Additional Thoughts

I've been meaning to talk about a few things for a while and I hope I get them straight. First thing is that several weeks ago our stake president came to our fast and testimony meeting and bore his testimony at the end. It was simple and I was out in the hall with puky Kate the whole time, but what he said really stuck with me. It was snowing again, even though it was the last Sunday of March, and he talked about how when it's winter time, or snowing again, you feel like it always has been winter and will never end. You can hardly remember warm weather, the sun, what it's like in the summer. But when it's summer, you completely forget winter and feel like the nice weather will never end. He talked about how it's the same in our lives, that when we're in our trials we can hardly remember what life was like when it was smoother, and when life is good, we can hardly remember being in the middle of our trials. Then he said that the God of summer is the God of winter, and all things, if we are faithful, will be for our good. Sometimes I wonder how to remember that idea in my heart when I feel discouraged or weary.
General Conference was wonderful. I felt like, especially President Eyring's talk, Elder Holland's, and a few others that I'm mixing up now, really pounded the point that this life is not easy. It's not meant to be easy, and going through trials that seem unfair, undeserved, and impossible are part of this journey. We are here to be tried and how can we grow if we're never faced with adversity? Adversity is not a reason to lose faith, even though we may feel forgotten by the Lord in the middle of our trials. I think going on with hope and not despair is a way of exercising faith. I guess it's like my physical therapy I do for my knees. If I do the little exercises I'm supposed to each day, my knees are strong enough to handle the normal physical stresses they're under. But if I get lazy with my PT, they begin to hurt and ache with the slightest stress. It's the same with the spiritual and faith muscles. If I do those small daily exercises of prayer, scriptures, and being of good cheer, I'm strengthened enough through the Lord to handle the difficult days. Hard days still come so I can grow, but I don't have to break under them.