Friday, October 6, 2000

Doctrine and Covenants 112:13 -- On Learning Difficult Things

"And after their temptations, and much tribulation, behold, I, the Lord, will feel after them, and if they harden not their hearts, and stiffen not their necks against me, they shall be converted, and I will heal them."
Doctrine and Covenants 112:13


This is an interesting scripture.  I think that it shows how much the Lord loves us.  You know, we have to go through hard things... sometimes because we choose to learn the hard way, and sometimes because it's something that you have to learn experientially, not theoretically.  God has to let us learn... he can't protect us from necessary experiences. 

It's like when I was in third grade.  I hated multiplication with a passion.  Hated hated hated it.  But my mom couldn't just protect me from it.  My teacher couldn't just say, "that's okay, Suzanne... you don't have to learn this."  If it had been up to me at that point, I would have bailed... but instead, my mom stayed up all night with me, quizzing me.  And, eventually, I learned, even though it was a painful process. 

We're like that.  We run up against something that is really hard for us, and we plead with the Lord... please don't make me learn this.  I hate it, and I am really bad at it... but we're children, and we need to know this in order to continue our lives, in order to learn compassion, in order to know what it is like to be in each other's shoes.  But in the end, no matter how painful the experience was, our Father is there, to take our hands... lead us to the kitchen, and make us some hot chocolate. :)  If we are still mad at him for not protecting us from learning something necessary, then we probably won't go with him... but he keeps trying, and if we calm down and go with him, he will sit with us, and tell us why we had to learn that, and all the cool things that we have ahead of us. 

God loves us.  None of this life is about us versus him, or him toying with us.  it is about us growing up and learning to be like Dad.  No matter what we have to learn, and how hard it is... he will be there, helping us to learn it, and able to heal our scrapes and bruises and deeper anguish afterward.  We can't run away from growing up... but our Father can make it all right.

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