A couple of weeks ago, a friend tagged me on a Facebook picture of a rainbow that said she hoped we had a colorful day and that God would bless us. It was a very nice gesture. Then someone who she had tagged answered back with a response that really made me sad. I won't quote word by word, but it was something to the extent of that he didn't need blessings from above because as far as he knew God had send us all to this Earth to suffer. He said he didn't understand why if we were so happy and comfortable in Heaven why would our Heavenly Father want to send us here to suffer so much.
I couldn't stop thinking about this comment, especially because it hit a cord with me. I too had felt like this once and I have heard many others say this too. But I had thankfully found understanding and peace and I wish I could find a way to share it with this person. But I let it go since I didn't know this person.
Then on a sunny Thursday morning I found myself getting ready to go on a school fieldtrip with my daughter. As we sat on the bus I watched her interact with her BFF, smiling, giggling and just full of excitement to be going to the planetarium.
I couldn't help but reminisce about my school days and all the wonderful memories I have of awesome fieldtrips. Especially the ones where my dad got to go with me. And now here I was, full circle, now my turn to see my daughter make her own memories. At that very moment my heart was full, a feeling of joy, of assurance, of gratefulness to my Heavenly Father came over me. At that moment I knew my Heavenly Father's Plan of happiness was perfect.
Yes we were in Heaven and yes it was great, but H.F. knew what it was like to experience mortal life. He too had experienced it. He knew that to progress and grow we needed to know sweetness from sourness. We choose to come here. We choose to follow his plan because we wanted to grow and learn as He did.
And yes life is hard. Yes life is full of horrible things. People do suffer. A lot of it are the consequences of our bad choices and H.F. has to let them be so that we learn. We may not fully understand everything now but as I left my bad habits, as I turned to him once again with a humble heart and contrite spirit, as I repented and as I humbled myself to Him I received confirmation and peace in his gospel. I received more knowledge of my purpose and reason here on earth.
And I knew at that moment that even this simple but wonderful pleasure of rejoicing as I experienced seeing my daughter's smiling face was a gift from my H.F. A gift I wouldn't be able to have if I wasn't here on Earth living life. He allowed me to experience happiness as a child and made a perfect plan where as I grew and got to experience being the parent I can also experience another even greater joy. Yes I have had hardships, I have been sad, I have been hurt, and I still struggle through many of life's difficulties but non of those things even measured to the sweetness of this moment and of many other moments of blissful happiness and blessings. Many of which I wouldn't appreciate if I hadn't gone through many of those difficult times.
I also noticed that when I felt this way before, it was a time in my life when I wanted to be disobedient. When I wanted to give in to temptations or bad decisions. When I was being rebellious and then seeing the results of those bad choices. It's sad but true, most people who feel this way or who say such things are people who are relying on their own strength, people who have forgotten about God. We don't want to be humble and rely on God for guidance, we are proud and vain and blame our problems and choices and consequences on others, but especially God.
But even in many of the very famous movies my point is proven. Take the Matrix for instance, even though they had the choice of staying in a "sleep" and living in a controled enviroment they choose to be free. To experience life for themselves, to be ALIVE and have choice. In every story, movie or fairy tale, the characters want to experience happiness and sorrow for themselves. So yes, maybe we were in a very blissful state in Heaven, not knowing anything else but happiness, but we wanted more. We wanted to be able to grow and maybe to truly appreciate all that we had, but to do that we needed to experience mortality. We needed to experience sorrow too. In this I have a testimony of, I know I choose to come here. I choose to experience mortality even when I knew it would be hard at times.
But even the simplest experiences that would produce happiness would make it all worth it. Just like that day, being able to be with my daughter as she got to have a simple yet joyful experience in her young life. Something as simple as a fieldtrip full of laughs and memories I wouldn't have want to miss it for anything. If this brings me joy, I can only imagine what I will feel when my Heavenly Father receives me in his arms again.
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