The following is excerpted from Third Hour. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.

Before the Earth was created, there was an organizer and a plan:

And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;

And we will prove them herewith [the nature of earth life], to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:24-25, Pearl of Great Price).

The earth was created as a proving ground and soon enough a plan was set into motion where ultimately, Eve and Adam would choose the path of knowledge and partake of its fruit.  This path includes suffering.   So when God cursed the ground, prior to the imminent eviction of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, we can also take Him at His word.  Of course, this impacts all of us as children of this courageous couple.  Add an irate and jealous adversary along with his followers into the mix—quite literally Hell-bent on thwarting the happiness of these “newly not innocent people”—and the difficulty of mortality increases exponentially.  What could possibly go wrong?

Unjust Suffering

Needless to say, suffering will be inevitable.  There are so many moving parts in the cycle of living.  In his most recent General Conference Address delivered in October 2020, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland acknowledged the degree of difficulty earth life poses and put our most heartfelt questions into words:

How long do we wait for relief from hardships that come upon us? What about enduring personal trials while we wait and wait, and help seems so slow in coming? Why the delay when burdens seem more than we can bear?

No sooner did Elder Holland begin his address than he took us immediately to the exhausting trial of Joseph Smith and his faithful brethren in the bitter Missouri winter of 1838 at Liberty Jail.  The new church was only 8 years old and was growing uncomfortably fast for any state or county the Saints relocated to.  Northwest Missouri was no exception.  There was a great deal at stake on both sides, particularly in 1838.  

To read the full article, CLICK HERE.