Tender Mercies

You know when there are those times in life when you just really really really need to wallow? 

I mean, you know it's probably not the most sensible or bravest thing to do, but sometimes you just want to feel sorry for yourself... Am I alone here?  I have been well, you know, really wanting to throw myself a girls only, pajama party where all we do is watch Pride and Prejudice for a week straight and we only eat strawberries and peanut butter.  However, apparently, somebody has a different idea about how I need to face my challenges.  Last night we (Heather, Bri and company) made the most delicious home made pizza.  We used my sister Cate's bread recipe for the crust... It's that totally amazing 5 ingredient works every time bread.  And made a delightful assortment of margarita, chicken pesto, pepperoni, and thai pizzas. And after dinner we were sitting of Bri's roof lamenting our sad fates.  ( I know, good friends, good food, roof top terrace... we're obviously not that tormented but anyway...) Heather reminded me of this CES Fireside that we went to where Elder Holland spoke on "Temple Prisons" so I came home and read it and let me tell you... I was humbled.  Humbled by a loving Father, who wanted me to remember what Elder Holland has to say:

...when we promise to follow the Savior, to walk in His footsteps and be His disciples, we are promising to go where that divine path leads us. And the path of salvation has always led one way or another through Gethsemane. So if the Savior faced such injustices and discouragements, such persecutions, unrighteousness, and suffering, we cannot expect that we are not going to face some of that if we still intend to call ourselves His true disciples and faithful followers. And it certainly underscores the fact that the righteous—in the Savior’s case, the personification of righteousness—can be totally worthy before God and still suffer.

In fact, it ought to be a matter of great doctrinal consolation to us that Jesus, in the course of the Atonement, experienced all of the heartache and sorrow, all of the disappointments and injustices that the entire family of man had experienced and would experience from Adam and Eve to the end of the world in order that we would not have to face them so severely or so deeply. However heavy our load might be, it would be a lot heavier if the Savior had not gone that way before us and carried that burden with us and for us.

This is what Easter means to me.  The Light in the darkness, the Comfort of Angels, a reason alone to Hope.