My husband called me from work this afternoon, knowing I've been going through a deep struggle these past several days. I told him how frustrated I was with myself because I can't seem to get over this slump. I can usually bounce back from other situations much quicker. "What's wrong with me?" I asked him. He paused for a moment and lovingly encouraged, "You'll get through this. Don't be so hard on yourself. I know your intentions were good. But there's nothing you can do about that. Maybe while you're down in that pit of sorrow, maybe you can look around, scrape up some things, and find exactly what it is you're supposed to learn from it all." Then he suggested I read lesson #3 from the Relief Society manual, (Teachings From President Howard W. Hunter) and he said that if any time in the near future I find him in one of his slumps, he wanted me to know I had full permission to remind him of this lesson too.
I've read the lesson twice since his phone call. He was inspired and I thank my Father in Heaven for a husband who knows me so well, who knows my heart and my intentions.
Lord, I pray, help me see the blessing in my situation at this time. Help me see what lessons I need to learn from it all and what changes need to be made in my heart.
“When [the difficulties of mortality] humble us and refine us and teach us and bless us, they can be powerful instruments in the hands of God to make us better people."
"I have observed that life—every life—has a full share of ups and downs. Indeed, we see many joys and sorrows in the world, many changed plans and new directions, many blessings that do not always look or feel like blessings, and much that humbles us and improves our patience and our faith. We have all had those experiences from time to time, and I suppose we always will. …
… President Spencer W. Kimball, who knew a good deal about suffering, disappointment, and circumstances beyond his control, once wrote:
Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery” [Faith Precedes the Miracle (1972), 98].
In that statement, President Kimball refers to closing doors upon certain experiences in life. … Doors close regularly in our lives, and some of those closings cause genuine pain and heartache. But I do believe that where one such door closes, another opens (and perhaps more than one), with hope and blessings in other areas of our lives that we might not have discovered otherwise." - Howard W. Hunter
-Alicia
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