Trails = Love

Have you ever reached a time where you just felt that you had too much on your plate? That once you reached that limit that you were given one more thing?
Lately I have kind of been feeling like this. Life just has way too much in it that I have to do and really not nearly enough time to do it. It really can be overwhelming. There are times where it takes all my effort to not just break down in tears.
I have really been thinking of trials and why we are given them. My mom just the other day commenting on life wisely said when it rains it pours. Why is that?

 As I sit here pondering that I think of the talk by Elder Christofferson. In it he talks of the gardener that cuts down a currant bush to help the bush out. Sometimes in life we are that currant bush and we are being "cut down". This talk really helped me realize that life is never what we expect it to be. It isn't only roses and lazy days. It requires effort and work. But the thing about work and trials it helps us grow.

So I have realized that God gives us the trials because He wants us to grow and become who He knows we are meant to be. So while I am going through these trials I just have to remember to say, "‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’” I encourage you to remember the same.

Brands and Trust

This past week we went and helped a member in one of our wards brand his calves. We were pretty excited to do it because I feel like that is a Montanan experience that you can't pass up. It was a very interesting experience and something that wouldn't bother me again.

One thing that I thought was interesting was the different ways the calves responded to being poked, prodded, and branded. Most would squirm and cry out and let us all know they didn't appreciate what we were doing to them. Some would try to get out of the contraption; most didn't succeed. One calf did though and I would say that I was pretty shocked and kind of happy for him. Then there were a couple of calves that didn't even move or cry out.

As Sister Williams and I were observing these different reactions we tried to decide what kind of calf we would be. Would I be normal and squirm and cry, would I try my hardest to get out of it, would I get out of it, or would I not do anything at all and just lay there? For a while I was saying that I would be like the one calf who broke his way out of the calving table and got loose. I don't know now if I would want to be that calf because he just was dragging it out even longer because he had to go back through the whole process again.

Now I don't want to be one that just tries to go around trials or just avoid them because they don't go away they just get bigger. I think of us as those calves here on earth and God and Jesus as those men that branded the calves. Sometimes we go through hard things but they won't give us anything that we can't handle. Those calves that put their trust in the men had the branding go by so much faster than those who kicked and fought against it. The same works with God. The prophet Alma teaches his son Helaman this exact concept and he says to him,"that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day."(Alma 36:3) 

Life isn't easy nor was it meant to be easy but I do know that as we put our trust in the Lord, especially during in our trials, life is so much better.