 |
|
|
We are taught that we left our Heavenly Parents and came into this life
so we could learn from our experiences here. From LDS retellings of the
Fall, we learn that human beings needed to be separated from God—needed,
even, to transgress God's commandments—in order to know good and
evil, to progress, and to experience joy (2 Ne.
2:22-25; Moses 5:11).
This teaching invites us to explore and take risks, to learn from mistakes
instead of fearing them. It emboldens us to live independently, taking
our own experience as our guide. We are cautioned, though, that we will
reap the consequences of our choices, for good or for ill. We live in
a dangerous world, not in Eden. God teaches principles to steer us away
from danger; but because God leaves us to govern ourselves, our learning
may come by painful trial and error.
Many Latter-day Saints, among them Joseph Smith, have found comfort in
the concept that we learn and grow from adversity (D&C
122:5-7). Not all suffering, though, can be credibly explained
as a learning experience. Pointless or horrific suffering is an evil we
confront as a result of living in a fallen world, an evil that God desires
to overcome. Where we are helpless to relieve suffering, Christ challenges
us to follow his example of sheer, perfect empathy by opening ourselves
to share others' pains and griefs (Alma 7:11-12;
Mosiah 18:8-9).
| Related Topics:
|
 The
Fall |
|
|
| B. H. Roberts: Mere innocence
. . . is but a negative sort of virtue. A virtue that is colorless,
never quite sure of itself, always more or less uncertain, because
untried. Such a virtue—if mere absence of vice may be called
virtue—would be unproductive of that "joy" the attainment
of which is set forth in the Book of Mormon as the purpose of man's
existence. . . . The "joy" contemplated in the Book of Mormon
passage is to arise out of man's rough and thorough knowledge of evil,
of sin; through knowing misery, sorrow, pain and suffering; through
seeing good and evil locked in awful conflict; through a consciousness
of having chosen in that conflict the better part, the good; and not
only in having chosen it, but in having wedded it by eternal compact
. . . The strength that comes from experience; from having sounded
the depths of the soul; from experiencing all the emotions of which
mind is susceptible; from testing all the qualities and strength of
the intellect. |
| Seventy's Course in
Theology (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1907-1912), 2:50-51 |
Harold B. Lee: The
decision as to whether or not a thing is right or wrong must be
left to the judgment of your own conscience, plus an understanding
that comes with learning and experience. At best in all such matters
the Church can teach you correct principles and you must learn to
govern yourselves.
|
| Decisions for Successful
Living (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1973), 151-52 |
Neal A. Maxwell: Surely
it was not only Jesus who needed to know "according to the
flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities"
(Alma 7:11-12). All the rest of us are expected to succor others
at our lower level. But can we have real empathy without experiencing
some adversity? Can we expect to be total strangers to suffering
if we expect to be fully understanding friends to others in their
affliction?
|
| That Ye May Believe
(Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1992), 107 |
Dallin H. Oaks: Personal
decision making is one of the sources of the growth we are meant
to experience in mortality. Persons who try to shift all decision
making to the Lord and plead for revelation in every choice will
soon find circumstances in which they pray for guidance and don’t
receive it.
|
| “Our Strengths Can
Become Our Downfall,” Ensign, October 1994, 11 |
Bruce C. and Marie K. Hafen:
Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we may learn from our
experience without being condemned by our experience.
|
| The Belonging Heart
(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1994), 77 |
|
|
|
