Alma 62-63

Quote "These people all had basically the same experience. The war was the same length for all people; yet out of the same experience some were hardened and some were softened.

What made the difference?

It was what they thought of God and his Son."

~C. Max Caldwell

Question "When you experience trials, do you feel your heart is hardened or softened? What can you do to improve your thoughts of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? How do you think this will help to soften your heart?"

I am human, so of course I don't enjoy going through trials, and when the trial first starts, or maybe after it lingers for a while, I'm sure I complain, way too much. However, I do have a very strong testimony that the Lord's will needs to be done, not mine. He allows all kinds of suffering, illnesses, and other hardships, but in essence, it is for our own good. We have free agency to choose, and we have learning opportunities at every turn in this life. If He just made everything be easy, and good for us all of the time, our free-agency would cease to exist, and we would be as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, not knowing good from evil, and we would never appreciate these precious gifts....especially the Atonement. The only way for us to truly appreciate the Atonement of Jesus Christ is to go through trials, so that we can see, that our trial, in comparison to Christ's, is so minute, and that HE KNOWS what we are going through. He is the only one that really knows what each and every person is suffering with, and going through, and the only way to have comfort and support in our trials, is to lean on Him.

We've had many many trials in our family, and there have been times that I'm not sure if I'll be able to forgive, but through God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. He can and does take bad things, and make good come from them. Trials also bring compassion to us. When you go through something hard, then see someone else going through it, you feel compassion for them.

It is hard to understand sometimes why we are faced with a certain trial, but reading the scriptures, and praying can really help us through them....whether it is for answers and understanding, or just comfort and patience. The Lord's ways are not our ways, and that is a hard thing to accept sometimes, but that is just the way it is. We can fight all we want against the Lord.....but it will profit us NOTHING!