Submitting to what is inflicted upon us

Mosiah 3:19

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

When I first became acquainted with this verse as a teenager, I thought that "inflict" seemed like such a painful word. What father would inflict things upon his child?

But as I've gotten older, I've realized that the Lord inflicts things upon us because he knows they will help us grow in the right ways.  Scoliosis and a back brace was inflicted upon me as a teenager. Not the funnest thing I've ever had to cope with, but it shaped me in profound and important ways.

Since then, other hard and sometimes painful things have been inflicted upon me. Things that were completely not my fault. Things that were unfair. Things that caused heartache, and tears, and soul searching.

Am I willing to submit to such things?

Are you?

My answer to the first question, is a firm, "yes". It may be hard, I may be brought to my knees with sorrow and tears or simply from a burning desire to understand, "what am I supposed to be learning from this?" But I say, Yes. I am willing to submit.

I have faith in Jesus Christ. I believe that he is “an high priest of good things to come.” I believe that all of the afflictions I experience will be for my good. That they will help me become a saint through the atonement of Christ.

As for the second question, only you can answer that. But I believe that there is peace and joy found in this journey of submission.