| “Finding Joy in Life,” Ensign, May 1996, p. 24
LDS Quotes on Trials
| “Finding Joy in Life,” Ensign, May 1996, p. 24
“Many years ago this conference heard of a young man who found the restored gospel while he was studying in the United States. As this man was about to return to his native land, President Gordon B. Hinckley asked him what would happen to him when he returned home as a Christian. “My family will be disappointed,” the young man answered. “They may cast me out and regard me as dead. As for my future and my career, all opportunity may be foreclosed against me.”
“Are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel?” President Hinckley asked.
Tearfully the young man answered, “It’s true, isn’t it?” When that was affirmed, he replied, “Then what else matters?” That is the spirit of sacrifice among many of our new members.”
| “Sacrifice”
“There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless.”
| The Refiner's Fire, Ensign, May 1979, 53
“Life is full of difficulties. Some are minor and others are major. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.”
“The Lord will shape the back to bear the burdens placed upon it.”
“Adversity should not be viewed as either disfavor from the Lord or a withdrawal of His blessings. Opposition in all things is part of the refiner’s fire to prepare us for an eternal celestial destiny.”
“If God deprives His children of any present blessing, it is so that He may bestow upon them a greater and more glorious one by and by.”
When personal difficulty, doubt, or discouragement darken our path, or when world conditions beyond our control lead us to wonder about the future, the spiritually defining memories from our book of life are like luminous stones that help brighten the road ahead, assuring us that God knows us, loves us and has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to help us return home.
| Spiritually Defining Memories
“Being human, we would expel from our lives sorrow, distress, physical pain, and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort. But if we closed the doors upon such, we might be evicting our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery. The sufferings of our Savior were part of his education.”
| The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball (1982), 168