Come What May, And Love It

I've been really struggling the past couple of weeks. 

I know that life is full of its ups and downs, but lately I have felt trapped in the "down."  I also know that my life is full of innumerable blessings, but that doesn't mean that life is always roses or that I don't sometimes feel like it's hard to go through another day.  And I think that is ok.  I think it is important for me to recognize and be honest with myself that sometimes life is difficult.  The challenges I face may not be as great as others and perhaps someone else would scoff at my description of "hard," but that doesn't change how I feel.  In reality, even with its own ups and downs, the past year has been, overall, difficult for me.

Today as I was trying to make it through yet another day, I remembered some words from a scripture in 2 Nephi, "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things..."  I was feeling the need for additional comfort and guidance and so I searched for the term "opposition in all things."  I found a talk that Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin gave in October 2008 General Conference entitled, "Come What May, And Love It."

Elder Wirtlin tells of his love for football as a young man and the despair he would feel after a tough game.  After listening, the advice his mother gave was, "Joseph, come what may, and love it."  Elder Wirthlin expands on this by saying, "I think she may have meant that every life has peaks and shadows and times when it seems that the birds don’t sing and bells don’t ring. Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result."

Elder Wirthlin adds, "How can we love days that are filled with sorrow? We can’t—at least not in the moment. I don’t think my mother was suggesting that we suppress discouragement or deny the reality of pain. I don’t think she was suggesting that we smother unpleasant truths beneath a cloak of pretended happiness. But I do believe that the way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life.  If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness."

A few months ago, I listened to a CES Fireside by Elder M. Russell Ballard in which he quoted a poem entitled "The Oak Tree" by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr. 

"... A mighty wind blew night and day, it stole the oak tree's leaves away,
then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark, until the oak was tired and stark.
But still the oak tree held its ground, while other trees fell all around.
The weary wind gave up and spoke. "How can you still be standing Oak?"
The oak tree said, "I know that you, can break each branch of mine in two.
Carry every leaf away, shake my limbs, and make me sway.

But I have roots stretched in the earth, growing stronger since my birth.

You'll never touch them for you see, they are the deepest part of me.

Until today I wasn't sure, of just how much I could endure.

But now I've found with thanks to you, I'm stronger than I ever knew."


If there is one thing I feel that I have learned, and yet continue to learn, it is that the times in my life that are the most difficult tend to produce the greatest potential for growth.  When I finally come to recognize that most things in life are truly out of my control (other than my own reaction) and that in the end there is only ONE place to turn for Peace, I'm knocked to my knees and my prayers become more fervent than they were before, my heart is more receptive, and because I am humble once again, my understanding and my testimony grows. 

Elder Wirthlin adds, "Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training. These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others."

I would like to add, "if we choose to let them."

We all go through trials and tough times while here on the earth. But we must CHOOSE to learn and grow as a result of our difficulties.  And we can't just choose once because difficulties will continue to come and sometimes they feel increasingly more difficult. 

In saying that, I don't mean to be depressing.  Luckily, there is an "opposition in all things."  Life is full of joyful moments and we know that "men are that they might have joy."

In a BYU devotional entitled "Tragedy or Destiny," Spencer W. Kimball (then a member of the quorum of the 12) taught:
“We know so little. Our judgment is so limited. We judge the Lord often with less wisdom than does our youngest child weigh our decisions. … God controls our lives, guides and blesses us, but gives us our agency. We may live our lives in accordance with His plan for us or we may foolishly shorten or terminate them. I am positive in my mind that the Lord has planned our destiny. ... Sometime we’ll understand fully, and when we see back from the vantage point of the future we shall be satisfied with many of the happenings of this life which seem so difficult for us to comprehend.”

I'm so grateful for the knowledge that God is in control.  I'm so grateful for the knowledge that I have a loving Heavenly Father and that, out of love, He sent His Son, our Saviour and Redeemer, to provide a way back to Him.  In all of the temporary trials we experience along our sojourn here on earth, I'm grateful for the understanding that "all things work together for good to them that love God." (Romans 8:28). I have already seen the Lord's hand in my life on so many countless occasions and I know that He is in the details. 

So, "Come what may, and love it."