The Savior's Suffering

Today I read Mosiah 13 - 14. It honestly amazes me that people don't understand the Atonement better. I don't say that to be mean, it's just the truth! I really don't get it how people can not understand it.

In Mosiah 13 Abinadi teaches the priests of King Noah and Noah himself about the Atonement and why it is necessary. Essentially teaching that someone has to pay the price for sins. Justice demands no less. Typically that person is the perpetrator of the act that needs atoning for. However, God did not wish to see us suffer and so provided a way for us to not have to suffer.

This is the part where I get confused that others are confused. Any parent has felt what I am going to talk about next I am sure. All parents at some point or another are going to have to care for a sick child. Some unlucky parents are going to have to watch their children waste away in front of them and even die and I promise you it will cause the parent more pain than if they were to go through it themselves. What parent who is faced with such a situation, whether they believe in God or not, has not thought to themselves how willing they would be to take their child's place. Most have even prayed for God to remove the child's suffering and place it on their own head.

They understand the pain our Father felt when faced with watching all of His children suffer the greatest agony any of us can even begin to comprehend. Those parents should be able to better understand the Atonement better than anyone else. However, all too often they focus only on their loss and not what God has planned for them and lose their way.

I absolutely hate it when people bemoan their fate and ask why such and such is happening to them because they have tried so hard to do what is right and keep the commandments. No where in the scriptures that I am aware of does it promise that if you live a good life you will not be tried and tested. No where in all the prophecies of all time that I can recall does it say, just be a good person and God will make your life peaches and roses. If we didn't have trials and tests in this life we would not grow, and that's a fact! We came here to face trials! We came here to be tested!

This life would be a waste of time if we did not suffer a little misery every now and then. We would gain nothing from it if we were not pushed to our limits so that we could learn who we really are. It's when we are pushed as far as we can go and forced to make a choice that our true colors show. I remember in college I was faced with a choice so horrible that it literally drove me to tears. The choice itself does not really matter, suffice to say I was left to choose what I want, or choose what God was asking me to do. Obviously I chose to do what God asked of me, but I have never had to do anything more challenging before or since. That is the choice where I knew if I chose incorrectly, my life would never be the same and I would essentially be turning my back on God and my whole life up until that point would have been a waste and been for nothing.

Thankfully I chose wisely and my testimony is intact and each day I improve just a little bit more. I am grateful beyond words for the Atonement and for the the Savior's suffering for me personally. I hope and pray each and every day that I don't give cause to increase His suffering but rather that through my actions I may make it lighter and easier to bear. Until tomorrow.