Trials and Tribulations

Not mine, just in general. I read this the other day:

"It is wrong to assume that the more righteous one is, or the more diligently one strives to keep his or her covenants with the Lord, the less suffering one will have to endure. The promise is that he or she will be blessed, though the blessing may be the strength to endure suffering. All suffer -- the just and the unjust. But the unjust live as well with the consequences of their own sins. This is the way life is arranged. God does not sit around wondering what test to throw up before you next. Such tests are integral to life -- they go with the territory."
- Robert S Wood (The Complete Christian, p 95)

Two scriptures come to mind. First, Mat 5:45 ....for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Every day the sun rises, the birds sing and the flowers bloom. On the other hand, storms come, disease and disaster strike. And those things happen to everyone, good, bad or indifferent. There is no gurarantee that if we are good little boys and girls that we will be rewarded in this life. Too bad about your luck if that's what you were expecting.

The second scripture is 1 Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

My mother, when she was feeling particularly put upon, did not believe this scripture. She thought that whatever happened, God would get you through it with little or no effort on your part. If she had to work at it, or if she had to make the move toward God, to lean on him.. that meant he wasn't making her able to bear the burden. But as Elder Wood says, the blessing may be the ability to endure.

My life has been an easy one compared to many, difficult compared to some. But the more I lean on the Lord, the easier the burdens are to bear. They don't go away, at least not most of them, but they are easier to bear. Sometimes so easy that I forget they are there. A final scripture, Mosiah 24:13-15
And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.
And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
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.