All of us look at our lives sometimes
and try to evaluate, where are we?
Where am I in my life?
I've always said that when you begin
to compare yourself one with another,
it either leads to discouragement
or it leads to pride.
Neither of those are good, but that's often
what happens when people begin comparing.
They start to think, "My lot in life is better,"
or "My lot in life is much worse."
And so it's not a constructive exercise
for us to try to compare our circumstance to another.
Blessings come in the near term; blessings
come in the long term.
Sometimes blessings are in store for us, I believe,
after we pass through the veil, in our postmortal existence.
And so we're in a very finite space right now.
And in this finite space, it's just not
beneficial to try to compare adversity that we've had
or to try to compare the blessings that we have.
We remember when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden,
one of the things that was introduced when they left
was thorns and thistles.
And we all have them in our lives,
but we can have confidence that all of those
can be overcome, whatever those might be
that are placed in front of us.
The Lord tells us that there's going
to be adversity along the way.
And He even suggests to us that our afflictions will
be consecrated for our gain.
Now, sometimes we have to wait some years for this.
But ultimately, we can be assured
that the promise of eternal life is for everyone.
Everyone will be rewarded for their faithfulness, equally.
If you endure to the end, you'll be blessed.
It might be hard today and tomorrow
and next month, but it will not always be hard.
You can do this as you exercise your faith in Jesus
Christ and His Atonement.
There will be, sometimes, adversity
and trials that will come to us that seem like they're
almost too hard to bear.
But then He says, "Nevertheless, be of good cheer,
for I will lead you along."
That's a promise from the Lord.
Be of good cheer in the midst of your adversity.
"Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along."
And I bear testimony that Jesus Christ will lead you along
in any adversity that you have.