Bless that woman...

Yesterday, I found myself once again sitting on a busz bunch, waiting for 40 minutes for the next busz.  It was pretty peaceful: just me and little baby Spooner chillin' on the bench, shielded from the heavy downpour all around us. 

Across from me, I watched a line of people start loading up on their busz, and, then, as the busz started pulling away, saw a woman with a big bright umbrella race up, waving her arms and calling out...trying to catch it in vain.

She was frustrated.  She was upset.  She just stood there for a few moments, and then turned and slowly walked away.  I thought, "Please bless her, Father, with a little bit of sunshine on her way."

Then the thought came, "Would she know where it came from?  And what if she needs this little adversity to bring her closer to Heavenly Father? In fact, what if this affliction saves her soul?"

My thoughts then went to the Nephi of the book of Helaman in the Book of Mormon.  It's quite an incredible scripture, one that I only "found" after reading the book several times before:

2 And it came to pass that Nephi went his way towards his own house, ^apondering upon the things which the Lord had shown unto him.

 3 And it came to pass as he was thus pondering—being much cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites, their secret works of darkness, and their murderings, and their plunderings, and all manner of iniquities—and it came to pass as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a ^avoice came unto him saying:

 4 ^aBlessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with ^bunwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine ^cown life, but hast sought my ^dwill, and to keep my commandments.

 5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that ^aall things shall be ^bdone unto thee according to thy ^cword, for thou shalt ^dnot ask that which is contrary to my will.

 6 Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God. Behold, I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels, that ye shall have power over this people, and shall smite the earth with ^afamine, and with pestilence, and destruction, according to the wickedness of this people.

 7 Behold, I give unto you ^apower, that whatsoever ye shall ^bseal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people.

Isn't that incredible?  And what does he do with it?  We read in the heading to the next section:

Nephi persuades the Lord to replace their war with a famine—Many people perish—They repent, and Nephi importunes the Lord for rain

Nephi loves the people, but realizes that the only way that they will turn to God is through their struggles.  I always wondered about this segment...how it would feel to be Nephi, to know what to do to help the people through adversity.  It would have been so hard, to see them struggling, to see them suffer!  I have seen a glimpse of that on a small scale with my kids.  In a very small example, I see them suffer when I won't let them eat treats before their dinner. :) Or I see them suffer through their jobs so that they might learn the skill and satisfaction of work.

As we read in Enos 1:

 22 And there were exceedingly many ^aprophets among us. And the people were a ^bstiffnecked people, hard to understand.

 23 And there was nothing save it was exceeding ^aharshness, ^bpreaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually ^creminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things—stirring them up ^dcontinually to keep them in the fear of the Lord. I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going down speedily to destruction. 

Ahhhh...the power of adversity.

I did pray that that woman would have what sunshine was meet and good for her to have, but more prayed that she would come to feel the love that her Heavenly Father has for her...

...for sometimes He lets it rain, so we can be the current bushes, the mansions, the shining and amazing people He needs us to be.  Sometimes, it is only through our pain that we reach out to Him to whom we must always look for ultimate happiness and joy.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt