Gratitude for Trials.....

Trials Archive-Loveumentary.com

Letter to my missionaries:

"I had an "ah ha" today in sacrament meeting.  I was thinking about life's struggles and difficulties and trials and for a second I had a clear picture that when we get to the other side we will be extremely grateful for them as we would be very disappointed to have gone through life on easy street without having had these experiences which are the purpose for our coming to earth. We would feel cheated if we went through life without them.  I think of the D&C scripture that tells us to be thankful in all things.  I wonder if we truly thanked the Lord for our difficulties and weaknesses and for what they teach us, if we would be taught some unique things"   

"I am praying and hoping that you will have contacts to teach who will be blessed by the message.  Put it in the Lord's hands.  It is his work.  If you think of his striving with mankind through all the generations and how many thousands of years he has been working with his children you realize he has great patience.  Even when he was here on the earth in person it was a struggle to get people to see the light.  It has never been easy but his hand is stretched out still and you are a part of that stretched out hand extending the offer again and again. " 

19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulnessshall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.  (Doctrine and Covenants Sec. 78)

Likening Isaiah 30 - "...speak unto us smooth things,"

 1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord:

 10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

 11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

 12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

 13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant

 14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

Is this us?  Do we walk with an appearance of having the gospel in our lives but in reality it is a covering that is superficial and not of the spirit, that we may continue on in our own paths and lay aside the Lord's counsel? 

I hear many voices from various camps that are telling the seers to not see and the prophets to not prophecy right things because the things the prophets are saying are not in agreement with political correctness and personal agendas.  Do we want smooth things so we can continue to pursue our own traditions and philosophies and/or not offend our associates.  Do we want the prophets to be "on the right side of history," (a futuristic version of revisionist history!:)  Or, do we believe that all is well in Zion, that Zion propsereth and we have no need to change.  Or, do we trust in the arm of flesh more than in the arm of the lord.  

The Lord warns us that this false premise cannot last and will be broken as a potter's vessel which will not be able to carry fire from the hearth or water from the well.  Thus we become unable to hold the spiritual fire of the holy ghost or the living waters from the wells of salvation, and are not nourished and watered by the spirit and we languish in spiritual malnutrition or we leave the well altogether.  Sobering thoughts.