God can seem like an impersonal, unknowable being in the sky. But we can find peace during our hardest times as we seek to understand him as our Father, who loves us individually. My pre-teenage concept of God was perhaps a little irreverent, but it nonetheless sculpted my dutiful, strained relationship with… Continue reading
What if we stopped seeing our trials as burdens and started seeing them as blessings? How often do we go through trials and ask, “Why me?” While this is natural, it is not the way Heavenly Father wants us to react. In a devotional given at BYU-Idaho, Brother Larry Richman… Continue reading
Our success and happiness are determined by how we choose to react to trials. By Heavenly Father’s eternal design, mortality wasn’t meant to be easy. Though trials may weigh us down, we can face them with confidence as we look to Christ. The challenge? To have an eternal perspective in… Continue reading
A general conference talk gave me hope for my wandering son’s future. My husband and I have six children. They all bring us joy, but parenting them has also provided us with trials and learning experiences. In 2003, our fourth child was fourteen and was struggling with many issues. Although I never learned… Continue reading
Recognizing the purposes for pain can help us see it for what it really is—a gift from our loving Heavenly Father. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to never feel pain? As appealing as this sounds, Brother Derrel Higgins, a professor at BYU-Idaho, explains why pain… Continue reading
From her involvement in the suffrage movement to her triumph over personal tragedies, Emmeline B. Wells stands as a role model for young women. Women’s rights activist, suffrage leader, general president of the Relief Society, wife, mother—these are just a few of the titles that Emmeline B. Wells (1828–1921) acquired… Continue reading
When it feels like our life is cracking under pressure, how do we continue? Sometimes the answer is to submit to the will of God. I was 12 years old when I lost all my friends—for the second year in a row. Another move, another state. With burgeoning depression, I… Continue reading
During hard times, it’s tempting to feel lost and discouraged. But as we exercise faith, we can know that we are never alone, forgotten, or unloved when we face trials. Sometimes our adversities seem like mountains, too tough to conquer. During our darkest moments, we might lose hope and wonder,… Continue reading
Even when the world gives us every reason to be bitter, we can make the choice to cultivate love in our hearts. Under the government system of racial segregation called apartheid, South African communities were fraught with racial tension. But when the car accident that killed Julia Mavimbela’s husband was blamed… Continue reading
A sister missionary learns that just because God was blessing someone else doesn’t mean he was not blessing her. In “Why Was I Not Being Blessed?”, featured in the September 2015 Ensign, Becky Young Fawcett discusses a concern facing many new missionaries—and many of the rest of us—today. When she… Continue reading
