Trials Come to Us All

Today I read Exodus 3 where the Lord appears to Moses in the form of a burning bush. God commands Moses to go down to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from their bondage. It is comforting to know that God never abandons His people. In all their plights, God was never far away from the Israelites and was always listening to their prayers. It is not easy to be patient on the Lord when we are in the midst of a trial. I like to think of Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail and the Saints in the days of Alma and of course, the Israelites in Egypt.

Trials come to us all. It is a fact of life and honestly, we should be grateful for them. If we did not have trials we would not be able to grow and progress. Trials can be little stepping stones, or they can be huge mountains, but we all have them. What counts is how we handle them. If we handle them well, then we grow from them. They are generally not easy, in fact they are not meant to be. They are meant to stretch us to the breaking point. At times we cannot overcome them on our own at all, much like our weaknesses. We are meant to turn to Him for help and to rely on God to get us through it. It kind of reminds me of that poem "Footprints in the Sand" where the man dreams that Christ is walking along side him and at times, the most challenging of times, there was only one set of footprints. The man accuses Jesus of leaving him when he needed Jesus the most and Jesus calmly replies that when there was only one set of footprints that is when Jesus carried the man.

It reminds me a little bit of the song "Count your Blessings". The line where it says, "When you look at others with their lands and gold", it can be really hard to look at others seemingly prosperity and be discouraged. But I've always thought that those who lie and cheat to get ahead in this life are doing themselves a huge disservice. And they are. They are missing the entire reason behind this life. But more than that, if we think along those lines, we are doing ourselves a disservice. Each person's trials are unique to that person. I am personally very grateful I don't have certain trials. Some people lose a child in this life. I don't know if I am strong enough to have that trial. Some have their children fall away from the Gospel. Some cannot handle wealth. Each person's trials are for them specifically to overcome because we each have our own challenges and God knows each of us personally.

As we strive to live the Gospel and get better each day, we will find that our trials are just what we need and that Heavenly Father knew what He was doing. If we rely on Him, we can learn what we need to learn in this life and can overcome everything that comes our way. The more we learn in this life, the further ahead we will be in the life to come. God is there to help us if we will reach out to Him. Why not take the help that is offered? We just have to ask. Until tomorrow.