A Different Kind of Difficult

I suddenly remembered an hour ago that we have Church at 9 o'clock this year, so I really can't afford to sleep in like I did yesterday. I also remembered at that time that I didn't know what I was going to blog about this morning. I thought I'd get an idea while I was showering, or while I was getting breakfast, but I didn't. So I did a quick search on LDS.org and Facebook for something inspirational, but I found this instead.

That's not very encouraging.

I think she's basically saying that salvation is hard. The harder you try to be righteous, the more you're going to be tested. Like an athlete lifting weights, the stronger you are or want to be, the heavier your weights are going to be. The result of those struggles is that you'll become stronger, but that extra strength will demand that your burdens get heavier. The more you succeed, the harder your tests will become.

But what's the point of telling us this? To discourage us? No, that's what Satan would want. He knows how strong we really are (even when we don't), and he tries to convince us that we're weak so we don't even try to challenge him. The truth is that we're strong enough to succeed if we try to. Perhaps the purpose of some of our tests isn't to make us stronger or to teach us a lesson when we fail, but for us to prove to ourselves that we were strong enough to pass that test all along.

I think the reason Sister Dew gave us that quote is so we can prepare to face the challenges that she sees coming. Life is hard, and certain aspects of life get harder for those who try to choose the right. She may be telling us this just so it's not a surprise if things get rough right after we commit ourselves to being more righteous. Now that we know that we're going to face harder challenges, we can prepare to overcome them.

When I first read this, I took it the wrong way. I thought 'Damned if you do (try to be righteous), damned if you don't. Life's hard for everyone, and it's even harder for those who are trying to be good, so why not take the easy (read "less difficult") way out and just give up now?' The answer to the question "why not give up?" came when I remembered what I'd be giving up. Happiness, Peace, Spiritual Strength, A Chance to Inherit the Celestial Kingdom, Heavenly Help in my Mortal Struggles, just to list a few things. And the Heavenly Help is worth singling out, too.

Yes, life gets trickier for those who are trying to keep the commandments, but those who make that choice can get help. Miracles can be worked in the favor of God's children. When we try to do what's right, we can have the Spirit with us, who can help us choose the right. And the stronger the challenges we face and overcome, the stronger we, personally, become. So, yes, we face hard challenges, but we can also receive the strength and help we need to overcome those challenges, and those are blessings that we won't receive if we're not trying to be righteous. I'm not sure if it balances out to being harder, easier, or about the same difficulty as going through life without trying to choose the right, but it's definitely more worth it, and even if it's still harder than regular life, it's not as much harder as I thought it was.