Not often do I hunt quotes down from people that have given a great talk in Sacrament meeting, but this past week, I really wanted a copy of a quote I heard by Spencer W. Kimball read in such a talk. I thanked the speaker in my ward for peaking my interest in the lives of Book of Mormon characters by her great talk on Teancum in the Book of Mormon.
But, it was the following quote that I wanted to re-read and think about:
“Now, we find many people critical when a righteous person is killed, a young father or mother is taken from a family, or when violent deaths occur. Some become bitter when oft-repeated prayers seem unanswered. Some lose faith and turn sour when solemn administrations by holy men seem to be ignored and no restoration seems to come from repeated prayer circles. But if all the sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the Gospel, free agency, would be ended.
“If pain and sorrow and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil — all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, no controls.
“Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death; and if these were not, there would also be an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life, and godhood. (“Tragedy or Destiny,” Improvement Era, March 1966, pp. 180, 210 as taken from Daniel Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, p. 206)
The quote is really in reference to the final judgment of God, but in my mind it has great application to our day to day lives. There have been so many times I have heard people reject the notion that there is a God because, “why would he allow horrible things to happen to people?” And, yet, maybe we as latter-day saints may also question God’s doings when we try to live our lives righteously and bad things continue to happen to us.
This quote opened my eyes to the reasons why the Lord does what He does, and allows what He allows. It is easy to get discouraged in life when the bad sometimes keeps on coming. We cannot understand it, especially when we are trying to do good, and be good. I often look at my own life and complain about the bad things that happen. Of course, we don’t generally like them in the moment, but looking back, we can be grateful for those trials. God is trying to refine us. Make us stronger. Help us reach our full potential. Give us an opportunity to grow.
And the evil ones? Yes, they get to do bad things because God gave them their agency just like we have ours. No, it doesn’t seem fair. But, it is the plan. The plan that God created so that this life would be about learning, growth, and trying to become more like Him. The Almighty Creator who is Perfect. So, next time you have a bad week, or life just doesn’t seem fair. Remember, that maybe life is so perfectly fair to us all, because we all get our free agency to choose who we want to be, and what we want to do, that through our own mortal eyes it doesn’t look that fair, but in God’s eyes, He is perfectly fair and just to all men.
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