Doctrine and Covenants 122:7 -- On Choosing Experience

"And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

Doctrine and Covenants 122:7

The idea here that "all these things" shall be for our good is more than conciliation.  I think God is teaching us something about life.  Too often we fall into the trap of thinking that if we are doing things right that we won't have any trials... but that is very far from the case.  God could give us lives with fewer struggles, but he knows that the struggles that he *is* giving us are the ones that will lead us to becoming more amazing and awesome than we would learn to be without challenges.  These things are designed for our good.

What it comes down to, like most other things, is just whether we trust God or not.  If we do, then we'll understand that whatever is before us is there for a good reason, and that facing it and overcoming or enduring it will help prepare us for the future.

Not that any of us love trials, given.  I don't particularly want to learn how to love cockroaches right now, and I think we all have those specific things that we would like to avoid. :)  Perhaps rather than just praying to avoid trials though, we could have a conversation with God about it.  If we're trying to learn a lesson actively in a different way, maybe a trial could be modified for us... just like prophets in the scriptures asked for a famine rather than a war.  God is willing to work with us about *how* we learn patience (and other things), but we still need the lesson.  Let's not try to pray away our learning opportunities, or expect that we can learn to become heavenly beings without trials.

Today, let's choose experience that will be for our good rather than trying to stay safe in our bubble wrap of comfort and habit.  It isn't always easy to choose to put ourselves out there and to learn to be vulnerable or know that we might fail or get criticized, but it is an expression of our trust in God to be out there, engaged and learning, willing to face new experiences and trials and to learn from them as part of the refining process. :)