Not an Easy Life

Today I read 1 John 5, have you ever noticed how the scriptures always seem to make it sound like all you need to do is believe in Christ and everything will work out ok? It kind of reminds me of the Beatles singing "All you need is love". But those of us who live our lives may have noticed that we still have our challenges, we still don't have it on easy street. As I have mentioned in the past, those of us that make a conscious effort to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ usually have it harder than most because we are being refined by the refiners fire through the furnace of afflictions.

This has been on my mind recently because over the past few weeks it certainly seems like Murphy's law is doing everything to prove itself in my life. For those of you that may not be familiar with it, Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And boy does it sure seem like it. We have had problems in our home life with our personal belongings, our health, I've had problems at work, about the only place that is as of yet untouched is our church life. That is going pretty well so far. Hopefully that at least will continue to be a rock in our otherwise tumultuous life.

But through it all, I turn to Heavenly Father and feel like He helps us. He turns our trials into our saving grace. Although some of the things that go wrong are just plain bad, others have unexpected silver linings that help us. We struggle to make it in this world, but living the commandments is not a struggle for us. For us there is no other choice than to live a life of righteousness. And it makes things more palatable. Life is still a challenge and we still have our trials, but because of our trials, we are growing and becoming better men and women than we were before our trials.

Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a ticket to an easy life. Far from it, most of us will experience trials that will break us and cause us to turn to God and seek His help because we just can't do it on our own. This is by design because most of us will not humble ourselves and so we will be humbled the scriptures tell us. Perhaps that is the cause of all my trials recently. I really don't know. But one thing I do know. I know I will be a better man because of them and that as I strive to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what happens to me in this life, my family and I will be on the right path and everything will work out for our benefit. That much I do know, the rest, I put in God's hands and trust in Him. And if we are honest with ourselves, isn't that all we really can do? Until tomorrow.