Trials and Tribulations

Nobody's life is perfect. Our growth comes from dealing with trials, tribulations, heartache and disappointments in our lives. So much of the world blames God for everything because they don't understand the gift of agency, the right to make choices, that we have been given from a Heavenly Father who loves us. He wants us to return to Him, but He wants us to return with honor seeing that we have progressed in our lives. Sometimes that challenge seems so impossible to reach. When so many obstacles are put in our way, bringing us down, discouraging us, how do we stay on the strait and narrow path going in the right direction with one foot in front of the other? There are so many opportunities to mess up, sometimes small mess ups and sometimes big mess ups. After awhile, it can seem impossible to do what the Lord has asked of us.

Today after an appointment I had in Houston, I decided to go to the temple. There is no other place on earth where one can feel such peace, such contentment, such a feeling of belonging. There is no better place on earth to go in fervent prayer, mighty prayer, to seek the answers to life's problems.

As I was sitting in the chapel of the temple, I had decided I wanted to read some words of Paul. I wasn't really sure where I wanted to start, but I felt the need to go to Ephesians. Heavenly Father knew my need and guided me to Ephesians Chapter 3. These are the words starting in Verse 13:

"Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end."

I had an experience a couple weeks ago with a very dear friend. She knew that I was extremely upset and just couldn't get a grip on my emotions. This friend knew what was causing the hurt in my heart and she said something to me that I think about, now, every single day. Her thoughts were so profound to me and I had never thought of tribulations, discouragement, trials in the way she shared with me. She said to me that when she was going through one of the most difficult times of her life, she realized that this particular trial was to teach her to have more Christlike love. I have been pondering those words ever since I heard them. What an amazing thought to know that we can gain so much more Christlike, unconditional love by going through the "depths of hell" sometimes.

As I read these words in Ephesians, it was like putting the exclamation point on what my friend had told me. We need to be "rooted and grounded in love" even when we feel we are at a point in our lives where we may feel forgotten by the Lord. He never leaves us, He does not forget us. Paul tells us that through our trials we can know the love of Christ, and we can be filled with all the fulness of God. In other words, we can be filled with the love of God.

No matter what someone might do to us, say to us, or not do for us or not say to us, we, in order to progress have got to have Christlike unconditional love for the one that we feel has hurt us or disappointed us. And, the one that has caused the hurt and anguish has got to find that Christlike love, the fulness of God the same as we do.

I hope all of this makes sense. For me it does; and I feel that my Heavenly Father is watching out for me, and He is guiding me with every step I take in learning to be more Christlike in the things I say and do.