ROLE OF REFINING PAIN AND
TRIAL
Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
explained the purposes of affliction in mortal life:
No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God … and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven. …" (Orson F. Whitney, as cited in Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p. 98.)
Just when all seems to be going
right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When
those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that
the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more (see Prov. 3:11–12).
He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and
compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where
you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that
generally entails discomfort and pain.
When you face adversity, you can be
led to ask many questions. Some serve a useful purpose; others do not. To ask,
Why does this have to happen to me? Why do I have to suffer this, now? What
have I done to cause this? will lead you into blind alleys. It really does no
good to ask questions that reflect opposition to the will of God. Rather ask,
What am I to do? What am I to learn from this experience? What am I to change?
Whom am I to help? How can I remember my many blessings in times of trial?
Willing sacrifice of deeply held personal desires in favor of the will of God
is very hard to do. Yet, when you pray with real conviction, “Please let me
know Thy will” and “May Thy will be done,” you are in the strongest position to
receive the maximum help from your loving Father (
No cross, no crown. No gall, no glory. No thorns, no throne.
(Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson , p.394)
Good Timber
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Good Timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
(Douglas Malloch as quoted in Sterling W. Sill,
Making the Most of Yourself
[Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1971], p. 23)
