Life as of June 11

So, if you've spoken with me in the last few months, you know that I have been struggling to figure out what I want to do with my life, especially in regards to my career. I feel a little like I'm playing Keep-Away, the game where a big circle of people keep tossing a ball back and forth to each other while one person runs around inside the circle, trying to touch whoever currently has the ball before they toss it to someone else. I've been seriously and carefully "running" back to old career options, exploring new ones, and being concerned because the time to decide is now. 

Going through this process, along with witnessing one of my friends pass through a true tragedy, has helped me learn a truth that is very precious to me:

It is in the process of experiencing uncertainty or adversity that we can receive some of God's choicest blessings.

And, for me, one of those blessings is knowledge. Knowledge of who I am, what I'm made of, and what my core is. Knowledge of God's purpose for sending us to earth. He has given us the opportunity to become like Him: to grow and learn by experiencing new things. And to learn that He is always going to support us, no matter what we've lost or how frustrated we might feel. 

A lesson from music lessons: if the goal is to learn how to play an instrument well, no amount of theoretical knowledge can take the place of actually practicing that instrument. I could study what a piano is and what the keys do when they're pushed, but no amount of theoretical knowledge could replace the experiential knowledge I will gain by actually practicing the piano every day. 

Well, we lived with God before this life and we all chose to come to earth. We had theoretical knowledge of what this whole earth-life would be like and who we could become.  But, now we're here. We're actually doing the practicing and learning. We are experiencing things that can, for the better, change us. The becoming thing is actually taking place. And we will become better than we ever imagined we could become. And the becoming occurs as we learn from the difficult things we experience. 

Blessings don't just come at the end of trials. I've also learned that expressing thanks for adversity and confusion while still experiencing them leads to some pretty powerful experiences. It's a simple act of faith: showing God that you trust Him, and that you trust that there are beautiful things to learn from the difficulties of life. I promise that as you express thanks to God for your own struggles, even while you're still experiencing them, you will feel Him teach you exciting and important things. What we learn from trials can often lead us to sincerely feel grateful for the trial itself. Passing through our hard times enables us to learn things that will forever be a part of who we are.

So, as we ask God to help us, He will change our hearts and teach us the lessons we came here to learn. He will give us the strength that we need to keep going. He suffered what we experience so that He can help us (Alma 7:11-15). And God will not leave us alone; He will comfort us through His Holy Spirit and through our friends and loved ones.