamly difficult. I know when Jon was trying to do his own buisness after loosing his job in the housing bust that we were so dirt poor! Thankfully we lived with his parents and that help to aleviate the financial burdan but it also created its own special kind of frustration. I will say an extra prayer for you all, and maybe slip in the hint that Oregon would be a good place to find work! I think our kids would get along fantastically!
Sheri Dew wrote - "If life were easy, it wouldn't be hard. Meaning this: What if every prayer were instantly answered in the way we wanted it to be? If nothing ever tested our faith or our resolve...then what are the chances we would progress far enough spiritually in this lone and dreary world? Whether we like it or not, our trial and struggles can tend to accelerate our push toward godliness. In fact, it's possible we wouldn't go as far as we're capable of going without them."You've got the right ideas, Shannon. Follow them.
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