The past few years have been hard and unpredictable—but what can we learn from them?
As mask mandates begin to lift and life begins to return to something approaching normal, I can understand the desire to stop thinking about the pandemic. Life seems to have been paused for two years. For many of us, those two years have been full of trauma, tragedy, and strife. Though the past two years have been difficult, it is time to reflect on what we learned.
In his talk “What We Are Learning and Will Never Forget,” President Russell M. Nelson said, “Amid the losses we have experienced, there are also some things we have found.” He goes on to list four major lessons that he believes the pandemic has taught us—namely, home is the center of worship, we need each other, quorums are meant for service, and we hear Christ best when we are still.
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A college instructor of mine has often said that an experience without a reflection is wasted. None of us would have willingly chosen to experience the pandemic. The strain, both emotional and physical, of the past two years has touched nearly every human on this planet. We can’t control what happens, but we can control our reactions. By reflecting, we can take away the lessons that God wants us to learn, and avoid repeating the same mistakes.
I ask myself what lessons I have learned, and there are many. Most of them are too personal to print. One, however, sticks out to me: no matter how grim my situation, no one can take away my faith and my agency to pray. That choice is always mine.
Take a moment now, when praying or reading your scriptures, to reflect on what you’ve learned through the pandemic.
To read President Nelson’s thoughts on the lessons of the pandemic, read his full talk “What We Are Learning and Will Never Forget.”
Source: General Conference
—Dylan Parker, Latter-day Saint Insights
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Find more insights
For more about how to find the lessons from hard things, read “How to Turn Disappointments into Successes” by Mikaela Wilkins.
To find strategies to handle hard times when they threaten to tow you under, read “3 Tips to Help You Stay Afloat Mentally” by Kayla Orlando.