Life as a trial... test... challenge... and not just one.

RIALS

i write this post by assignment form my Sunday school teacher this past Sunday, 7/21/2013

there are some things that just nag at your spirit/soul... this is one of those

the sooner the task is done i will be able to get back to normal...

a trial: a person, thing, or situation that tests your endurance or forbearance.

a test: an event or situation that reveals the strength or quality of i/you under strain.

a challenge:a task or situation that tests someones abilities...

" Jesus allowed his will to be "swallowed up" in the will of the Father...

some presume we will lose our identity if we are totally "swallowed up"...

of course , our individuality is actually enhanced by submissiveness and righteousness...

it is sin that grinds us down to sameness - to a monotonous single plane."

                                                                                                                            Elder Neil A. Maxwell 1992

i have had and will, i am sure, have trials in my life, thank you very much. As can be seen in the definitions above situation appears to be a key word... "a set of circumstances in which one finds oneself; state of affairs" and i know circumstances are the result of choices made as i have gone through my life. Most of life from my point of view and belief is and has been that the glass is half full... not half empty. I prefer to see/view/confront trials as challenges... i have had this point of knowledge for as long as i can remember, even before my conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1976. So what i guess i am saying is trials, yes as difficult and trying as they are and can be, are just life as it comes at me each and every day, and this life was of my choosing. Not all challenges can be solved in minutes, hours, weeks, months or even years... but with my faith in the Lord and prayer that he is whom the Spirit testifies to me that he is... then this life is the test that it is meant to be for me. "Cowboy" up and get it done to the best of my abilities and talents.

I have had a 'blessed" life so far and i am sure there are greater challenges to come... do not by any way shape or form think it has been easy for me. Making a list of my challenges is of no value to me, like a notch on a stick... i don't believe i will be judged on how many, but on how i got through each one. I learned long ago, before 1976, that whatever challenge came my way, weather positive or negative, it was my task: work to be done, to transform the given task into something good and positive to the well being of myself and people around me. I did this through my everyday work and Art, most was successful in my eyes but i have also learned i am not perfect as yet.

I have yet to be "swallowed up" in the will of the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, but i work at this task each day, some days better then others. The greatest challenge for me right now is to read the scriptures each day and try to understand them and then apply them to my daily life... most days i get lost in the "world" and lose track of the test of mortality along with my purpose in life here. So i should be praying for more challenges from the Lord to help keep me on track/task.

Wow that was a great break, got my ears lowered, weekly red canyon report out, and one of the great loves of my life... a monsoon rain shower along with all its associated wet smells, flashes and noises for almost two hours now. It always takes time for my random access mind to incubate on ideas and thoughts... so here i go again maybe with a bit more sense.

Life is not fair... unless your on the Lords side then He always has your back. 
Life is a test... we must preform it to the best of our abilities.
Life has reason and purpose... thus trials must also have reason and purpose...
Otherwise how could the Lord teach us... without taking our mortal agency...
This monsoon shower we are having as i write... to some is a blessing and others a trial...
but it falls on all of us here in Panguitch this day. The Lord works with and uses the earth and all its elements that are around us each day to teach and try us. Trials are custom made and personal for each and everyone of us... even if they may come upon all of us at the same time, rain showers in town, they are intended to move us beyond the mark we are at today. The joy of learning is of great value to me and that's part of the reason i perceive trials as challenges rather then setbacks and hardships,  though they may feel that-a-way at the onset and as we progress and process through them. I take great comfort in "... for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God." (D&C 101:16). 
With trials and hardships in my life i know that God is aware of me, cares for me, and above all loves me personally.

                                                CHEERS...