how much can one heart take?

joseph and emma statue

temple square, salt lake city, utah

fall 2010

A few Sundays ago, I had the opportunity to teach sunday school. Part of the plan was to discuss how Joseph Smith was prepared to receive and translate the gold plates to what we now know and read as The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. The week prior we had also discussed how Joseph was prepared in his youth to be the Prophet of the Restoration.

I have a testimony of the fact that God has a history of preparing prophets in their youth to be great leaders. I think that Heavenly Father prepares all each of us in our youth for the things that will come in our lives; I only wonder how many there are that don't heed that call or respond to that preparation. Needless to say, this got me to thinking of other preparations.

For example, how was Emma Smith prepared to be the wife of a Prophet? I'm sure she was; although I just don't know that much about her life to be honest. To endure every measure of pain and heartache she endured, she was surely fit for the task although at times I'm sure she didn't think so. Certainly, my heart aches every time I think of the worry, stress, heartache and heartbreak she endured and did so with faith.

Where am I going with this? Well I just wonder if we see or try to see how God prepares us for things in our lives? Do we recognize that we have been prepared when call/s come? When trials come? When the unexpected happens? Can we look back on our lives and find something and say, I'm so grateful for that experience, or that experience really taught me this principle that I really need right now.

The life course looks different for each one of us but one thing is sure, God, our loving Heavenly Father has a plan for all his children. You and I included.  So then certainly he must prepare us for what he knows lies in our path. The trick is recognizing those experience, recognizing those attributes we've had the opportunity to develop, and those gifts and knowledge with which you have been blessed with to help you along the way.

How much can one heart take? I certainly don't know. But I know He will be there to lighten any load that is placed upon us. He's told us that.

As a friend of mine once told me in a time personal crisis, isn't it a blessing that Heavenly Father has told us that he won't give us more than we can handle? I had never thought of it like that before. But there was such clarity in that statement. God won't give us anything more than we can handle. He knows that and he could have just assumed that we should know that too by virtue of us being his children whom he loves. But no, he told us he shared with us and he has illustrated in the scriptures time and time again how he lives up to this principle.

That is a blessing.

_______________
he heals the heavy laden, elder dallin h. oaks, october 2006
the atonement covers all pain, elder kent richards, april 2011
never had an ordinary day-love
matthew 11:28
john 16:33
alma 7:11
mosiah 24:14--my favorite illustration that God is with us in our trials and that he will lighten our load
1 corinthians 10:13