Lesson #2 in the Spencer W. Kimball manual for this year’s course of study is about death and sorrow, and is entitled “Tragedy or Destiny?” The subtitle reads, “When we face the apparent tragedies of sorrow, suffering, and death, we must put our trust in God.”
The first part of the lesson shares a story from the life of Spencer W. Kimball. He endured much sorrow in his young childhood as a result of the death of loved ones. At the age of eight, his baby sister died shortly after birth. Only a month later, Fannie, the five-year-old, also passed. He recalls vividly the scene, perhaps heightened by the fact that it took place on his ninth birthday, of the family gathered around as Fannie died.
Most difficult of all for the young Spencer was losing his mother when he was just eleven years old. He says, “It came as a thunderbolt. . . . My eleven-year-old heart seemed to burst. . . . I feel like sobbing again now . . . as my memory takes me over those sad paths.”
Despite this profound sorrow, he always felt comforted as he prayed and lived the principles of the gospel. That is the message of today’s lesson – finding peace even when we feel as though we could burst.
The Lord could, in His power, shield us from all that would cause us pain, and yet, in His wisdom, He does not. The most fundamental law of the plan of salvation is free agency. If God were to step in, it would nullify the plan. When we look at life from the eternal perspective, we are better able to look at it in the proper perspective. It may seem that all is pain and sorrow, but it’s not. There is joy to overbalance the scale.
We are given trials to rise above them, sickness so we can be strong, and work to strengthen our muscles. Everything we are given is for our own learning and experience, and we must go through it to learn those things that we need to know.
There must be opposition in all things, and we must learn from the things we experience. If we got our own way all the time, we would never go through hardship, and never become strong. We must learn patience, faith, and self-mastery, and these attributes can be learned in no other way.
Elder James E. Talmage wrote: “No pang that is suffered by man or woman on this earth will be without its compensating effect . . . if it be met with patience.”
The lesson goes on to say: “On the other hand, these things can crush us with their mighty impact if we yield to weakness, complaining, and criticism.”
There are those who are bitter as they contemplate their trials, and others who face them with joy and rejoicing. The attitude with which we face our trials determines if they will strengthen us or make us weaker.
In times of trial, we must trust God. He controls our lives, He guides us and blesses us, but He always gives us our free agency. He can’t make us be grateful for His hand in our lives – we must learn that ourselves, generally by the trials we endure.
Life is difficult, no doubt. But the rewards on the other side are more than worth it, if we can trust that and in Him.
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