Not the plan to have a whole lifetime of bliss

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Morning Session of the October 1992 Conference.

Some passages about adversity that stood out to me from different talks:

This was a weird way to phrase things, but I liked it. Elder Glenn L. Pace said, 

Into each of our lives come golden moments of adversity. This painful friend breaks our hearts, drops us to our knees, and makes us realize we are nothing without our Lord and Savior. This friend makes us plead all the night long for reassurance and into the next day and sometimes for weeks and months. But, ultimately, just as surely as the day follows the night, as we remain true and faithful, this strange friend, adversity, leads us straight into the outstretched arms of the Savior.

I have tried to understand why we must experience tribulation before we can experience the ultimate communication. It seems there is an intense concentration which must be obtained before our pleadings reach our Father in Heaven and, perhaps even more importantly, before He can get through to us. Sometimes we must be straining very hard to hear the still small voice. Before we can be taught things hidden from the world, we must be on a spiritual frequency which is out of this world. Adversity can help fine-tune this frequency. Even the Savior communicated more intensely with our Father in Heaven when he was in agony.…

Of course I've noticed this—the increased focus and intensity that my prayers and pleadings take on when I'm really struggling with something. Hoping that I can choose to be humble rather than being compelled to be humble, I've prayed that I'll be able to seek God earnestly even when things are going relatively well. And I'm sure it's good to try for that. But Elder Pace makes it sound like adversity is just something we all need fairly regularly anyway. I like the way he describes that balance:

The challenge for each of us, in order to prevent having to receive constant wake-up calls, is to remain obedient once we have turned upward. As the storm clears, it is possible to stay in tune by being valiant in our testimonies. We can then enjoy reprieves—sometimes long ones—and have a taste of heaven on earth. Nevertheless, it does not seem to be in the plan to have a whole lifetime of bliss if our goal is increased spirituality and perfection.

That reminds me of Elder Holland's picking marigolds quote. :) And I also liked this, from Elder Robert L. Backman:

The word endure has an interesting connotation. We seem to equate it with suffering. I was interested to discover that endure comes from the Latin word indurare, which means “to harden, to steel, make lasting.”

If I'm accepting the fact that life's going to pretty much consist of my constantly going from one struggle to another (rather than what I usually hope for, which is to get through my trials and then be DONE—ha), I at least find comfort in the idea that the difficult things I endure are also going to be the things that end up making my character changes lasting—permanent—meaningful. I want to actually choose to let these hard things be for my experience and good, so I can become more like Jesus Christ!