At times, I am completely overwhelmed by all the pain of everyone.
It seems of late that the earth is completely overrun with floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, wars, mental illnesses, deaths, shootings, rapes, addictions, divorces, diseases, loneliness, infertility, job loss...
You know. I know. At times the suffering is suffocating.
As I've been wrestling with the tears and heartache of my own life and others' (both of strangers and lifelong friends alike), I've pleaded with God to understand why these things happen.
Of late, three quiet but reassuring thoughts come to mind.
#1--These things help us grow. See D&C 122 for more details on that one.
#2--That's what moms are for, that's what they help with. Whether that be our mothers or other women who nurture us, just as this video portrays--to every woman who nurtures out there, you are not JUST a mom. You heal the heartaches of life. Remember that.
I know that to be true. I believe that in some cases we have spirits--friends and family that have passed on--that are angels to us. However, I also know that living breathing people around us are also angels. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said,
As I suffered the cruel words and painful exclusion of my 3rd grade peers, I had cousins and little brothers to play with at home who told me they loved me. We played Lincoln Logs and Legos and Barbies and Beanie Babies and Freeze Tag together. I had no place at school. I had a beautiful place at home.
As I broke down into tears at the dinner table after my first, terrifying day of 7th grade at a new Junior High, my Dad had his arm wrapped around me and cried with me.
At the respective funerals of three high school friends, when emotion choked my ability to talk, the parents of my passed-on peers gathered me in their arms and thanked me for being their child's friend. In their extremity, they comforted me.
When my jaw throbbed from a particularly rough wisdom teeth removal, my mom rubbed my back at 2am when I couldn't sleep due to the pain.
In a foreign land dealing with an emotionally abusive companion, a different sister we lived with left me kind notes on my pillow and hugged me when she could tell I was broken inside. I felt the Savior fill me with his love for my companion and I felt peace amidst the pain.
While I fought for my baby's life and afterward fought for mine, my tender husband was by my side praying for me all the while, holding the only part of me there was room enough for him to hold--my head. The compassionate doctors and nurses that surrounded me that morning had a heavenly glow.
I still don't fully understand why we have to go through such INTENSE and at times FREQUENT pain. But I do know that God loves us, and I do know that he helps us grow, sends us Moms, and sends us other angels to carry us through it.
I now that to be true. I love my father in Heaven, and I love his son, Jesus. And I'm ever grateful for their Angels.
P.S. To learn more about how angels bless us and how to be angels to others, check out this incredible article by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.
It seems of late that the earth is completely overrun with floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, wars, mental illnesses, deaths, shootings, rapes, addictions, divorces, diseases, loneliness, infertility, job loss...
You know. I know. At times the suffering is suffocating.
As I've been wrestling with the tears and heartache of my own life and others' (both of strangers and lifelong friends alike), I've pleaded with God to understand why these things happen.
Of late, three quiet but reassuring thoughts come to mind.
#1--These things help us grow. See D&C 122 for more details on that one.
#2--That's what moms are for, that's what they help with. Whether that be our mothers or other women who nurture us, just as this video portrays--to every woman who nurtures out there, you are not JUST a mom. You heal the heartaches of life. Remember that.
#3--God sends angels to buoy us up during our moments of personal Gethsemane. This thought has entered my mind persistently in past weeks. It's not just a nice thought, He has promised it! In Doctrine & Covenants 84:88 we are told, "...I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."
“When we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.”
As I reflect on all the hellish moments of my own life, Satan tries to blind my mind to the people that helped me through it and sends my psyche into a panicked whirlwind of remembering my most intense and crippling pain. However, when I fight him, I remember all the angels God sent me during that suffering.
As I suffered the cruel words and painful exclusion of my 3rd grade peers, I had cousins and little brothers to play with at home who told me they loved me. We played Lincoln Logs and Legos and Barbies and Beanie Babies and Freeze Tag together. I had no place at school. I had a beautiful place at home.
As I broke down into tears at the dinner table after my first, terrifying day of 7th grade at a new Junior High, my Dad had his arm wrapped around me and cried with me.
At the respective funerals of three high school friends, when emotion choked my ability to talk, the parents of my passed-on peers gathered me in their arms and thanked me for being their child's friend. In their extremity, they comforted me.
When my jaw throbbed from a particularly rough wisdom teeth removal, my mom rubbed my back at 2am when I couldn't sleep due to the pain.
In a foreign land dealing with an emotionally abusive companion, a different sister we lived with left me kind notes on my pillow and hugged me when she could tell I was broken inside. I felt the Savior fill me with his love for my companion and I felt peace amidst the pain.
While I fought for my baby's life and afterward fought for mine, my tender husband was by my side praying for me all the while, holding the only part of me there was room enough for him to hold--my head. The compassionate doctors and nurses that surrounded me that morning had a heavenly glow.
I still don't fully understand why we have to go through such INTENSE and at times FREQUENT pain. But I do know that God loves us, and I do know that he helps us grow, sends us Moms, and sends us other angels to carry us through it.
I now that to be true. I love my father in Heaven, and I love his son, Jesus. And I'm ever grateful for their Angels.
P.S. To learn more about how angels bless us and how to be angels to others, check out this incredible article by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.
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