Sacrament Meeting Talk

{Quote}  We pray for blessing.  We pray for peace.  Comfort for family.  Protection while we sleep.  We pray for healing, for prosperity.  We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering.  And all the while, You hear each spoken need, yet love us way too much to give us lesser things. What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life, is a revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy.  ‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops, what if Your healing comes through tears?  And what if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near?  What if trails of this life are Your mercies in disguise? {Quote}

The topic I have been give is, “Finding the Silver Lining in Adversity.”  Silver Lining is a metaphor for optimism in the common English Language.  However, I don’t see it as “optimism,” as much as I see it as a firm faith in my Heavenly Father, and his love for me.  Although some of the responses to adversity will vary, one response should be constant—trust in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Each person’s success and happiness, both now and in the eternities, depend largely on his or her responses to the difficulties of life.

Long ago, the prophet Alma taught, “Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.”  And now, in our day, in a talk given in 2009, Elder Henry B. Eyering said: 

{Quote}The very opportunity for us to face adversity and affliction is part of the evidence of Their infinite love. God gave us the gift of living in mortality so that we could be prepared to receive the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is eternal life.  It is clear that for us to have that gift and to be given that trust, we must be transformed through making righteous choices where that is hard to do. We are prepared for so great a trust by passing through trying and testing experiences in mortality.

In this education we experience misery and happiness, sickness and health, the sadness from sin and the joy of forgiveness. That forgiveness can come only through the infinite Atonement of the Savior, which He worked out through pain we could not bear and which we can only faintly comprehend.

And the disciple who accepts a trial as an invitation to grow and therefore qualify for eternal life can find peace in the midst of the struggle. {Quote}

I am here to testify that I know that to be true.  If we have faith and accept our trials with the attitude of, “Here am I, send me” we can find peace in the midst of the struggles that our Heavenly Father has prepared to purify and perfect us. 

I would like to share two personal experiences; one during a significant trial, and one during a time of great happiness and peace.  I pray that my words may be helpful and give you encouragement.

On January 31, 2014, our family blog became more than just a way for our parents to know their grandchildren living states away, or even a journal for my own grandchildren to know us.  It became the central hub to quickly get any and all information about Caden to those that wanted to know.  In a previous post I’d written, I told of a story of going to the amusement park, Lagoon, with a best friend/cousin, comparing our cancer diagnosis and prognosis to that of a roller coaster. On April 23, 2014 I wrote:
{Here}
When I got the call from Brother Hammond, we were actually on vacation on the Oregon Coast.  We had heard many great things about the glass blowing that can be found there, so we decided to check it out for ourselves.  Little did we know, it would end up being one of the funner activities that we did.  When we got to the shop, there was a family taking classes, making beautiful glass-blown bowls.  Wanting for our kids to have the experience, and eager to try for ourselves, as well, we signed up for a class that we could all participate in.  We would make two paperweights, each with three flowers the colors of our choosing.  The kids each chose their favorite color, the placement of the three colors determining who went first.  Randy, Caden, Shelby, and Tyson went first, while Keilie and Brennon waited in the viewing area.  I got to play photographer. Our instructor (called a Gaffer) was Chris, a college student that has been blowing glass since he was 14 years old.  His job was to tell us how things needed to be done, with very little assistance other than promptings and encouragement.  Occasionally he would take over, shaping our product as only a professional knows how, but for the most part, it was all us.

He first pulled some molten glass from the oven, all the while twisting it on the stake to keep it as center as possible.  Immediately he handed the stake to Randy, telling him that he wanted him to practice for just a second before walking it across the room to the Glory Hole— a large open oven that glowed red-hot— never stopping the twisting motion.  Once Randy was certain that he had a handle on the twisting, he walked over, and with the guidance of our Gaffer, he proceeded to twist the molten glass in the fire.  A few words were spoken by Chris, instructing him here or there, but for the most part, Randy was in control of the project.  Once ready, Chris had Randy bring the stake over to the table where our kids had laid out their colored glass for their flower.  He had him drop the molten glass onto each circle of color, all the while making sure that he did it quick enough to keep it from cooling too much, or falling off of the stake.  Again, he had Randy take it to the fire.  Each time the glass was placed in the fire, it took on a red-hot hue.  After a few minutes, he had Randy take it out, bringing it to a special table that had the Master’s tools placed just-so, all-the-while twisting and moving it to keep it on center. 

