Just as our Savior came to know us through his suffering, we come to know and love our Savior through our trials.
PHOTO BY WARREN WONG
A few years ago during a scripture study, I realized that as the Jaredites traveled across the sea, they encountered “furious wind” that created “mountain waves.” This must have been scary and confusing because the Lord had promised to bring them to a better place. But the wind “did never cease to blow towards the promised land” (Ether 6:5–8). This very same storm that terrified and tried them got them exactly where they needed to be.
When I realized this, I grabbed some sticky notes, and on one side of each note I wrote a trial I’d been through, and on the other side, I wrote what I’d learned from it. I stuck the notes in Ether 6, and ever since, I’ve addressed my trials with a growth perspective that helps me feel more at peace. Ardeth G. Kapp, a former Young Women General President, in her BYU devotional “Pray Not for Light Burdens but for Strong Backs,” explains a few reasons why this perspective works.
Sister Kapp references Elder Orson F. Whitney, who wrote that “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility.” Elder Whitney knew that we learn and grow from our challenges; they are not wasted.
But Sister Kapp further explains that, ultimately, the reason we learn and change from our trials is because of our Savior. She says, “We know about our Savior, but it is often in our adversities that we truly find Him and know Him and love Him.” The Savior suffered for us, and by doing so, he learned about who we are. He knows and loves us perfectly. As we struggle and turn to him, we understand just a little more of what he went through, and we can know and love him more.
Check out Sister Kapp’s full BYU devotional “Pray Not for Light Burdens but for Strong Backs” to find more on how we can improve our perspectives on trials.
Source: BYU Speeches
—Stacey Clark, Latter-day Saint Insights
FEATURE IMAGE BY ALEX GREEN
Find more insights
To learn more about how the Jaredites show that our trials can be for our own good, read the Ensign article “The Winds That Blow” by Jenna L. Staley.
Read more about why our trials are actually something to be thankful for in the Latter-day Saint Insights article “Trials and Tribulations as Disguised Mercies” by Kyme Lambson.
Read or listen to Neil L. Andersen’s general conference talk “Spiritual Whirlwinds” to learn more about how our trials make us stronger.