While it sometimes feels like adversity and sorrow are dragging us down, those challenges are actually making a place for greater happiness.
Photo by Lauren Lulu Taylor
We are commanded to trust God and have faith in his plan for us. Often, however, that is much easier said than done. We may face challenges and hardships in our lives that make it difficult to believe that God is there and looking out for us. In his talk “Consistent and Resilient Trust,” Elder L. Todd Budge teaches us that we can have happiness even in our struggles as we put our trust in the Savior. Elder Budge explains, “The good news of the gospel is not the promise of a life free of sorrow and tribulation but a life full of purpose and meaning—a life where our sorrows and afflictions can be ‘swallowed up in the joy of Christ.’”
Our struggles and sorrows play a vital role in our long-term happiness. “In a paradoxical way,” Elder Budge explains, “afflictions and sorrow prepare us to experience joy if we will trust in the Lord and His plan for us.” Sadness and hardship make us more capable of feeling greater joy in the future. We often don’t feel like that is the case while we are experiencing trials, but with the Lord’s help, all of our afflictions will be consecrated for our good. Our trust in God is what turns our sorrows into eternal joy. As Elder Budge says, “Trusting God may not always feel safe at first, but joy follows.” Although it is hard to believe, the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that everything will work out in the end.
Read more about the happiness that trusting God can bring in Elder L. Todd Budge’s talk “Consistent and Resilient Trust.”
Source: General Conference
—Sarah Jensen, Latter-day Saint Insights
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Find more insights
Read President Russell M. Nelson’s talk “Joy and Spiritual Survival” to better understand how the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us joy.
Check out the Latter-day Saint Insights article “Help and Happiness Ahead,” by Shelby Olsen, for another perspective on holding on to joy and enduring trials.