Some Amazing Quotes About Adversity- The Red Headed Hostess

Here are some wonderful quotes that will certainly make you think.  They are all about Adversity  – so kind of a part 2 to yesterday’s post.  If you are keeping a journal then you can write the ones that particularly influence you on your “Adversity” page.

• • “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted.  It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility.  All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called children of God… And it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in Heaven…”  (Orson F. Whitney)

 

• •  “We understood well before we came to this vale of tears that there would b sorrows, disappointments, hard work, blood, sweat, and tears; but in spite of all, we looked down and saw this earth being made ready for us, and we said in effect, ‘Yes, Father, in spite of all those things I can see great blessings that could come to me as one of thy sons or daughters; in taking a body I can see that I will eventually become immortal like thee, that I might overcome the effects of sin and be perfected, and so I am anxious to go to the earth at the first opportunity.’  And so we came.”  (President Spencer W. Kimball, Teachings, 31)

 

Quotes from Man’s Search for Meaning:  Written by Viktor E. Frank.  A Jewish Psychologist who survived the concentration camps, and later wrote this book. 

• •  “Such people forgot that often it is just such an exceptionally difficult external situation which gives man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself.”  (page 72)

 

• •  “Even though conditions such a slack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone.  Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him – mentally and spiritually.  He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.  Dostoevski said once, ‘There is only one thing that I dread: Not to be worthy of my sufferings.’”  (page 66)

 

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

During this General Conference, Elder Maxwell was very ill and had been going through rounds of chemotherapy.  He stood with a bald head and joked about how the lights along with his cranium “bring some different ‘illumination’ to this pulpit.”  Note his words during his illness:

• • “Something I have heard President Hinckley do many times publicly is to give all the glory, the praise, and the honor to God. This is something I am going to do more often, including today, incorporating my appreciation for God’s tutoring and blessings.   Uncertainty as to our longevity is one of life’s basic realities for all of us. Hence, you and I should importune in faith for the blessings we deeply desire, but then be “content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto [us]” (Alma 29:3). Clearly our individual exit routes from this life vary; so does the timing.   There are many who suffer so much more than the rest of us: some go agonizingly; some go quickly; some are healed; some are given more time; some seem to linger. There are variations in our trials but no immunities. Thus, the scriptures cite the fiery furnace and fiery trials (see Dan. 3:6–26; 1 Pet. 4:12). Those who emerge successfully from their varied and fiery furnaces have experienced the grace of the Lord, which He says is sufficient (see Ether 12:27). Even so, brothers and sisters, such emerging individuals do not rush to line up in front of another fiery furnace in order to get an extra turn! However, since the mortal school is of such short duration, our tutoring Lord can be the Schoolmaster of the compressed curriculum.( Neal A. Maxwell, “‘From Whom All Blessings Flow’,” Ensign, May 1997, 11)

Six months later at the next General Conference, with a full head of hair, he stood and said:

• •  “….As we confront our own lesser trials and tribulations, we … can plead with the Father, just as Jesus did, that we “might not … shrink”—meaning to retreat or to recoil (D&C 19:18). Not shrinking is much more important than surviving! Moreover, partaking of a bitter cup without becoming bitter is likewise part of the emulation of Jesus.  Continuing, we too may experience moments of mortal aloneness. These moments are nothing compared to what Jesus experienced. Nevertheless, since our prayers may occasionally contain some “whys,” we too may experience God’s initial silence (see Matt. 27:46).  Certain mortal “whys” are not really questions at all but are expressions of resentment. Other “whys” imply that the trial might be all right later on but not now, as if faith in the Lord excluded faith in His timing. Some “why me” questions, asked amid stress, would be much better as “what” questions, such as, “What is required of me now?”  (Neal A. Maxwell, “‘Apply the Atoning Blood of Christ’,” Ensign, Nov 1997, 22)