Love your trials

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, aka Mormon Church but I prefer the full name of my Church since it's the one God gave it- not the one the world invented- and because it clears up -or at least should clear up- any confusion about my being Christian-- note the "Jesus Christ" part of the title). Anyway...my opening isn't actually a sentence because I got into the tangent in parentheses.... As I was saying, being a member of my church, I have often heard that we should be grateful for our trials. Sounds weird, right? Why should I be grateful about having three midterms in the same week (as is sometimes the case)? Or why should I be grateful that my computer's internet seems to be slow at the worst times? Or whatever it may be. We all face hardship- it comes in an infinite number of forms. Sometimes we see it coming (like the midterms) and sometimes we don't (like what I recently experienced).

Trials are something to learn from, though. No, they aren't fun. No, we usually don't ask for them. But YES we NEED them, YES they are intended to BLESS us; YES we almost always complain about them, and YES you should be grateful for them, as crazy as that sounds.

We don't always get to see why they happen in this life, but I have come to find that if you look for ways in which they made you stronger, in which you learned something about yourself or about others, in which they showed you something you wouldn't have otherwise seen, that after looking you see that good did come in some form. Of course, I'm not an expert and you may have had an experience that you cannot see any good in, but I guarantee that someday you will have a chance to understand.


I will provide you with an example from my own life that I feel compelled to share. I share it not for sympathy- I am now totally recovered and have been for some time. Take what you want from it- if you don't want to get anything out of this then fine, but I hope to make that hard for you if that is your intent.

Back at the end of August, I was very ill to the point of being nearly bed-ridden with fever for about a whole week. My body was extremely fatigued- a time or two I felt I could barely continue to feed myself. On a good day, I found it difficult to make the short walk to and from my mail box and found that picking my feet up the one flight of stairs to my apartment had me a little out of breath and needing to sit down. My body ached, particularly my back, which made standing for more than a short moment tiring. My nose became congested, adding to my occasional headache and to an overall weird/uncomfortable feeling.

I eventually got diagnosed and got the medication I needed that then put me on the road to recovery which was much shorter than I had anticipated.

From feeling utterly useless to feeling hope that I could heal and function normally again, was a beautiful transformation for me. Hope does something to us that little else can. It gives us energy that we didn't have before and gives us the vision to see things more for what they are rather than sluggishly dwelling in the present circumstances.

After that hope came to me, I was able to see myself improve and to see myself increase in hope and capability.

Just after recovering I was able to see the many ways in which God had blessed me; I saw the benefits of a decision I had made a few weeks prior; I saw the kind efforts of a husband who cares for me; I was reminded of the blessing of having a healthy body, and so many other things.

I was nearly 100% within a week of getting medication, which I hadn't dreamed would be the case- it was a personal miracle and I am still grateful for it to this day.

Hope is brighter than the sun