See the Sacred in Adversity — 2 Nephi 1–2

Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon 2024 (February 5-11)

Concerned about the choices her son was making, a client of mine lamented, “I think I was sitting on the back row of the pre-mortal meeting chatting with a good friend when they took the vote for agency. I raised my hand along with everyone else, but what was I thinking? It’s so painful watching him make bad decisions.” 

It’s sometimes difficult to think, “I chose this. I chose to come to earth to encounter adversity and to watch loved ones suffer.” But we must have known that “discipleship is a contact sport” (Neal Maxwell) as the Prophet Joseph testified: ‘I am like a huge, rough stone…and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force…Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty’ (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 304).

Lehi speaks of this polishing process in 2 Nephi 2:1, 2, “And now, Jacob, I speak unto you. Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulations in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren. Nevertheless, Jacob my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.” 

If we replace the word consecrate, with “make sacred”, it reads like this, “he shall make sacred thine afflictions for thy gain.” How comforting to know that each of our trials, whatever the size, can be made both sacred and beneficial. Including Him in the experience makes it sacred, and looking for the lesson or opportunity to become more like Him makes it for our gain.

“We could say that in adversity we come to know ‘the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent’ (John 17:3). In adversity we walk with Them every day. Being humbled, we learn to look to Them ‘in every thought’ (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). They will minister to us in a process of spiritual rebirth. I believe there is no other way” (Elder D. Todd Christofferson).

Do Hard Divinely Better

Lesson #5: Practice making everyday challenges (e.g., a flat tire, a misunderstanding, a brief illness) sacred. Be humble. Look to Them. Receive their ministry.