Sunday, December 08, 2013

5 God

We are here on earth and it is up to us to seek God and to form a relationship with Him. That's a big responsibility especially for one who might question the existence of God in the first place. Albert Einstein said, "There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle." We are all given gifts. I believe one of my spiritual gifts is to see God's hand in so many things and to have a relationship with my Heavenly Father and I must admit, it's always come easily for me. I know of His existence and I am sure of his love for me, and all his sons and daughters. It's just something I've always known.

But how can He let bad things happen to good people? In the past, this has seemed like a silly question.  Bad things are apart of life. But on the other hand, we have an all powerful God who can save us from the horrible trials that a mortal life brings! I've really been pondering this and my testimony grew stronger when the spirit answered my question one morning.

(When I talk, "you" is really the feelings I was given, so "you" is "me")
We all go through trials. Some people do go through harder trials than others, but, everyone will go through trials in their life and maybe their life looks easy and perfect now, but who's to say that years down the road they hit a trial that you can't even imagine and it's harder than anything you've been through?

Sometimes I look at people and their hardships and think to myself, "life is not fair for them! How come they have to take so many hard hits?" Well, there's no guarantee I won't carry my own crosses in the future, and in fact, I will. You cannot compare lives in a single moment in time. Everyone will go through hard times. Everyone.

The purpose of our life is to learn and to become better. The only way we can do this is through Christ's greatest law, to love Him and love thy neighbor as thyself. In the end, nothing else matters. All commandments fall under these categories.

So why do other people go through trials and why does God not intervene and save them? Because it's OUR responsibility. We would never learn to be like Him if we didn't have the opportunity.

And why do we go through hard trials and why does God not intervene and save us? Because it's OUR NEIGHBOR'S responsibility. So we can learn to feel God's love through others and so they get the opportunity to serve, and learn and to grow. And on top of that, we will learn things that will touch the life of someone else down the road. When you watch someone suffer and go through something you've been through, your heart aches even more. Your only desire is to help save them from the pain. In the tiniest degree, you feel what the Savior felt when He suffered for us all.

Can you imagine if we only focused on our own little world, our own little family and missed important opportunities to serve others? Can you imagine what life would be like if God came in and saved us from every challenge we faced? If our lives didn't have a bump or a scratch and neither did anyone else's in the world? We would be a bunch of robots that left the world the exact same way we came in.

I hate to resurface something that was so horrible, but the mom of one of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting said some things in this video that really struck me. Grab the biggest box of tissues you can find. As awful as this story is, I love seeing the outpouring of love and how others jumped in to action. God has given us the gifts of knowledge and because we are human, he has given us the gifts of love and empathy. We are expected to use them.

5 comments:

  1. Oh Danielle, THANK YOU for sharing this! You are a beautiful writer, and these words ring so so true. It's just the perfect reminder, especially for this time of year and I really needed this. I wish I lived in AZ so we could be friends, you are seriously dynamite.

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    1. Brooke, agreed! Love reading about your fun life!! Thanks for the sweet note :)

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  2. One box of tissues was not enough!!!! I really hesitated pressing 'play' because this hurt is almost unbearable! What a beautiful testimony from you and a perfect and applicable story about that sweet baby girl! The family has really gotten that important witness and that is a WONDERFUL thing to help them through the years of pain that will still be there but are somehow softened through their Savior's love for them!

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    1. I did the same thing! I didn't watch it for two days because I was nervous it would break my heart but this mom has been touched. Loved her words and glad she's sharing her pain with others to help them see God!

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  3. This is so beautiful. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing. I'm so so glad you did.

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