School Days...

For many, these last two weeks have been the time of going back to school. Its a time of excitement and maybe some apprehension. Apprehension for those little ones starting Kindergarten or First grade, as it is something so new to them. It is hard for them to be away from mom but just as hard for mom, with them being away--even if it is only for a few hours! And that difficulty returns years later as they leave for college and then the distances become a few hours away!...

Life is like going away to school. We left our Heavenly Home to come to Earth to gain an education of sorts. We came to learn some lessons, and take some tests. We knew that it would be difficult at times, and the tasks and tests would be very challenging. But we also knew that if we are to remain faithful during all of this, that once we 'graduate' from this life, the reward will be incomprehensibly worth it.

Consider these words from Elder Neal A Maxwell:
"Thus the relentless love of our Father in heaven is such that in His omniscience, He will not allow the cutting short some of the brief experiences we are having here. To do so would be to deprive us of everlasting experiences and great joy there. What else would an omniscient and loving Father do, even if we plead otherwise? He must at times say no.
"Furthermore, since there was no exemption from the suffering for Christ, how can there be one for us? Do we really want immunity from adversity? Especially when certain kinds of suffering can aid our growth in this life? To deprive ourselves of those experiences, much as we might momentarily like to, would be to deprive ourselves of the outcomes over which we shouted with anticipated joy when this life's experiences were explained to us so long ago, in the world before we came here.
"Life is a school in which we enrolled not only voluntarily but rejoicingly; and if the school's Headmaster employs a curriculum--proven, again and again on other planets, to bring happiness to participants--and if we agreed that once we were enrolled there would be no withdrawals, and also to undergo examinations that would truly test our ability and perceptivity, what would an experienced Headmaster do if, later on, there were complaints? Especially if, in His seeming absence, many of the school children tore up their guiding notebooks and demanded that He stop the examinations since these produced some pain" There is, to use jargon from American higher education, no way to "CLEP" [test out of] the examinations of the second estate; one learns but taking the full course!
"Even in the context of acknowledging His omniscience, the chastening experiences of life are difficult enough for us to bear. We could not trust in the perfectness of God's judgment if we did not first know that He foresaw and carefully calibrated our chastening and learning experiences accordingly.
"In order for "all these things" to make sense, we must come to understand that God has "all sense." Only then can we repose with confidence in His perfect love!"

So, in the midst of life and it's tests, let us remember the oft quoted words, "He never said it would be easy, He only said it would be worth it..."