I can't even begin to express my love for the Mormon Channel app on my phone. It is how I prepared to lose Erin. I listened to the Enduring it Well series all the time. It is a series about normal people who have had to endure great challenges like cancer, September 11, losing a child, etc. All of these people recognized that growth came from their afflictions. None of them necessarily wanted to go thru the same trial again, but many or most said they wouldn't change anything because of the growth. They had become closer to the people Heavenly Father wanted and needed them to be if they were to have eternal life.
Yesterday, I walked the lake by myself because Becky moved to Boise on Monday. I put in my earphones and listened to a series called Why I Believe. He was interviewing a woman who had gone thru cancer twice at the ages of 3 and 7. It was so uplifting to hear her story and her testimony. She had talked about how her mother taught her that she could focus on the abundance in her life or she could put her focus on the lack. She chooses to focus on the abundance and that is what I have tried to do the past year. I have been blessed with four beautiful children. All four are a great blessing to me. And I haven't lost Erin. She is very close and I will one day get to finish raising her.
Anyway, after listening to that interview, I switched it the live broadcast on the Mormon channel and caught the last half of Elder Bednar's conference talk from 2014. It is a wonderful talk with so many beautiful truths. They have made a Mormon Message from his talk about the truck that is stuck in the snow. It is a family favorite. But it's been while since I heard the original talk so I really enjoyed it. Some things stuck out and I want to put them here so I can always remember his inspired words.
"Each of us also carries a load. Our individual load is comprised of demands and opportunities, obligations and privileges, afflictions and blessings, and options and constraints. Two guiding questions can be helpful as we periodically and prayerfully assess our load: “Is the load I am carrying producing the spiritual traction that will enable me to press forward with faith in Christ on the strait and narrow path and avoid getting stuck? Is the load I am carrying creating sufficient spiritual traction so I ultimately can return home to Heavenly Father?”
Sometimes we mistakenly may believe that happiness is the absence of a load. But bearing a load is a necessary and essential part of the plan of happiness....
Recall the Savior’s statement “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30) as we consider the next verse in the account of Alma and his people.
“And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs” (Mosiah 24:14).
Many of us may assume this scripture is suggesting that a burden suddenly and permanently will be taken away. The next verse, however, describes how the burden was eased.
“And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord” (Mosiah 24:15; emphasis added).
The challenges and difficulties were not immediately removed from the people. But Alma and his followers were strengthened, and their increased capacity made the burdens lighter. These good people were empowered through the Atonement to act as agents (see D&C 58:26–29) and impact their circumstances. And “in the strength of the Lord” (Words of Mormon 1:14; Mosiah 9:17; 10:10; Alma 20:4), Alma and his people were directed to safety in the land of Zarahemla.
Not only does the Atonement of Jesus Christ overcome the effects of the Fall of Adam and make possible the remission of our individual sins and transgressions, but His Atonement also enables us to do good and become better in ways that stretch far beyond our mortal capacities. Most of us know that when we do things wrong and need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has made it possible for us to become clean through His redeeming power. But do we also understand that the Atonement is for faithful men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully? I wonder if we fail to fully acknowledge this strengthening aspect of the Atonement in our lives and mistakenly believe we must carry our load all alone—through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline and with our obviously limited capacities....
The Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities—but also for our physical pains and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us.
There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we may cry out, “No one knows what it is like. No one understands.” But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice (see Alma 34:14), He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. He can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power. Indeed, His yoke is easy and His burden is light."
I especially love the above two paragraphs. How grateful that I don't have to try to make it through this life alone. I have a Savior that knows me, that understands what I have gone through this past year and who has eased my burdens. He can't take away my burden, but he has sure made it lighter.
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