"Nevertheless, for my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain from thee, that I cut thee not off.
For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."
1 Nephi 20:9-10
The idea that God chooses through affliction is an interesting one, and I think an important concept to consider. God loves us 100% of the time, of course, so let's not get off track and think that God likes to see us suffer or something. He doesn't. It's more like coming of age, right? I think my modern coming-of-age ritual was probably my mission. For others, it is going off to college for the first time, or something else. The idea is that when we do something new, away from the support system that we know, then we learn who we are more fully, and we start making choices of our own, independent of a lot of the influences of our youth.
The fact that these things are new, and that we are separated from our traditional support systems makes them *inherently* difficult. We have to learn new things, and new social structures or norms because we are hanging out with people with different backgrounds and philosophies. That's part of affliction. Another part is when we're trying to do the regular life thing with our regular support system and something new happens anyway. A death, the loss of a job, a car accident, a health crisis, etc. And we've either never dealt with it before, or we have to continue to deal with it so long that it starts to wear us down. Whether we caused it or someone else did, or whether it is a fairly typical life lesson or a personal watershed that we don't understand or didn't see coming, it's all part of the way that we grow up into our potential.
Afflictions don't ever mean that God hates us. Regular parents wouldn't keep their children out of school to protect them from the world, but instead would encourage them to go and help them succeed at the new experience. Likewise, God doesn't wrap us up in bubble wrap to keep us from the hard things in life, but he encourages us to confront them, to learn about ourselves and the world around us, and helps us succeed through the new experiences.
Yes, some things in life are an awful lot harder than school, but then again, our potential is also much, much greater. We are eternal beings, and God is trying to share with us what he knows and how life works, so that we can be successful both here and in the next world. God will help us through it all. He has told us that he will never leave us comfortless. Today, let's work with God to face our afflictions, to learn from them, and to grow and be better people, closer to God and closer to our potential.
For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."
1 Nephi 20:9-10
The idea that God chooses through affliction is an interesting one, and I think an important concept to consider. God loves us 100% of the time, of course, so let's not get off track and think that God likes to see us suffer or something. He doesn't. It's more like coming of age, right? I think my modern coming-of-age ritual was probably my mission. For others, it is going off to college for the first time, or something else. The idea is that when we do something new, away from the support system that we know, then we learn who we are more fully, and we start making choices of our own, independent of a lot of the influences of our youth.
The fact that these things are new, and that we are separated from our traditional support systems makes them *inherently* difficult. We have to learn new things, and new social structures or norms because we are hanging out with people with different backgrounds and philosophies. That's part of affliction. Another part is when we're trying to do the regular life thing with our regular support system and something new happens anyway. A death, the loss of a job, a car accident, a health crisis, etc. And we've either never dealt with it before, or we have to continue to deal with it so long that it starts to wear us down. Whether we caused it or someone else did, or whether it is a fairly typical life lesson or a personal watershed that we don't understand or didn't see coming, it's all part of the way that we grow up into our potential.
Afflictions don't ever mean that God hates us. Regular parents wouldn't keep their children out of school to protect them from the world, but instead would encourage them to go and help them succeed at the new experience. Likewise, God doesn't wrap us up in bubble wrap to keep us from the hard things in life, but he encourages us to confront them, to learn about ourselves and the world around us, and helps us succeed through the new experiences.
Yes, some things in life are an awful lot harder than school, but then again, our potential is also much, much greater. We are eternal beings, and God is trying to share with us what he knows and how life works, so that we can be successful both here and in the next world. God will help us through it all. He has told us that he will never leave us comfortless. Today, let's work with God to face our afflictions, to learn from them, and to grow and be better people, closer to God and closer to our potential.
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