#TheStruggleisReal

I think the life of a gazelle in the wild can represent life pretty wonderfully. You are born, bright eyed and beaming thinking that nothing could go wrong. You grow and you leap and you play and you run, then you get to the watering hole and BAM! Crocodile attack... whooeee that was a close one, better not go back there! You graze a while and SMACK! There is a lioness hunter chasin your best buddy Steve  and your screaming and yelling "Steve noooo, not Steve, he was too young" and so you go on your merry way and BLAM POW Hyeenas are hot on your tail, and your thinking "man does this ever end."

Let's be honest there is a struggle on every side, you are out with friends on our merry way and BAM someone close to you falls to the whiles of Satan. Then you are in a fight with your brother SMACK you say hurtful words to your brother that need repairing. Then you are go on with life and BLAM POW someone close to you passes away and you are thinking to yourself "man does this ever end?"  Why is it that the struggle is real?

THE STRUGGLE

First off, there is a sort of entitlement that I think we all as humans feel at least once in this life, I don't think there is one person who hasn't thought to themselves "I've done This big thing so I'm extremely entitled to receive this big thing in return" it's a sickness I like to call me-itis, it's a major pandemic that definitely has a cure, but we are the only ones who can choose to cure ourselves of it.

Now I have gone off on a tangent I know but let me bring it back, now if we were given everything, not having to work one day in our life would we ever feel the fulfillment of receiving, or would we believe that it was only something we deserved, and of minor importance. If we never felt the pain of loss, or the struggle of living paycheck to paycheck would we ever be grateful for those things we did have? I don't think so. I believe that it takes that hardship, that pain, that struggle, to feel that joy, and that comfort and that peace.

We are spirit children of our Father in Heaven, I know I have asked myself many times "where did I come from before this life?" and "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16.) I know parents desire the best for their children, they want them to grow, to progress, to become something, to achieve greatness! But on this path of becoming, children face challenges and the only way that they can grow is to be put under pressure and face opposition. Just as a lump of coal cannot become a  diamond without extreme heat and pressure, so it is with our souls, we cannot reach our eternal potential without the struggle placed in our path. Our Heavenly Father desires the best for us on our journey here on earth. This brings to light the question, "why do bad things happen to good people?" I would ask to those who ask that question "how can good people become greater without the pressure of trials?" Those who are not seeking for betterment will never find hardship because those who stagnate are not met with pressure but digression. Just as a muscle without opposition will not grow but decrease in size. Stagnation never brings opposition, it only brings retrogression

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
C.S. Lewis

OUR LIFE ON EARTH

Our life is interwoven with many other peoples, we see on the news the pain of the world, the sickness, the hardship... the struggle. We feel a deep pain for them, but why, why would we ever empathize with anyone that we don't know unless .....we did once know them and deeply care for them? Our spirit is like the hard drive of our being, it remembers everything we have ever done or seen or experienced, including the life before this, that is why for me this concept of living with our Father in Heaven resonates deep within my being. Feelings are so much more than just chemical reactions in the brain, they are a spiritual compass that guides us, and as we listen to them we are able to discern truths we once knew before we came into the amnesia of this world.

We are given a wonderful gift of agency, and there is a pattern that we see in the Book of Mormon (another testament of Jesus Christ) and the Bible, that as people choose Gods path their struggle is lessened and their "burdens made light " (Mosiah 24:15)

CHRIST LESSENS THE STRUGGLE

"The unique burdens in each of our lives help us to rely upon the merits, mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah - David A. Bednar

The Savior Once Said: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my Yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30) 

Consider if you will this unique message, he offers rest to those who struggle, but he does not automatically take away the struggle, it still remains. He asks us to take His yoke upon us, we don't entirely loose our burden but our Savior offers to pull alongside us, because he has already been through the struggle he can lessen the pain and make our burden light!

This is the power of the atonement, one can never know the joy that comes from following the savior if they never take the steps to come to know Him. I have come to learn this as I have seen the power of the atonement change my life and change the lives of others, it truly is a blessing to know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, that Jesus is the Christ, He lives, and he does have an infinite amount of love for us.
He doesn't want to see us struggle, but he does want to see us grow and that is why the struggle is real, because we need to learn, we need to become, and we need to come unto him to do it.