On My Mind
I was reading some old posts of mine this morning, but I felt that I should repost this again. I think I mostly just need to remember my own words and I hope they might help someone out there. Recently I’ve been thinking about why bad things happen to good people and why we have to have difficult struggles in our life. Nothing is going on in our life you should be concerned about, it’s just the world we live in and some people around us that has gotten me thinking. So, here’s a post from February 6, 2012.
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I’ve had a lot on my mind this weekend. Kind of heavy stuff.
It all started Saturday night when I received a call from my best friend back home, Blair, informing me that her sister’s boyfriend had been in a accident Friday night. He was riding his bike and a drunk driver hit him–he passed away on Saturday.
I don’t know the boy very well, but my heart instantly ached for his family (I went to school with his older brother) and for his girlfriend. Little Blair (my friend’s sister), as we’ve always called her, is one of the sweetest girls I know and as soon as I heard the news I thought, this just isn’t fair.
Then yesterday, we heard the news that Josh Powell blew up his house–killing himself and his two little boys. I’ve been following the story of Susan Powell since it happened, and even though I don’t know the family personally, it just broke my heart to hear that Josh killed his sons.
I was up at my in-laws last night and we started to talk about my mother-in-law’s mom who passed away when she was 44. Kelly (T.J.’s mom) was pregnant with T.J. at the same time her mom (Nancy) was pregnant. The day of the baby blessing for Nancy’s new son, she came home and told her husband she wasn’t feeling too well. She died just a couple hours later from blood clots. The day of the funeral, Kelly delivered T.J.
And one last story, just in case I haven’t depressed you enough. I read a blog post last night that Kelly told me about. It was of a photographer’s experience shooting a delivery of a still-born baby. The post was beautifully written, but made me feel so sad for this young couple who decided to naturally deliver this little baby who hadn’t made it.
Needless to say, in my prayers last night, I broke down in tears thinking about these four stories. All the people who have had such hard struggles, and how, in contrast, my life is abundant with blessings.
The biggest question on my mind about these different stories is, “Why?” Why did Little Blair’s boyfriend have to tragically die? Why did Josh have to take his two sons with him? Why did Kelly’s mother have to pass so early, leaving her newborn son without a mother? Why did that young couple have to lose their beautifully baby?
After contemplating this and discussing these questions with family, I’ve learned and remembered a couple of things.
- Sometimes accidents just happen. It’s sad, but true. God doesn’t always intervene. We have our free agency, He let’s things happen and although it’s hard, it’s a part of life.
- There are lessons to learn. Sometimes death brings a family closer, makes them think about their personal spiritual beliefs, and gives them a stronger testimony of the Plan of Salvation, and even forgiveness. It also teaches lessons to people outside of who it personally affected… such as me in all of these cases.
- God sees the larger picture. It is hard for us to see past the here and now and so when something tragic happens, we don’t understand why. We must have faith in our Heavenly Father that he knows what He is doing and can see the grand scheme of things.
- It teaches us of the Savior’s sacrifice for us and is a reminder of the Atonement and how Christ suffered the same things for all of us. What that means in correlation to all of this? When we feel like we’re alone and no one understands what we are going through, we can turn to our Savior and our Father in Heaven and they will be there to comfort us.
One of my favorite scriptures is D&C 122: 7-8. It says,
“Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?”
Anyway, those are my thoughts. My prayers are with those families lost loved ones this weekend. And I want all of you to know that I know families can be together forever through the blessings of the temple. I know that our Savior loves us and that the Holy Ghost can be here to give us peace and comfort if we ask for it.
