This morning, my mom and I talked about chastening and affliction, and as I reviewed a list of potentially-blogworthy thoughts, I noticed that many of those thoughts also relate to chastening and affliction, so I figured I should blog about that, if only to cross some of these thoughts off the list.
One thing Mom and I talked about this morning is that it can sometimes be difficult to tell whether or not a given affliction is an indicator of wrongdoing. Sometimes, God chastens us to let us know that there's something of which we need to repent in order to regain God's blessings, and other times, afflictions are just a part of life, simply a result of the fact that life isn't perfect. Our afflictions aren't always calls to repentance; sometimes, they're just opportunities to grow. So, what should we do when we don't know whether a given affliction is a call to repentance or a growing opportunity? One idea is to treat it like it's probably both. First, treat it as a learning experience and (as faithfully as possible) try to learn whatever lesson God seems to want to teach you. At the same time, do a little bit of soul-searching. Nobody's perfect, so there are always at least a few sins we could stand to work on, even if the given affliction isn't a direct response to the given sin. We all have sins to repent of, and we all have room to learn and grow. Almost any affliction could be viewed as a reminder to do either or both.
Because afflictions are so useful, it's possible to view them as actually being blessings. In fact, in the eternal perspective, they are. Our afflictions help us learn and grow, and they remind us to repent. These are all good things. Sure, afflictions are unpleasant as they happen, but after we've made good use of them and benefited from the growth they fostered in us, we can look back on those afflictions and see how they worked out for our good.
Certainly, afflictions help us to grow more than a lack of afflictions does, which may be why The Book of Mormon spends several chapters covering a few months or years of war, but then skips over several years of peace in just a few sentences. Hardship is more instructive than ease. Perhaps there's more to learn from a few months of affliction than from years in which nothing goes seriously wrong. Without our afflictions, there would be less incentive to grow, so we wouldn't grow as quickly. God give us afflictions because He knows we need them in order to help us progress.
Hebrews 12:6 says "whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth," so when God chastens us and calls us to repentance, He does so out of love. God wants what's best for us, and what's best for us is to grow to become like Him. To become like Him, we have to progress toward perfection, we have to repent and become pure. Chastening reminds us to do that. Chasten helps us know when and where to turn on our path toward perfection. So, chastening isn't just punishment or retribution. It's actually very useful to us. That, I think, is why God chastens us, because He hopes that we will use that chastening as a reminder to become our best selves.
There is a lot we can learn about (and from) chastening and affliction, which may be part of why we experience it so often. God wants us to learn important spiritual lessons like these ones, and chastening and affliction are excellent teaching tools. Chastening and affliction aren't just punishment or needless suffering. There is a point to all of it, and that point works out to our benefit. That's why chastening and affliction are actually a form of blessing, sent to us by a loving God who wants us to progress toward perfection. Chastening and affliction help us do that; they may even be essential. At the very least, they're useful. We can learn a lot from our chastening and afflictions.
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