Ready for Difficulty

In Elder Andersen’s recent general conference talk he spoke about how we will all be wounded, either spiritually or physically, in this life.  He commented, “We each understand that difficulties are part of life, but when they come to us personally, they can take our breath away. Without being alarmed, we need to be ready.”  So how is it that we get “ready” for trials and difficulties?  How do we prepare for the worst kind of challenges without being overly worried about all of the possible tests we might face?  The Savior invited us to “watch, therefore, that ye may be ready”—this is certainly speaking of the 2^nd Coming and being prepared for that day, but perhaps we can also take it as an invitation to be ready for any the earthly challenges that we might face tomorrow or next year or next month. 

Christ invited His disciples in mortality, “Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40).  If that great final day will come when we think not, then perhaps some of the major trials we will face in mortality will similarly come “when ye think not.”  For example, as an apostle Elder Nelson’s loss of his wife was not expected at all.  He recounted, “In 2005, after nearly 60 years of marriage, my dear Dantzel was unexpectedly called home. For a season, my grief was almost immobilizing.”  At the general conference following her death he had said, “We were sitting on the sofa, holding hands, enjoying a program on television, my precious Dantzel slipped peacefully into eternity. Her passing came suddenly and unexpectedly. Just four days earlier, our doctor’s report at a routine checkup indicated that her laboratory tests were good.”  Despite being an apostle and one who received frequent revelation, this trial was still a shock to him and completely unexpected.  The Lord in His wisdom may at times choose to warn us of coming trials, but often they will come suddenly and can, as Elder Andersen said, “take our breath away.” 

So how do we become ready for such trials which we know will come in some form at some time?  I believe we prepare each day as we learn and practice trusting in the Lord.  If we can face our small challenges by exercising faith in Christ and see His hand guiding and strengthening us, then when the serious difficulties arise we can say with confidence, “Here is hope smiling brightly before us, Ancan stilld we know that deliv’rance is nigh. We doubt not the Lord nor his goodness. We’ve proved him in days that are past.”  Perhaps Nephi is an example of this  in the Book of Mormon; the challenges he faced got bigger and bigger, but a teach step he learned to trust in the Lord.  The experience following the Spirit that night in Jerusalem to find the plates surely help him gain the confidence in God he needed to guide his family for eight years in an unknown wilderness.  And the challenge of building a ship to carry his family across the great waters, in which he had to depend completely on the Lord for the knowledge how to build it, surely prepared him for the even greater task of building a whole city for his people.  The challenges we will face in this life may surprise us, but we can live today so that they do not cripple because we know that we “can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth [us]” (Philippians 4:13).