The Effect of Trials

While in Liberty Jail, the Savior told the prophet Joseph this about his sufferings he was going through: “If the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7).  Perhaps one of the ways that the trial of his imprisonment was for his good was in the way that it helped him develop more love and compassion for those around him.  After a sister tried to visit him in jail, he wrote this to her: “No tongue can tell what inexpressible joy it gives a man, after having been enclosed in the walls of a prison for five months, to see the face of one who has been a friend. It seems to me that my heart will always be more tender after this than ever it was before. My heart bleeds continually when I contemplate the distress of the Church. Oh, that I could be with them!” (see here)  The suffering brought him a heart that was more tender and even more full of love towards the Saints.  I think this highlights the principle that the Lord refines our hearts through trials if we will let Him. 

                Peter spoke of this principle in his first epistle to the Saints of his day, speaking of the “trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.”  The result of this trial is that "ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently” (1 Peter 1:7, 22).  One of the most important effects of the purification and refining that our trials should bring us is that we develop “unfeigned love” of those around us.  That seems to be what Liberty Jail did for Joseph, and in his final years after that event he was an even greater man than he had been before. 

                I was touched when I saw this brief news clip about my former U.S. history teacher this week, and it seems a validation of this principle.  He developed cancer late in life and has apparently battled with it for many years now.  And yet, despite his terrible health, he is working relentlessly to help the refugees in Utah and spends his collecting needing items for the refugees, delivering things to them, and being their friend.  I knew that he was a good man from my experience in his class in high school, but it would seem that his trial from cancer has turned his heart into gold so that he now wears out his life trying to help others.  We don’t typically wish upon ourselves trials and difficulties, but when they come we would do well to remember that the silver lining may be the catalyst to help us see more clearly the needs of those around us.