"Let the Tough times DEFINE you, not DEFEAT you."
i was first introduced to this by a former missionary Elder Korey Fras. he was my district leader and always had good quotes to start out district coucil. I often think of this quote, being a missionary we go through very tough times, but more than just us, our people! the People of the California Santa Rosa mission go through tough times and its our job to lead them to Christ, who suffered for all our sins, weaknesses, failures, everything! Elder Fras also said that adversity is a gift from God, this is how we experiance joy, love, peace, happiness. we cant experiance any of these things without feeling the opposite. in Mosiah 23:20-21 the people are prospering and they had built a city and everythings, sometimes the Lord see's fit to chasten us, he chasten them. he tried there patience to help them in all things. In Mosiah 23:22 it says that whosever puteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day.
We all have trials, how we deal with them is what the Lord is looking at. Do we always wonder "why me?" or "couldnt this happen to anyone else but me?" or do we think: "what can i learn from this?" "what is the Lord trying to teach me?" this is how we learn to bare our trials. God promises that if we endure all things well, we shall be lifted up! that's a great promise. I know that this church is true, i know that God is loving and will never give us anything we cant handle. May God bless us in all that we do, and may we all rely fully on Jesus Christ.
Trials give us an opportunity for growth and refinement. They are the same things as rocks in a tumbler attempting to polish a stone. We get our corners knocked off until we become smooth and beautiful. When we apply the positive approach you suggested by asking, “what can I learn from this?”, we can learn to become more obedient, more patient, more humble, or any number of great attributes that are required for our perfection. Faith in Jesus Christ is however, the key to making it through the refining process. Simply knowing that the refiner himself is in charge, and he has a perfect vision of us as a finished product, allows us to endure to the end in joy.
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