Faith in Suffering

Today I listed to a devotional talk given by President Hinckley in 1999.  I was particularly impressed with the story he told of a Japanese woman named Misao Toma.  President Hinckley told how during World War II she and her husband and children “suffered unspeakable misery” as the lived in a cave, hid from soldiers, and tried to stay alive.  She had faith in God, though, and “literally saved her family” when her husband nearly died.  The family somehow survived the war, and she and her family eventually met the missionaries and joined the Church.  Things went well for them until her husband suffered a stroke and died, and “because of the unconscionable actions of another man, she was left with terrible debts for the business and for her husband’s medical care.”  President Hinckley described how she would work 18 hour days to try to make ends meet for her family and would often return home with no food for her children and they would sing songs instead of eating.  They survived and eventually things turned out okay for their family and ultimately her children became successful and provided their mother with a comfortable life.  President Hinckley commented, “Today, as I think of her family, I think of her great offering and of its acceptability before the Lord….    Was her offering acceptable to the Lord? She gave her children, having nurtured them in faith with prayer and love. She did whatever she was asked to do.”  What an incredible example of faith through trials, and it reminds me of the great promise recorded by Nephi: “And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them” (1 Nephi 17:3). 

                Listening to this story made me think about the story of the incomprehensible suffering of an LDS woman in Germany after World War II told by President Monson several years ago.  He recounted how this woman in East Prussia lost her husband in the war and then was forced to flee her home and go 1000 miles on foot with her four children to Western Germany after the war.  The journey started in late summer and eventually they were traveling through terrible circumstances in the cold of winter.  President Monson told how one by one the children died until the woman had only her own emaciated body left as she neared her destination.  And yet despite literally losing her entire family, her home, and her health, she exclaimed at the end of her journey: “I feel, Father, amidst the desolation of my soul, an overwhelming gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. I cannot express adequately my love for Him.”  What incredible faith and trust in the Lord!

                These stories together remind me that I’ve never had any struggles even remotely on that level of nearly starving and suffering such extreme circumstances.  I don’t know that I too could praise the Lord for His Son after having suffered on the brink of death for several months and having lost my entire family.  Surely the Lord’s reward for these faithful sisters will be great in the next life, and this promise applies to them if to anyone: “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life” (Matt. 19:29).