I was thinking about the comments on Starfoxy’s spare change post, and how helping another can be inconvenient so sometimes that we pass it by. J. Joseph’s $5 experience going back to help the man, he was not an impatient person, quite willing to backtrack and offer more than once.

We may be so impatient that we miss the opportunties, the experiences that would lead to hope.

In my own self, I’m overwhelmed with more struggles that drag me down and I bitterly ponder the words of Job’s wife that I should curse God and die. The more chaotic this experience gets, the greater my *im*patience and the hope factor is zip, zilch, nada. So when that equation isn’t working for me anymore, it’s time for me to go back to the first parts of those verses.

Back to finding faith -> making peace ~with~ God -> standing in the grace of Jesus Christ -> joy and ultimately using that rejoicing to encourage me, to try again, to work the formula.

Patience -> Experience -> Hope

Michelle that is exactly what I found so interesting. So many times we talk about patience coming with experience, not the other way around. You are right about tribulation and if we don’t learn what we need to it serves no purpose. I have known others to sit and wallow in their suffering and never growing or getting on with it. God wants us to be happy and somehow we have to learn that in the midst of our trials. Something I need to learn much better.

I once heard a definition of charity that I love…that charity is the attitude of “an educated heart.” I think it was Elder Maxwell who talked of “tailored tutoring” … our trials are tailored for our growth. The experience we gain helps us personally, and can also help us then help others who may need our empathy, compassion and love. That perspective helps me through tough times…at least a little.

Thank you for sharing, Tanya!

Of course, how does a pan become ’seasoned’?

By being put through the oven many times…

It’s not just the gift of the moment of the experience such as the fun or amusement in the present, but it is the increased body of life experience, the increased perspective. Every day we live, we have added understanding, added perspective with which to view this mortal life (and the eternity surrounding it).

It’s easy to forget that in the midst of experiences we’d rather not live, but fact is, as you’re pointing out here, we are all “more understanding and more forgiving than [we were] 20 years ago,” and in another 20 years will hopefully be moreso (especially if we take the time to appreciate our ‘experience’ as it grows).