Crucibles and Healing:Illness, Loss,Death, and Bereavement

“To experience earth life is to know suffering at various times.” Everyone one of us goes through difficult times. It may be due to loss, grief, loneliness and despair. We go through physical, psychological and spiritual distress. 

We read this week about the “crucibles” of our human experience and what this means is that a crucible is like a furnace that endures intense heat and transforms a raw material into a new stronger substance. Much like humans after we go through and intense time of stress or problems, we hopefully come out stronger and changed for the better on the other side. “These experiences have the potential to change how we view ourselves, our relationships with others, and our relationship with God.”

Im my own life I would have to take the experience of my divorce. It has been such a hard process. The divorce alone but then navigating life as a single mother and then after losing alimony money, navigate life as a single mother who has lost most of her income and now after having been a stay at home mom for half of her life has to figure out what to do. After almost seven years it is still hard but

I’m learning and growing every day and I hope that I’m a different and better person now than I was 6 years ago when this was a brand new experience. I know I have so much more to do and change to be a better person and have a better life but I also know i’m learning so much about how I want a future relationship and hopefully marriage to be so it will last and most of all I have learned how I should and want how be treated by a man.

When we got through trials we often think “why”, “why is this happening to me”, “why is God letting this happen”. It’s our perspective during these times that determines how we will respond and get through. Our perspective can have a major impact on how we handle hard situations. “Jesus Christ offers an eternal perspective that helps families to understand that there may be significant purposes to the adversities of this life.”  However it is natural to have moments of doubt, fear and uncertainty when learning to cope in these times. 

We read in this chapter that “A family crucible perspective grounded in the restored gospel provides a guiding lens through which we can more fully understand and appreciate how individuals and families are influenced and transformed by experiences with illness and disability, death and bereavement, and other profound experiences with adversity and loss.”

If we have this understanding that we will come out stronger,  it will help us to realize that we are blessed as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to have the knowledge of the gospel and of course our families.