TRIALS

This post is not about the "Sister Wives" family challenging Utah's bigamy laws in court, but about trials we all face in this existence.

Trials can be the result of our own actions, or negligence. They can be caused by others around us. Religious people will also say that they can be caused by the Devil, or may be a test from God.

I believe the Devil can only do what we let him do. He has the power we let him have. Yet he can cause many trials. I believe God lets us live our lives, but maybe there are things he sends our way, or lets agents send our way, or simply lets happen, because He knows it is good for our eternal progression.

I've been tried lately, where it hurts the most, and where I am the most likely to fail. I know my own weaknesses well, but was my heart heavy because of my own actions, which is the most likely reason, or was it Satan tempting me, or God testing me? In any event, I have been trying to move on, and I've been waiting for this personal trial to pass.

A good friend of mine tried to comfort me. She talked to me about turning to Christ, because the Atonement is not only for our sins, but he suffered for all the things humanity may ever experience, so he knows what we feel, and he knows us. I read the quote from a General Authority that she subsequently sent me.

I love my friend, and I respect her, and she tried to help me, and I am grateful to her for that. Yet, this sounded too "Christian" to me. I never could "turn to Christ" because he knows me "personally". This is something my well-meaning Christian friends advise me to do sometimes, those who actually believe in God, and not the liberal kind who have meetings in which they mention some non-specific god/essence. It is not something I heard much when I was LDS, but times are a-changing.

As I was browsing the net, I came across a quote from the Journal of Discourses: ‎"I heard the Prophet Joseph say: "You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God." (24:197) And when I read it, I felt a force. I will feel low for a while, I suppose, but this quote has lifted up my spirits, and gives me purpose. And this, again, confirms that nothing but Classical Mormonism will do!