Trials, Trust and God's Perfect Love.

       Is life perfect? No, it most certainly is not. Does that mean God doesn't love us? Some people assume so, but the answer is that God loves us more than we could ever conceive of. Everything that happens to us is to make us stronger, to help us to experience all life has to offer, and to teach us more about sorrow and joy, anger and love, pride and humility. Indeed, if we are to become exalted and inherit "all that the Father hath," we first need to understand it, and the ramifications of using and abusing said power. Eternity is a long time to learn, but God wants us to get a head start. Hence the need for trials in this earthly life.

So why do we have the trials we have? Why is everyone unique, and why do some people just outright suffer more than others? A simple way of explaining that is to say that God knows each of us on the most personal level we can think of, and He ultimately knows what is best for us on an eternal scale. He knows who we are, what we can become, and what lives we can touch while we are here.

A bit more lengthy way to explain this is that God believes in our ability to persevere and prevail. Why is this more lengthy to explain? Because so often people will profess a belief in God, a faith in Him, but will rarely have faith in themselves. I know I have often said myself, "I know God can do all things, but I just can't." It's a common problem; when faced with adversity, even if we have faith in God, we lose hope for ourselves, and consign ourselves to failure.

A few brief examples. There are some people in this life who struggle with crippling injuries or diseases, which could not possibly be attributed to any fault of their own. Why must they suffer perpetually, and watch their bodies deteriorate with nothing they can do? Why must their prayers "go unanswered," despite any amount of faith exercised? To this I must say, like Nephi, that "I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." However, I do know that eternity is a far longer time than even a hundred years of suffering, and that God promises all of us, just as He did with Joseph Smith, that "if thou endure it well, God will exalt thee on high."

We do not know the hundreds of lives we touch every day merely with our example. These people who have suffered so much, for so long, are a shining beacon of faith and hope, despite constant trials and afflictions. God does love them, even if they are suffering now, because He knows that their suffering will be but for a small moment.

Another example, perhaps more common, are people who struggle with relationships. No matter what they do, no matter how much they pray, they cannot seem to "find the one." God leads them down the path they must walk, with them believing it will end in happiness, but it is marked with sorrow and broken hearts. So many lose faith in God after seeing their romantic, platonic and familial relationships shattered before them. Or, if not, they merely consign themselves to the belief that something is wrong with them, that they are unloveable, and that all future relationships will fail.

The truth is that God heareth all prayers, and answereth them in a manner He knows will provide for us in a way that we cannot comprehend. If we have lost faith in Him, we have lost our way. If we haven't, yet we still lose hope, perhaps we have lost faith in ourselves. We doubt the answers we receive. We do not understand that God believes in us. To truly believe in Him, we must believe that He knows that we are able to persevere through all affliction we face.

There are a myriad of trials one can face in this life, and no individual will go through life without facing at least a few of these. The important thing is to not lose hope, either in God or in ourselves. In God because He knows all things from an eternal perspective, and in ourselves because He loves us and trusts us to be able to handle all we are put through. Just as the strongest steel must be melted and folded over itself time and again until it cannot possibly be folded any more, so it is with our lives. To make us strong, God puts us through affliction and calamity, knowing that if we endure it well, we shall be worthy of exaltation in the highest degree.

I know that all things happen for a reason, and that reason is not always wickedness. I know that bad things happen to good people, because God wants to make us stronger. I know that God would never force things to happen His way, because agency is so important to Him that He let a third of all His spirit children walk away into everlasting punishment rather than force them to choose the right. I know that He guides us down the right paths, but it is our choice to accept and bear well the infirmities of our lives. In this I do solemnly bear witness, with Jesus Christ as my savior, Amen.

This document does not in any way represent the official views of the Church as a whole; it is merely the theories of my own study and personal revelation, written down in a manner suitable for presentation and future personal study.