Adversity.
Yuck. What a difficult word. Right? Who wants adversity. I know that life would feel so much easier without adversity.
Just imagine. Life always up. Flowers always blooming. Family always healthy. Job security always there. Friends always loyal. Christmas always here.
Just kidding. I had to add the last one, “Christmas always here,” for the sake of the children. In fact, I remember a children’s book where that is exactly what happened. One child uttered a wish that Christmas could last all year long. Guess what happened by the end of the book? Christmas was no longer special and the child was tired of it.
Can you imagine being tired from life always having presents and goodies and special trimmings present? Although I had to admit when finishing the book that it made sense.
An ancient American prophet named Lehi once spoke words of profound truth that can be found in The Book of Mormon:
“For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, … righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad … wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God” (2 Nephi 2:11-12).
Lehi continues:
“And now my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon” (2 Nephi 2:14).
Sometimes it takes a child’s story to help understand a prophet’s wisdom. What Lehi is trying to teach his people is that God’s wisdom is greater than ours, and that we need opposition to bring forth righteousness.
Does this teaching help when a sudden tragedy has hit a family? I don’t know. I suppose it depends on how deeply pondered the truth goes. During the middle of the crisis, a family is simply trying to keep their heads above water (as the saying goes).
It is usually after that wisdom begins to enter in. Sometimes the only way to gain wisdom is through the difficult path. But the easiest way is to consider that God has a greater perspective than we do … and that He can be trusted.
I know that in my own life, even when my husband lost his job and even when our son died, that God has our best interests at heart. It may take some time to gain the perspective the prophet Lehi had, but if we continue faithful to God, we too will have such sage knowledge.
God has created us for Him mighty purposes and when we continue faithful to Him, His perspective one day will break through clearly in our minds and we will feel to rejoice of His goodness and His wisdom made manifest in our lives. And then, the word “adversity” will make much more sense.
