“Suffering leads toward exaltation. I suppose I am talking to some who have had worry and trouble and heart burnings and persecution, and have at times been caused to think that they never expected to endure quite so much. But for everything you have suffered, for everything that has occurred to you which you thought an evil at that time, you will receive fourfold, and that suffering will have had a tendency to make you better and stronger and to feel that you have been blessed. When you look back over your experiences you will then see that you have advanced far ahead and have gone up several rounds of the ladder toward exaltation and glory.” (Lorenzo Snow, “The Last Days” ‘Teachings of the Modern Prophets’ Vol. II with commentary by Daniel C. Peterson, p. 395)
Powerful words, and at times of great trial not as comforting as when those trials come to an end, and you have triumphed over them. However, the promises are beautiful, and if one can but hold on to these prophetic and heavenly promises, there is a beautiful sunrise on the horizon.
Sometimes events in life hit us so hard that comforting words seem more condescending than helpful. It is times like this, when darkness seems to surround us from all levels, that we must look heavenward and allow the light to shine down and surround us, lifting us up until we can walk hand in hand with the Lord again, instead of being carried on His back.
It is alright at times in our lives to step back, grieve, cry, and pour our hearts out to our Father in Heaven. It is at these times of our greatest trials that our Father reaches down and lifts us a little closer to heaven. And really, isn’t that the purpose of our whole mortal existence? To reach toward our Father in Heaven, be gathered once again in His arms, be reunited with those we love so dearly and walked into the eternities together?