Theron David Rose, Monday December 20, 2021

One hard secret of our loving Heavenly Father is that there has to be hard things for us, His children, to go through–hard things for us to do– in order to learn and in order to remember the mortal lessons we will need to apply in our next–post-mortal–life. Just as Christ, the greatest of all, learned from the things which he suffered,1 we cannot expect to win a place with Christ without proving ourselves in the furnace of affliction.2

Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote: “Sometimes things are hard so as to be hard to forget.”3 That has been true for me and I am sure that hard things will continue to be a part of my life going forward. Am I going to forget the pain, the personal suffering I went through after prostrate surgery? I think not. Will it become a blessing for me to remember how I felt–how I suffered–later on, even on the other side of the veil?

If so, why–in the economy of God–must we not forget? Perhaps–among many other things–discomfort, suffering, feeling pain, may lead one to be more compassionate and more feeling for others who are suffering. It is a Christ-like virtue to feel compassion for the pain, suffering, and trials of others. Christ became our model and our example in these things, for as the Prophet Alma recorded, 

“And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

“And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”3

Ultimately, it will always be Christ who will be able to understand how we feel and what we feel and will be able to minister to us perfectly. Indeed, What a Friend we have in Jesus!4

It will be Jesus who rescues us from sin.

It will be Jesus who rescues us from sorrow.

It will be Jesus who rescues us from death.

It will be Jesus who will welcome His faith-filled and faithful saints into celestial glory.

May this be our blessed assurance, and may we let this blessed assurance control.5

Notes:

  1. D&C 19:18; D&C 122:7-8; Heb. 5:8
  2. Isa. 48:10 (1 Ne. 20:10).
  3. Alma 7:11-12.
  4. John 15:13.
  5. Hymn: “It is Well With My Soul”