True Friends

We were sent to this earth to be tried and tested.  We knew it would not be easy before we came, but then the veil was put over our eyes and we don't remember the things that we were prepared to endure.  Life can seem so good for a while, and all can be going right and good, and then we turn a bend in the road of our life and find we have come upon a refiner's fire.  We are called upon to suffer and through that suffering our faith is tested.  The scriptures sometimes refer to it as a 'wilderness'....just like when the Savior went into the 'wilderness' to fast and pray and draw near to his Heavenly Father.  This is something we must do alone, because we each, individually must come to our Savior and accept His atonement.  We cannot return to our Heavenly Father on borrowed light.  We can't gain character or use our faith on someone else's testimony. 

Jesus Christ is our True Friend, and He will always be there to help us through our darkest times, and only He is able because He walked the same path we must walk.  He can help us, even though we may feel alone at times on that path.  He is able, and He can make us able, too.

Heavenly Father has also given us angels in many forms.  Some help us from the other side of the veil.  Others are here in mortality...our true friends.  They stand beside us.  They give us strength, even when there is nothing they can do.

One of my best friends is treading a very thorny path right now.  I feel so helpless because there is nothing I can do to help her get through this--except pray a lot, which I do.  I know only time and God will get her through it.

I got a card from her today with this poem that she read, and she said she knew she was supposed to read it, and when she read it, she knew it was me.  It was a tender mercy for her, and it was a tender mercy for me.  You see, I'd read a Women's Conference 2006  talk yesterday by Virginia H. Pearce....and she told us how precious we are to the Lord, and that if we are feeling less than adequate then we should pray to Heavenly Father and ask him to reveal to us how precious we are.  Well, I needed that, and I did that, and today I got this poem:

When trouble comes your soul to try,
You love the friend who just 'stands by.'
Perhaps there's nothing [she] can do--
The thing is so strictly up to you:
For these are troubles all your own,
And paths the soul must tread alone;
Times when love cannot smooth the road
Nor friendship lift the heavy load,
But just to know you have a friend
Who will 'stand by' until the end,
Who's sympathy through all endures
Who's warm hand clasp is always yours--
It helps someway to pull you through,
Although there's nothing [she] can do.
And so with fervent heart you cry,
"God bless the friend who just stands by!"

Such a tender mercy from the Lord to know I am not only precious to Him, but I am precious to such a dear friend.  I'm so glad that a loving and merciful Heavenly Father stationed me here at this time to be her friend.

What a wonderful gift it is to have friends.

How precious to have and to be a True Friend. 

Sleep in Peace; God is Awake

I just came across this quote again, and it's such a comforting thought, because who doesn't struggle in mortality on occassion?

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life, and patience for the small ones, and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.  God is awake."  -Victor Hugo

Hope is born of knowing we are not alone.