A poker was used by each child to poke the center of their colored glass, to make the stem of the flower.  Later, Randy used needle-nosed pliers to twist and open each “stem,” circling the colors around for a prettier look. 

At this stage, our creation was cooled enough to collect the rest of our glass, the clear outer surface that would enclose and enhance our flowers.  He placed our small ball of cooled color directly into the molten glass chamber, circling and collecting the right amount needed to finish our project.  Again, Randy was put in charge of spinning, making sure our liquid, taffy-like glass stayed as close to the center of the stake as possible.  He had Randy bring the stake back to his tools table, where he took over for just a moment to show Randy what needed to be done.  A wooden rounding bowl was used to help shape it into a more round ball.  With all that is going through your head as you twist and twist, never having done it, not knowing if you are doing it right, wanting it to turn out perfect, I can understand how Randy didn’t hear him say he needed to be gentle.  Randy took that bowl in his hands, and like everything he does, he attacked it with a determined, perfectionist’s hand.  After a moment, Chris took over, saying that there might be some imperfections to the glass because of Randy’s determined fervor. 

After the final preparations were complete, Chris took our globe to the furnace where it would be kept severely hot for 14 hours, cooling as time drew to it’s end.  We had to wait until the next day, anticipating our final product, hoping it would be as beautiful as we had imagined.  And, oh what joy and happiness we felt when we got to see and hold our creations!

Our lives are like this glass.  A Master Gaffer, like our loving Heavenly Father, hands us our stake, knowing full well that we have never done such a thing and that we would be scared, yet excited to try.  There is no time to stop, there is no time to truly practice, there is no time to second-guess our efforts, you just start twisting and go. 

Trials are like the fire that turns the glass red-hot, or like the tools that shape the globe.  Even while directly in the fire, you must not stop twisting—in fact, that is when you need to twist with the most purpose.   And through it all, our Gaffer knew the exact moment to tell us when to take it out of the fire, he knew when the fire was too much for the glass.  He knew when it was time to be shaped just a little more perfectly.  The refiner’s fire is not a comfortable place to be. It involves intense heat and repeated shaping. But it is in the refiner’s fire we are purified and prepared to meet God.  Sometimes, we as fallible human beings, try to mold our trials with a little too much fervor.  We think that we know best how to shape them.  In those times, our loving Heavenly Father, like the Gaffer, takes our hands, guiding us in a gentle correction, all the while knowing the potential outcome of the work of art.  And just like in our globe, it’s the imperfections that give character, personality, and life to the masterpiece. 

Chris’s job was not to do it for us, but to help us make it.  We didn’t want to watch, we wanted to learn. And just like the poker and pliers that molded the flowers inside, so too can our trials mold us.  Our very centers can be pierced with the Spirit, while our lives can take on a shape of the Master’s choosing, if we only have faith to trust.  Elder Quentin L Cook has said: “The refiner’s fire is real, and qualities of character and righteousness are forged in the furnace of affliction pur-fect and purify us and prepare us to meet God.”

In a 2007 General Conference talk by Henry B. Eyring, he spoke of an experience he had where the Spirit prompted him to write an experience down.  He states, {Quote} “Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?”  As I kept at it, something began to happen.  As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized the busy moments of the day.  As that happened, and happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done. 

More than gratitude began to grow in my heart.  Testimony grew.  I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers.  I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ.  And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance— even though that we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened.” {Quote}

“Finding the Silver Lining” or “Looking for the Hand of the Lord” does not mean that the trials aren’t as hard as others, or that there is no pain involved, or even that they hurt less than the trials of those that do not see them as a part of Heavenly Father’s plan.  It doesn’t stop the depression or anxiety, no matter how much you wish you could “change your mind.”  But looking at our trials in another way, seeing them through Heavenly Eyes, knowing that ‘He gives nothing unto the children of men, save he should prepare a way for them to accomplish them,’ helps us recognize that the Lord has not left us alone in our trials.  It is a reminder that He is mindful of us, He loves us, and He wants to bless us.

{Bear Testimony}