Some thoughts on trials

I taught a lesson to the girls in our neighborhood ward at church yesterday on overcoming adversity.  I learned a lot as I usually do when I prepare a lesson.  Here are some of my favorite parts from the lesson found HERE.

When some people face adversity, they complain and become bitter.
They ask questions like,
“Why does this have to happen to me? Why do
I have to suffer this now? What have I done to deserve this?”
But these questions have the power to dominate their
thoughts. Such questions can overtake their vision, absorb
their energy, and deprive them of the experiences the Lord
wants them to receive. Rather than responding in this way,
consider asking questions such as,
“What am I to do? What am I to learn from this
experience? What am I to change? Whom am I to help? How
can I remember my many blessings in times of trial?”
Different kinds of adversity require different responses.

When you trust in the Father and the Son, you are confident
that They love you perfectly—that They want you to be
happy and that They will help you grow spiritually. You keep
the commandments. You seek to know Their will, and you do
what They require even when you desire something else.
Your prayers for relief are accompanied by the understanding
that Heavenly Father will not resolve all matters immediately—
that He may allow you to wait so you can continue
to learn and grow. Through it all, you find comfort in the
assurance that the Savior understands your trials perfectly.
As part of His infinite Atonement, He took upon Himself
“the pains and the sicknesses of his people.” He took upon
Himself “their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with
mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to
the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities”
(Alma 7:11–12). Because He has experienced your pain,
He knows how to help you. If you look to Him in faith, He
will strengthen you to withstand any trial you experience. 
“Adversity,” True to the Faith (2004), 8–11

The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, “No one understands. No one knows.” No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying upon only our own power. David A. Bednar, “The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality,” Ensign, Apr. 2012, 40–47

I'm grateful for the knowledge that I have that I am not alone, that God hears and answers my prayers, that the Savior understands my trials and pain and that through Him I can be comforted with peace and assurance that all is well, come what may.  It's like putting a warm, soft blanket around my shoulders when I feel cold, or alone, or anxious, or afraid.  The comfort I feel from the love of the Savior is like wrapping up in a warm blanket on a cold night.  I'm like a rough stone rolling that needs the refining process of adversity to become all that He would want me to become.   It's a process and I have a long way to go, but I understand the goal and I'm working to submit my will to His.