The Various Tests of Life

For your ease of reading, I'll copy the quote into larger text.

The tests of life are tailored for our own best interests. and all will face the burdens best suited to their own mortal experience. In the end we will realize that God is merciful as well as just and that all the rules are fair. We can be reassured that our challenges will be the ones we needed, and conquering them will bring blessings we could have received in no other way.
-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

 I like this quote because I sometimes consider it odd that this life is meant to test everyone, yet everyone's tests are different. Some are given power to see how well they use it, while others are given weakness to see how well they overcome it or endure it. Some are given everything to see what they'll do with it, and some are given little or nothing to see how well they'll live with it. I wonder sometimes why everyone isn't tested on all subjects, to see how well they do on each of life's tests. Why doesn't everyone in the world experience both wealth and poverty, for example, to see how well they act in each situation?

Maybe we don't need to. Maybe, before we were born, God looked at our souls and said, "I know you're a good spirit, and that you'd do really well if I put you in such-and-such a situation, so I'm not going to test you on that. You automatically pass that part of the exam. There is, however, one part of the test that will really challenge you, and you'll learn a lot from it, so that's the kind of life experience you'll have down there." Maybe God subjects us to the parts of the test that are bound to test us the most, and leaves the other parts of life's trial to those who'd benefit from them more than we would.

Still, why not give everyone every test anyway? Wouldn't it be nice to face a test we'd ace with ease every once in a while? Well, one problem with that idea is that it'd probably require reincarnation. It seems impossible to experience every life experience in one lifetime, so in order to face every test that life has to offer, we'd had to experience life multiple times. Yet, we know from modern revelation, or perhaps even older ones, that reincarnation doesn't happen. We each get one life and one life only. Yet, maybe one life is enough.

Everybody's lives have some ups and down. We all have gains and losses. We each have moments of power and moments of weakness. Perhaps we do each face every kind of test life has to offer, all in one lifetime each, but the predominant themes of our lives - the tests we continually face as long as we live - are the ones that we need most. I don't know if there have been any moments in my life when I've been or felt rich and/or powerful, but there may have been moments like that in my past, or there may be moments like that in my future. Only God really knows what my life has in store. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a little bit of everything in everybody's lives, just to see how they would handle such tests, even if the tests best suited to them are the ones they had faced and would face all their lives.

God knows what's going on in our lives, and He certainly has a hand in almost everything that happens. He knows what tests we need to face and which tests, if any, we don't really need to be tested against. In the end, once we've gained the intelligence and perspective He has, we'll see that the tests we were given in our mortal lives were exactly the ones we needed. God knows what He's doing. Let's trust His judgement when He decides which of life's tests we do or don't have to face.