Loooong after the trial 

When a trial gets thrown my way, I immediately start to think, “What am I supposed to learn from this?”⁣

There’s a part of me that thinks if I learn my lessons quickly enough, then the trial might end sooner. ⁣

But sometimes… the trial is just the worst. ⁣

It’s heavy. It’s no fun. There’s no end in sight. ⁣

And I can’t find even a shred of a lesson to be learned anywhere. ⁣

Except… just endure. ⁣⁣

Several years ago, I endured a few months of a severe trial. ⁣

It was kicking my booty. ⁣

And then, the trial was over. ⁣

I felt so much better, lighter, more free…⁣

But I still didn’t know what lesson I was supposed to learn from it. ⁣

I thought I would get clarity afterwards. But the trial just seemed dark still, even looking back. ⁣

Hmmmm. Maybe there wasn’t a lesson to learn other than that life is just hard sometimes. ⁣

One day, a friend called me and told me about her latest trial. ⁣

It was exactly what I had experienced. ⁣

I turned into full-on empathy mode. I told her to complain to me. I constantly checked in with her. ⁣

I told her that I knew this was the worst, and that there wasn’t much that was going to make it better and that I was so sorry. ⁣

And then I heard about someone else I didn’t know super well who was going through the same trial. ⁣

It felt a little awkward at first, but I knew I needed to reach out and lend an understanding listening ear. ⁣

Finally one evening, I reflected. ⁣

What if THAT was the blessing?⁣

What if the blessing of my trial was the empathy that I gained for others? For the future acts of service I could perform because I perfectly understood how crushing it was to endure? ⁣

The Lord taught in D&C 103:12: “For after much tribulation… cometh the blessing.”⁣

Sometimes the blessings are evident during the trial. Sometimes they are evident right afterwards. ⁣

But sometimes… sometimes it’s not until after. ⁣

Long after. ⁣

That we begin to see what the blessing might have been.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black