Playground or Proving Ground?

Sometimes we say things without giving them much thought.  I remember doing that a few years ago while my wife and I were on our mission to Samoa. I wrote a note to my family from there saying that she and I were fine after our cyclone experience and then I ended it with “Life is good.”  As soon as I hit the “send” button I immediately but temporarily regretted saying that because for many, and for all of us at one time or another, life seems anything but “good.”  It seems to be hard, frustrating, painful, hopeless, unfair, stacked against us, uncertain, unjust, bleak, boring, tedious, frightening, and certainly challenging.

 

In addressing this reality I once heard a wise woman say, “Life is not a playground; it is a laboratory and a workshop.” Indeed, that it is.  Life is also a test track, a proving ground, perhaps even a crucible.

    

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy. . .” (Acts 20: 24). “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6-7).  And such a one, as the Apostle Paul who wrote this can look forward to a joyful eternity.

Through it all—through all the challenges, hardships, even tragedy, “men are [given or allowed these refining experiences] that they might have joy” (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:24). Joy, like a harvest, comes after the planting and nurturing, and waiting, not before.

  

So, I say, live with it and be glad for it. If we do it right, we can come out a winner, justified, and refined—and ultimately as happy as if it were a playground.

“Happiness is the object and design of our existence . . . .” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 255)

Life, if you look at it this way is good—even when it is hard.