Why Trials?

Last night we had a program at the church that welcomes new 12 year olds into our young women organization. It's called New Beginnings. Anyway, we had a guest speaker, Brenda, who did an amazing job and I wanted to share a part of her message. She talked about when she was 12, she sat down with her bishop (happened to be her father at the time) and they discussed what she wanted to accomplish in the future. She wanted to go to college, get married, and have an eternal family. So, together, they wrote all these goals down on paper.

Well, when she was 14 years old, her parents got into a horrific accident. Her dad died in the hospital 6 weeks later and her mother was burned beyond recognition. The family(mom and six children) grew very close and really learned to love and depend on each other. Well, when Brenda was a senior in high school, she went on a date with a man who had just returned from an LDS mission. While driving to their date, she looked over at him, and got two distinct impressions.... First, this was going to be her husband one day, and second, she would not have him for very long, so she needed to take advantage of the time she had with him. Well, to make a long story, short, she married the man after high school, she finished college while having two babies, and sixteen years later, her husband died in a helicopter accident.

She concluded her story by telling us that she thinks that maybe we could have sat down with our Father in Heaven before we came to Earth and talked about what we wanted to accomplish, and who we wanted to be when we returned. She said, "I think he told me that I would have to lose my father and husband, and go through these trials, to make me be the person that I wanted to be. I said sign me up." She went on to say that she would not trade her trials with anybody else's trials because they have made her the person she is today. I really believe what she said. We each have our own set of trials and they will make us grow as individuals.