Principle 11
Adversity is a necessary part of life and it accelerates our growth
The intent of your Father in Heaven is to lift you from where you are to where
He knows you will have eternal purpose.
He knows that we will grow more rapidly through challenge and trial
than from a life of ease and serenity with no disturbing elements.
When faced squarely and lived fully without complaint,
trials will raise you to glorious heights of accomplishment and service.
"Shake well before using"
Such shaking comes through stirring challenges and stretching tests.
How these challenges are confronted is critically important to our happiness and personal growth now and forever.
Trials come from two sources:
1. The affects of our own transgressions
2. Testing needed to help us grow even when we are living a righteous life.
The First Source of Adversity:
Realize your full dependence upon the Lord, align your life with His teachings,
repent and seek forgiveness
The Second Source of Adversity:
(challenges often seems to come in multiple does applied simultaneously)
When trials are not the consequences of disobedience,
they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more
He gives us experiences that stimulate growth, understanding,
and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit.
Where you are -> (stretching, discomfort and pain) -> Where He wants you
How to Deal with Adversity:
- Pondering and prayer will help us understand what we are to learn from the challenges we are asked to overcome.
- Trust Him, even when in eternal perspective it temporarily hurts very much.
- He may ask you to do things which are powerfully against your will.
- The path you are to walk through life may be very different than others.
- Exercise faith and say, Let Thy will be done.
- Have patience when you are asked to wait.
- ***If all matters were immediately resolved at your first petition, you could not grow.
Such experiences, honorably met, prepare you and condition you for yet greater blessings.
He desires to share with you all that He has.
He desires to increase your capacity and continue your development.
***All TRIAL AND SUFFERING SERVE A PURPOSE AND ARE CRITICAL.***
He would have you suffer no consequence, face no challenge, endure no burden that is superfluous to your good. He would not require you to experience a moment more of difficulty than is absolutely needed for your personal benefit or for that of those you love.
Help from the Lord generally comes in increments.
There is no guarantee of overnight results, but there is absolute assurance that, in the Lord's time, solutions will come, peace will prevail, and emptiness will be filled.
Improvement in sequential steps...
1. gives us the opportunity to discover what the Lord expects us to learn.
2. requires patience to recognize His timetable.
3. provides growth from our efforts and trust in Him
4. gives us the opportunity to continually express gratitude for help given.
***When the Lord closes one important door in your life, He shows His continuing love and compassion by opening many other compensating doors through your exercise of faith.
After the trial has been the greatest, He will place in your path packets of spiritual sunlight to brighten your way (evidence of His compassion and love)
- They point the way to greater happiness and more understanding
-They strengthen your determination to accept and be obedient to His will
SPECIAL COUNSEL WHILE YOUR IN THE MIDST OF ADVERSITY
- Don't let the workings of adversity totally absorb your life.
- Try to understand what you can
- Act where you are able
- Let the matter rest withe Lord for a period
- In the mean time give to others in worthy ways before you take on appropriate concern again
"Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo,We qualify for His promises by...
I am with thee, even unto the end of they day." D&C 24:8
- A determination to accept His will
- by understanding the plan of happiness
- by receiving all of the ordinances
- and by keeping the covenants made
Behind temporary pain, disappointment, frustration, and anguish can be
a background of PEACE and ASSURANCE.
As we wrestle with challenges and feel sadness because of them,
we can simultaneously have peace and rejoicing.
MY THOUGHTS: I read Principle 11 right around Christmas time and it became a great source of comfort for me to read and reread as the difficulties of this time of year pressed on my soul. There is a lot of sadness not having my other half with me this time of year. Scott so loved Christmas, and he was always very much in the center of everything. His absence is acutely felt; especially when I think of the plans we had made for this break and how they simply cannot be or never will be. It is comforting for me to be reminded that there can be a background of peace and assurance, and that I have to look for that among my moments of sadness.
When I think of my 'growth accelerating' or 'being raised to glorious heights,' it gives me the incentive to remain true and to not crumble in the presence of difficulties. It makes it seem worth it. If someday I can become the person I really want to be and that my Savior knows I can be, and if then I can be reunited with Scott, that will be better and I will be happier for all of the difficulties. There are a lot of 'ifs' in that last sentence, but most of those rely on my response to the adversity.
I find that I can deal with difficulties and pain if I know that there is a purpose and a light at the end of the tunnel. Patterns in my life have taught me that the Lord often gives me great insights after those difficult times if I simply turn to him and turn my will over to Him. I have quit panicking when those times come, because I know there is a reward at the end. I guess I love this principle so much, because Elder Scott confirms what I have felt to be a true pattern.
These are comforting things to remind myself of as I wait for those compensating doors to open and for those packets of sunshine to enlighten me. Waiting on the Lord can be difficult, but it is easier with people who remind you why your waiting. A big thanks to all of my Widow/Widower friends and my family who are constantly doing that for me. When we feel weak, if we surround ourselves with others who are strong, they can keep us going during the moments when we stumble. For me, Elder Scott and those other people are Tender Mercies that the Lord had gifted specifically to me.
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