Born to Bear Affliction

 “Afflictions are the process by which God cultivates growth.  Rather than dread our difficulties, we can learn to welcome them.  We can learn to see them as blessings from heaven.”       -H. Wallace Goddard, PhD

It has been said that marriage is God’s finishing school.  If that is truly the case, can we not expect to float through it without any storms.  In fact, we should expect more storms to rage during that journey than any other. Those storms may come as husband and wife.  They may come in the form of addiction, infertility, illness, death or children.  There is a multitude of ways that adversity will come and when it does, the best choice we can make is to wait it out, rather than abandoning ship.

            Imagine being stuck in the middle of the ocean in a storm.  No one in their right mind would choose to abandon themselves to the ferocity of the ocean in an attempt to swim ashore.  Why do we consider it reasonable to do the same in our marriages?  We must cling to each other and wait out the storms.

            According to Dr. Goddard, we must put of the natural man and determine to love as perfectly as the natural man can.  John Taylor quoted Joseph Smith as saying:

You will have all kinds of trials to pass through.  And it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Kingdom of God.

            We must be willing to sacrifice our will for that of the Father.  Goddard says that:

·        The full experience of marriage must demand regular payments across time.

·        God knows what we obtain too easily we esteem too lightly.

·        As we progress in marriage we gain ennobled character as well as eternal companionship.

·        Each of us should pray earnestly for heavenly help to make those sacrifices that will sanctify our relationships.

I’m grateful for the times when I've had someone to help me weather the storms of life.  I'm grateful for the refining that has come through the storms and the blessings that have come through my adversity.  Weathering the storms helps me to appreciate the moments of calm.