Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time

My thoughts on Elder Cook’s talk “Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time.”

“We know he care for us in our time of need.”
What comfort. I need to remember this more often.

“There must be opposition in all thing for righteousness to be brought to pass.”
You cannot know joy without sorrow. You cannot know happiness without sadness. You cannot know sweetness without bitterness.

“It is a time of testing and proving.”
Now if I can only pass it! I think this is important to remember that we are in a test, but it is open book and we can even talk to the professor ANYTIME we want to. He has made it easy to pass this test, but it is all about enduring to the end (at least for those of us already well on the way). This is harder and harder every day, but with talks like these it is do able!

“The challenges we face today are in their own way comparable to challenges of the past.”
As I have read my mom’s thought and the history of my ancestors I know the challenges they have faced were hard and unbearable. Traveling across the plains in stocking feet. Leaving homes and everything in countries across the ocean or in the deep south for only pennies and with only pennies. Leaving family and friends. Being spit at, being shot at, being in mortal danger. Having nothing when you “land” in Utah and still doing what the Lord asks of them. It was physically and spiritually hard. I’m not shot at, have to leave a home or walk across the continent. I just have to stand up for right, hold FHE, hold family prayer and do what I’ve been doing even when it gets harder and harder!

“We know from the scriptures that some trials are for our good and are suited for our own personal development. We also know that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. It is also true that every cloud we see doesn’t result in rain. Regardless of the challenges, trials, and hardship we endure, the reassuring doctrine of the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ includes Alma’s teaching that the Savior would take upon Him our infirmities and ‘succor his people according to their infirmities.’”
{tears} This trial I’m going through is for my good! I need to repeat that three times every hour! It is for my own good that he is interested in my own personal development. If not then why give someone as insignificant as me these trials. He must love me, he just has too.

“Clearly, having the blessings of the Spirit—the ministration of the Holy Ghost—is an essential element to truly prosper in the land and to be prepared.”
Let’s all sing, “Count your blessings name them one by one….”

Yes, it is a hard time my friends. We’ve all had a hard time. Not one of us is immune to the “hard times.” And each hard time is unique to each of us. The Lord knows this, he designed it that way. It is our responsibility to recognize it and move through it. Hard, but those who finish the race are the winners—it doesn’t matter in what place.

Now the hard part comes—internalizing it!