My favorite part of the visiting teaching message were these lines...
"You were taught and prepared for the
circumstances you would personally encounter in mortality."
circumstances you would personally encounter in mortality."
When I read that line I caught my breath and went back and read it again, and again, and again. What could be more comforting than this? Seriously? If you really think about those words in the context of your personal struggles, you can see the Lord's hand guiding to you to people and events that have helped you along the way. We are not given more than we can handle, even if it feels like it sometimes.
It is hugely comforting to me know that I lived before I came to Earth, and that my life here is not an accident. My life has a purpose. I was sent to my family for a reason and have a mission to accomplish during my life. It's a struggle to figure out what that mission is, but as I do the things the Lord has asked me to do I am becoming the person He'd like me to be, and that's better than anything I can become on my own.
"If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be a calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective."
--Spencer W. Kimball
--Spencer W. Kimball
It is hugely comforting to me know that I lived before I came to Earth, and that my life here is not an accident. My life has a purpose. I was sent to my family for a reason and have a mission to accomplish during my life. It's a struggle to figure out what that mission is, but as I do the things the Lord has asked me to do I am becoming the person He'd like me to be, and that's better than anything I can become on my own.
**What do you think?
Do you find this comforting?**
Do you find this comforting?**
20 comments:
Yes, I find this HUGELY comforting! And also very empowering. I love, too, the implications that we lived with and learned from the Lord.
Thank you for sending this message our way; it's something I especially needed to hear right now.
That was also my favorite line of the message...and something I didn't know before. It kind of puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?
There is so much comfort for me in knowing that we lived with our Father in Heaven before we came to this mortal existence... and that he prepared us for this life. That seems to be a concept other Christians have a hard time with. To me it just makes so much sense and it helps to understand our purpose here. Simple truths of the gospel...
This truth is what keeps me going day after day after day.
Ah yes, isn't this exactly the "good news" of the Gospel--that Heavenly Father knows us, loves and has a plan for us. A remarkable truth indeed.
A lovely post ;)Glad I read this today!
What comforting words! Thank you for your insight and inspiration!
last month i didn't show up to pick up my 74 year old partner for VT - oh my talk about a total flake, girls camp really threw me for a loop, so thanks for catching me up to speed with this lesson.
i am in awe when i think i was prepared for this life - i am not sure if i really know what that means, i mean i know what it means, but what does it really mean. did i go to special prepare for difficult relationship classes, was i listening or did i skip class like i did in college - is that why some people seem to handle things better than me... it is so amazing and this is where my faith comes in, i don't understand it all but just know it is true.
thanks jill, great job today on your sunday thoughts.
Comforting? Yes... helpful at every moment? Not so much. I get the whole perspective thing but sometimes I just need to wallow in it all... good thing there is so much more than those days.
This was one of my favorite lines too. This is very comforting to me. Sometimes looking at the eternal perspective can make all the difference.
I love your Sunday thoughts...thank you so much. It always adds to my Sunday's!!
I loved president Kimball's quote! I had to read it lots of time this month to remind me that my life does have a purpose and the trials that I'm experiencing right now in my life will make me a better person.
Thanks for the reminder!
I absolutely loved last month's message, and those were my favorite lines as well. I never knew before that we were personally prepared for the specific experiences we would encounter in this life. I do find it incredibly comforting, and empowering. And it makes me wonder if this is the reason we often feel like we wouldn't trade trials with someone else...
LOVE Michelle's comment.
yes missy, eventhough I have and continue to feel the struggles.
Yep! Very comforting! Eternal perspective is the only thing that makes me feel sane sometimes. I'd be a much different person if I didn't have a testimony that I have an important purpose.
Helps to keep things into perspective. That is a great quote.
It sure gives me a lot to think about knowing I was taught to deal with the struggles I would face during my earthly life. Perhaps I took the wrong course? In all seriousness, it certainly helps put life in perspective.
It's a fabulous message. I love knowing I actually have a purpose, though it would be nice to know what it was.
All I can say is...I'm REALLY glad you posted this.
These are great thoughts! It is interesting to think that we are all given the right tools to meet what life throws at us and hopefully the confidence to trust that we really do know how to use them. I love Michelle's comment- I have thought about other's struggles and wondered how they were doing so well, and been through my own and had people comment that they can't imagine dealing with them the way I was. Lots to think about.
Jill--it's been a long time since I've visited your blog, but I'm glad I did today. I haven't ever met you, but I have read enough of your posts to feel like we have some things in common. Thanks for this post--I, like you, find great comfort in the fact that I have a purpose I was prepared to do. Maybe now that I live in Utah our paths will cross and we'll have a chance to meet.
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