The groundbreaking ceremony for the Billings Montana Temple was scheduled for March 1998.  A surprise spring snowstorm set in which worsened as the day progressed.  Despite the freezing conditions nearly 5,000 hearty souls, including a choir of 700 youth, came together to celebrate the happy occasion.

It was, indeed, a gladsome occasion, but only for those who were able to look beyond the discomforts and the afflictions of the moment.  Everyone in the freezing congregation was undoubtedly wondering why the Lord, in His mercy, had not blessed them with a warm, sunny day for an occasion such as this.

He could have, and probably would have; but there were circumstances elsewhere of which the Saints were unaware.  Unbeknownst to that gathering was that a large group of anti-Mormons from northern Wyoming had planned to make the trip to Billings to disrupt the proceedings.  The storm prevented them from getting there.  (See LDS Living, March/April 2016, pg. 46).

How many of the afflictions in our lives are like that?  How many of our afflictions are actually blessings in disguise?  Is it possible that every affliction is an intended blessing?

Think of father Lehi being commanded to leave Jerusalem, his home, his gold and silver, and the comforts he’d enjoyed for 40 years.  The promise was that he would thus avoid the destruction of Jerusalem and be led to a promised land.  What he wasn’t told was that the journey to his promised land would involve an 8-year sojourn in one of the most desolate places on earth while living on raw meat.  The hardships would be unimaginable, and would be followed by family squabbles, the building of a ship, and the crossing of two oceans.  Reaching the promised land where his family could finally plant themselves and their seeds probably required a dozen years.  None of it was easy.  Lehi and affliction were long-time, intimate acquaintances.

Knowing this adds meaning to the statement he made to his young son, Jacob, after reaching the promised land.  He told Jacob that the Lord “shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.”  (2 Ne. 2:2).  To that statement of fact I like to add “if we resist the urge to complain.”

Not murmuring about our afflictions increases the likelihood of our being able to recognize the associated blessings.

It must be remembered, however, that the blessings will come according to the Lord’s timing, not ours.  Lehi’s blessings only came after a decade or more of afflictions.  Sometimes the blessings aren’t even to be recognized until after this life.

Consider the position of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith in 1816.  That was the year  known as “the year without a summer.”  Through hard work they had established a fine farm in Vermont.  The sky seemed perpetually overcast that year.  Frosts came every month.  Their crops froze.  They lost their farm.  They were forced to make a move across two states to western New York where they started over.

This was surely a time of hardship for the family.  No blessings would have been evident, and the reasons for the aberrant weather, the crop failures, and the move to the strange place were a mystery to Joseph and Lucy.  They probably lived their entire lives without understanding why and how the Lord had them make that move.  They had no way of knowing that Mt. Tambora, a volcano on an island in Indonesia, half a world away, had erupted in a gigantic explosion.  Scientists think that explosion was probably the loudest sound ever heard on earth.  Thirty-eight cubic miles of rock and ash was blown high into the atmosphere.  Thirty-eight miles is the distance from Baker City to La Grande, Oregon.  Thirty-eight cubic miles of material is equivalent to excising a block of solid earth from Baker to La Grande that’s that long, that wide, and that deep.  All that material went into the atmosphere where it cooled the earth causing crop failures and famine across China and Europe.  Whatever else the Lord might have accomplished with that event, it caused the Smith family to move themselves and a 10-year-old boy in that family next to a particular hill where that boy could be given access to the contents of the hill and thus change the world.

In their thinking, Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith probably never once paired up the affliction of losing their farm with the second greatest blessing that had ever come to mankind (the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ).  Could they have foreseen what their affliction would lead to, how grateful would they have been to know that they were the chosen and privileged ones to bear the suffering that would bring to pass this great event.

Might we feel the same if we could see the reasons behind our own afflictions?  Bad things happen to good people, but they happen for a reason.  It’s important that we remember Lehi’s counsel:  He will consecrate our afflictions for our gain, if we resist the urge to complain.

Midway through my service in a stake presidency I suddenly lost the ability to walk.  I was eventually diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.  For six months I shuffled between the couch, the kitchen, the bathroom, and my bed.  I studied people as they strode across the living room, and marveled at how their joints worked so precisely without them giving a single thought to their knees and ankles.  I thought that perhaps by imitating their motions I’d be able to walk, too.

I also thought that if I could just get outside and exercise my legs, maybe they’d start working again.  I hobbled out onto the porch and stopped where it became necessary to make the 3-inch step down from the porch to the sidewalk.  I stared at that obstacle for a long time trying to get up the courage to take the plunge.  As I finally determined that I couldn’t do it, tears sprang to my eyes, and I hobbled back to my couch.

For an active man who has always enjoyed walking and hiking this was a very difficult period in my life.  Time, faith, a stake fast, and two priesthood blessings eventually restored me to perfect health.

At the outset of my affliction I was given the first of the two priesthood blessings.  It was given by a new missionary from California as he and his companion happened by as I was being loaded into our car to go to the hospital.  Elder Redd had never before given a priesthood blessing.  I hung on every word.  It was evident that the words he was speaking were not coming from a 19-year-old boy.

I was promised a complete healing.  I was told that it would not be immediate, and that it would take some time.  I was told that the affliction would be a blessing to my family, but that only later would we understand the reasons behind it.

Those things all came to pass.  In hindsight I can now say that those six months were one of the greatest blessings of my life.  Good things happened to my family that could not have come to pass had I not had to endure that time which necessitated my changing of occupations.

“He shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.”

I can testify that is so.

Does every affliction carry an associated blessing?

I suspect that is the case.  The jury is still out on that question, but I know for certain that our greatest afflictions are intended to become our greatest blessings.  The key is to face them as uncomplainingly as possible.