Mormon Musings

“There are no times in life when opportunity, the chance to be and to do, gathers so richly about a soul as when it has to suffer.  Then everything depends on whether the man turns to the lower or the higher helps.  If he resorts to mere expedients and tricks, the opportunity is lost.  He comes out no richer nor greater; nay, he comes out harder, poorer, smaller for his pain.  But, if he turns to God, the hour of suffering is the turning hour of his life.” -Phillip Brooks

"It is crucial to remember that we are living—and chose to live—in a fallen world where for divine purposes our pursuit of godliness will be tested and tried again and again. Of greatest assurance in God’s plan is that a Savior was promised, a Redeemer, who through our faith in Him would lift us triumphantly over those tests and trials, even though the cost to do so would be unfathomable for both the Father who sent Him and the Son who came. It is only an appreciation of this divine love that will make our own lesser suffering first bearable, then understandable, and finally redemptive." —Jeffrey R. Holland, " Like a Broken Vessel "

“The repenting sinner must suffer for his sins, but this suffering has a different purpose than punishment or payment. Its purpose is  change. ”  Elder Dallin H. Oaks ( The Lord’s Way  [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1991], 223; emphasis in original).

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us. -Voltaire