my trial's harder than your trial

This morning I woke up and didn't feel like running.

At all.

For a few minutes I considered not going.  After all, my throat was hurting, and I'd been running pretty regularly up till now.  What was one day off?

Eventually I talked myself back into going, but five minutes in, I considered stopping and just walking the rest of the way.  Maybe five minutes is enough today, I thought.  I kept going.  But literally every minute I considered stopping to walk.

By the end of my 15 minutes of running, I felt like a champion.  I may have also felt like hyperventilating, but I still felt like a champion.

Then I remembered a blog I read yesterday, where this awesome chica talked about running a half marathon without any training at all.  For her, running 15 minutes after a whole month of training might seem like nothing.  But some of you reading my blog right now might be thinking, I can't even walk 15 minutes let alone run 15 minutes!

As silly as it sounds, remembering that blog and comparing it to my own situation got me thinking.  And by the time I got out of the shower today, I just knew I had to share my thoughts with you.

We are all in different places.  We all have different strengths and weaknesses.  We all have different trials.  And that's ok.  That's how it's supposed to be.  At the end of our lives, we are all trying to get back to the same place, and our loving Heavenly Father is trying to help us get there through our differing circumstances. Because we might not make it back to him given someone else's circumstances.

Boyd K. Packer said, "Some are tested by poor health, some by a body that is deformed or homely. Others are tested by handsome and healthy bodies; some by the passion of youth; others by the erosions of age.  Some suffer disappointment in marriage, family problems; others live in poverty and obscurity. Some (perhaps this is the hardest test) find ease and luxury.  All are part of the test, and there is more equality in this testing than sometimes we suspect."

One of my old bishops told us that if we treated everyone we met as if they were going through a hard trial, we'd be right a majority of the time.  A majority!

And even though it might seem like Tiffany or Michael or Peggy Sue have perfect lives, with no trials at all, the chances are high that they are struggling with something, too, and we just can't see it.  That means that comparing circumstances isn't going to do any good, because nobody is exempt from having trials.

Plato said:

via

What might be really hard for me might be a piece of cake to you.  And what seems like the end of the world to you might seem like an opportunity to me.  The good news is that we have these trials for a reason - and a good one at that.  Each of our individual trials is exactly what we need to get back to our very loving Father in Heaven.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is by Ezra Taft Benson.  He said:

via

Isn't that beautiful?  But they left out my favorite part.  The last line says, "Whoever will lose his life in the service of God will find eternal life."

No matter what our trials are, no matter what our circumstances may be - the answer is the same.  We need to turn our lives over to God.  Who better to help us change our weaknesses into strengths?

And just remember to be kind...you never know what someone else might be going through.