Soo I was overhearing a conversation the other day.. I do that pretty often cuz no one talks to me.. but I think the ladies are just intimidated to speak with someone with such ridiculously good looks as I possess.. pour souls.. anyways, they were discussing the homework assignment we had been given. The one girl thought we had class that night and as a result would only have one day in which to complete all of the reading. The other girl corrected her, told her class was day after and that she had two days. She was soo happy! She had an extra day! I'd groaned earlier that same day about ONLY having two days in which to read all the material. Yup. Guess who felt like a whiner-baby? That's right, the ridiculously good-looking DC intern right here..
So life gets tough sometimes! Sometimes REALLY tough! How are we supposed to keep a smile on when life is throwing all these trials right in the da-gum face!? Elder D. Todd Christofferson's most recent General Conference address entitled: "As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten" is an awesome talk. It's all about the importance of thought re-framing. Trials test and try us. They stretch us. They can make us better if we let them. He also shares this super duper good story! It's a long one.. but awesome:
God uses another form of chastening or correction to guide us to a future we do not or cannot now envision but which He knows is the better way for us. President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personal experience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say:
“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”
President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”
Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty, President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for the promotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but I cannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in that moment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered:
“I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, ‘How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?’ I was as bitter as gall.
“And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, ‘I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.’ The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness. …
“… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’”
God knew what Hugh B. Brown was to become and what was needed for that to happen, and He redirected his course to prepare him for the holy apostleship."
It's vitally important that we allow the Lord to mold us into what He wants us to become, to be patient in our afflictions, realizing that we will simply draw closer to the Lord through them and become better as a result.
So now I gotta try and be happy about being able to do homework.. haha geez what a rough trial! Okay bad example but still, it's what sparked the thought..
It's interesting what listening and daily study of the Gospel can do..
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