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the trials are real (Maxwell)

“God knows even now what the future holds for each of us. In one of His revelations these startling words appear, as with so many revelations that are too big, I suppose, for us to manage fully: 'In the presence of God, . . . all things . . . are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord' (D&C 130:7). The future 'you' is before him now.  He knows what it is He wishes to bring to pass in your life.  He knows the kind of remodeling in your life and in mine that He wishes to achieve.  Now, this will require us to believe in that divine design and at times to accept the truth which came to Joseph Smith wherein he was reminded that his suffering would be 'but a small moment' (D&C 121:7).  I’d like to talk to you about some of those small moments that will come your way in life and that come to each of us...we so blithely say in the Church that life is a school, a testing ground.  It is true, even though it is trite.  What we don’t accept are the implications of that true teaching—at least as fully as we should.  One of the implications is that the tests that we face are real.  They are not going to be things we can do with one hand tied behind our backs.  They are real enough that if we meet them we shall know that we have felt them, because we will feel them deeply and keenly and pervasively…”


Neal A. Maxwell, “But For a Small Moment” (BYU Devotional, September 1, 1974)

 Transcript and recording available at:  http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1022&tid=2
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