Our response to adversity shapes our character. Trials are temporary, but the blessings we can receive from them are permanent.
This speech was given on January 17, 1995.
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"Adversity will be a constant or occasional companion for each of us throughout our lives. We cannot avoid it. The only question is how we will react to it. Will our adversities be stumbling blocks or stepping stones?
Some adversities are individual. Others are common to large numbers of our Heavenly Father’s children. During the last decade there have been many examples of large-scale adversities affecting tens or hundreds of thousands or millions. Only a few can be mentioned. In addition to wars in many nations, we have had earthquakes in Japan, California, China, Armenia, and Mexico; hurricanes or tornadoes in Florida and the central United States; volcanic eruptions in the Philippines; tidal waves in Nicaragua; forest fires in various western states; flooding in India and in the Mississippi valley; and famine and pestilence in Africa and elsewhere.
Surely these great adversities are not random or without some eternal purpose or effect. They can turn men’s hearts to God. Nephi was told that the natural enemies of his descendants would be “a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me” (2 Nephi 5:25). The idea of a scourge to cause people to remember God reaffirms a familiar teaching in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews: “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Hebrews 12:6). Even as adversities inflict mortal hardships, they can also be the means of leading men and women to eternal blessings.
Such large-scale adversities as natural disasters and wars seem to be inherent in the mortal experience. We cannot entirely prevent them, but we can determine how we will react to them. For example, the adversities of war and military service, which have been the spiritual destruction of some, have been the spiritual awakening of others. The Book of Mormon describes the contrast:
But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility. [Alma 62:41]
I read of a similar contrast after the devastating hurricane that destroyed thousands of homes in Florida a few years ago. A news account quoted two different persons who had suffered the same tragedy and received the same blessing: each of their homes had been totally destroyed, but each of their family members had been spared death or injury. One said that this tragedy had destroyed his faith: “How could God allow this to happen?” The other said that the experience had strengthened his faith: “God has been good to me. Though my home and possessions were lost, our lives were spared, and we can rebuild our home.” For one, the glass was half empty. For the other, the glass was half full. The gift of moral agency empowers each of us to choose how we will act when we suffer adversity.
How can adversities be for our good? Speaking in area conferences about twenty years ago, President Ezra Taft Benson explained:
'It is not on the pinnacle of success and ease where men and women grow most. It is often down in the valley of heartache and disappointment and reverses where men and women grow into strong characters.'
'Every reversal can be turned to our benefit and blessing and can make us stronger, more courageous, more godlike.'
I know that the “furnace of affliction” is an eternal reality and that its consequences are an eternal blessing. I know and testify to the truth of Alma’s teaching “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).
I pray that we will place trust in that comforting assurance and act so as to be worthy of our Heavenly Father’s choicest blessings for his children." - Elder Oaks
Dallin H. Oaks was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional
address was given at Brigham Young University on 17 January 1995.
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