Often in the world, people don’t understand why bad things happen to good people. It can be really rough to try to do the right thing over and over again, but you feel like you keep hitting a wall. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (sometimes mistakenly called the “Mormon Church”) helps me understand why hard things happen, even when I’m trying my hardest to do what’s right.
In the Book of Mormon, the first prophet described is named Lehi. In leaving his last words and blessing with his sons, he tells them that “it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.” “Why is this happening to me?” is the question that many people are inclined to ask while going through a rough time in their life. Lehi answers, “Righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, nor holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad” (2 Nephi 2:11). If we didn’t know sadness or rough times, we wouldn’t appreciate the good ones nearly as much. In order to remember the good things that happen, in order to experience more joy when things go the right way, we have to know how it feels to have pain. We grow so much more when we remember what pain feels like. It helps us appreciate feeling joy and the purpose of life so much more.
Even when school and work pile up, remembering the Lord can help us through.
I recently went through a rough time in my life. There weren’t major things that went wrong, but the things that are big stress factors in my life all just piled on top of me. Lack of sleep, too much homework, midterm tests, and balancing my social life were some of what played into it. One night, I hit rock bottom. I’d had an overload of emotional buildup from the past few days, and I just cried and cried. But the next day, even though I still had homework, not enough sleep, and other things, I found so many things that went right. My roommates talked with me. A friend bought me chocolate. I felt good about my midterms. My emotions weren’t quite nearly as built up. All these things and many others that showed me that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me and are watching out for me.
The trick is to remember to keep looking during the good times for things that go well. It’s easy to forget when nothing is going wrong. But when times get rough, it is so much easier to see all of the things that are not going right in our lives. If we get into a habit of writing down the blessings in our lives, whether in good or hard times, it will help us on rough days. We will be able to see that even though things may be hard, we can pull through with small things that do go well. Heavenly Father does not leave us without things to help us to be happy. He wants us to be happy and to grow. He will allow us to go through hard times so that we grow and learn so much more. He will not leave us alone.
By Elizabeth W.
Elizabeth W. is a BYU student who wants to go into nursing. She enjoys playing piano, swimming, reading, and eating chocolate.
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