One of my favorite sentences from your article is: "Today may bring challenges to our faith and we forget the truths that we have always known that have comforted us when we’ve needed it." Ah, how I felt the power of that statement! Today, I gratefully and humbly wrote three experiences in my little book I was given at a Relief Society meeting years ago - "Have I Seen God's Hand in My Life Today?" Tomorrow, I might not even remember I have such a book. How fickle and entitled I often feel. I see it in others too. We are not yet as Job - or Joseph Smith for that matter. There are always answers. Always. And, I have found, those answers are always wiser and more profound and deeper and wider than I could have imagined - if I but see and listen through faithful eyes and ears. I love my Heavenly Father for His Infinite wisdom and for His Infinite patience with me as I learn these lesson so very slowly. Thanks for an inspired message today.
AnnaNovember 19, 2014
So very true. I am presently caring for my sister, who is within weeks of dying from a brain tumor. we know that we cannot demand that God meet our expectations, but are learning to trust His wisdom and timing. Sweet things are coming and will yet come of this experience together as a family.
Marilyn WillisNovember 18, 2014
This was such a thought provoking article. There was a time when I was just 17 that I had to make a life altering decision. I was not a member of the church and was limited in my religious knowledge. But I did believe in God and Jesus Christ and had attended the Lutheran church while growing up. I prayed and tried to find an answer to my prayer by searching through the Bible but I never recognized or heard His answer. It hurt my faith and spirit and I was forced to make the decision on my own. To this day I have been troubled wondering why He abandoned me at a time when I needed Him most. But, your article has given me a different understanding. I thank you so much for this new insight. He answered my prayers but not in the way I expected or was able to recognize until now. Thank you so much.
Uneva RickmanNovember 18, 2014
This is so true. I have also learned that sometimes our trials are lengthened for the purpose of testing someone else. For example:
Recently an ex-friend threatened to ruin my reputation by spreading ugly falsehoods about me, if I refused to submit to his immoral demands.
I told him he could use his free agency as he wished, but I would trust God to protect me.
His threats continued, in a variety of ways, over the duration of a year. As the year came to close, the Spirit prompted me to remind him that he had his free agency - but I would trust God to protect me.
Seeing that his threats had all been in vain, and having run out of different angles to shoot from, he viciously made good one of his threats.
God did protect me, hitting him where it hurt the most, in a way I hadn't even conceived. God's intervention stopped this man cold, in his tracks.
A year earlier, when I had first told him I wouldn't buckle, he wasn't ready to respond. God sustained my faith throughout the year, and lightened my burden.
And when my ex-friend was bursting at the seam with frustration and anger, caused by my failure to succumb to his unrighteous demand, Father dealt the justice due him.
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Barrie GilesNovember 19, 2014
One of my favorite sentences from your article is: "Today may bring challenges to our faith and we forget the truths that we have always known that have comforted us when we’ve needed it." Ah, how I felt the power of that statement! Today, I gratefully and humbly wrote three experiences in my little book I was given at a Relief Society meeting years ago - "Have I Seen God's Hand in My Life Today?" Tomorrow, I might not even remember I have such a book. How fickle and entitled I often feel. I see it in others too. We are not yet as Job - or Joseph Smith for that matter. There are always answers. Always. And, I have found, those answers are always wiser and more profound and deeper and wider than I could have imagined - if I but see and listen through faithful eyes and ears. I love my Heavenly Father for His Infinite wisdom and for His Infinite patience with me as I learn these lesson so very slowly. Thanks for an inspired message today.
AnnaNovember 19, 2014
So very true. I am presently caring for my sister, who is within weeks of dying from a brain tumor. we know that we cannot demand that God meet our expectations, but are learning to trust His wisdom and timing. Sweet things are coming and will yet come of this experience together as a family.
Marilyn WillisNovember 18, 2014
This was such a thought provoking article. There was a time when I was just 17 that I had to make a life altering decision. I was not a member of the church and was limited in my religious knowledge. But I did believe in God and Jesus Christ and had attended the Lutheran church while growing up. I prayed and tried to find an answer to my prayer by searching through the Bible but I never recognized or heard His answer. It hurt my faith and spirit and I was forced to make the decision on my own. To this day I have been troubled wondering why He abandoned me at a time when I needed Him most. But, your article has given me a different understanding. I thank you so much for this new insight. He answered my prayers but not in the way I expected or was able to recognize until now. Thank you so much.
Uneva RickmanNovember 18, 2014
This is so true. I have also learned that sometimes our trials are lengthened for the purpose of testing someone else. For example: Recently an ex-friend threatened to ruin my reputation by spreading ugly falsehoods about me, if I refused to submit to his immoral demands. I told him he could use his free agency as he wished, but I would trust God to protect me. His threats continued, in a variety of ways, over the duration of a year. As the year came to close, the Spirit prompted me to remind him that he had his free agency - but I would trust God to protect me. Seeing that his threats had all been in vain, and having run out of different angles to shoot from, he viciously made good one of his threats. God did protect me, hitting him where it hurt the most, in a way I hadn't even conceived. God's intervention stopped this man cold, in his tracks. A year earlier, when I had first told him I wouldn't buckle, he wasn't ready to respond. God sustained my faith throughout the year, and lightened my burden. And when my ex-friend was bursting at the seam with frustration and anger, caused by my failure to succumb to his unrighteous demand, Father dealt the justice due him.
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