Today in Sunday School we learned about the importance of the transgressions and the Fall of Adam and Eve. This got me thinking about my own life, not that I once lived in a Garden only to be kicked out into a desolate world (well kind of that did happen.) Adam and Eve made a choice that broke the law of the Garden of Eden to then be kicked out so that mankind could exist. That must have really sucked being forced to leave a comfortable home life where there was no trial and forced into a world where they now have to work by the sweat of the brow. After being kicked out of the garden Eve explains in Moses 5:11 "Were it not for our transgressions we never should have known seed, and never should have known good and evil, and joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient." Kind of like Adam and Eve I too chose to leave a comfortable home that I knew and come to a strange land. Since I have been in this strange land I have been faced with several different trials from floods, drought and heat, fire and infertility to job loss. I often tell John if I could do it over again I would choose not to live here. I am sad to hear myself say that but the truth is sometimes it can be so hard I question whether or not I made the right choice. After Cain killed Abel did Eve go to Adam and say "I wish we would have stayed in the Garden, for if we had we would never have known sorrow." I am sure she didn't because by that time she was like 100 and had many more years of experience than I do.
I learned a good lesson from Eve today. Life in the garden was easy and because of that she could not know joy. God didn't intend life to be easy for me because he desires that I DO know joy. He loves me so much that He lets me suffer a bit of discomfort so that I know how wonderful it is to be comforted. I was allowed to experience infertility so that I could also experience the greatest joy of pregnancy. Today I realized that life was not meant to be experienced at 72 degrees, we are meant to experience extreme temperatures and continue progressing so that we can grow and become like He is. My choice to move to this strange land was a choice to grow and that gives the the strength to continue on in my desolate world. And now I know I made the right choice.
Remind yourself of this glorious doctrine when your toddler is screaming bloody murder in front of 200 people. Oh, the highs and lows are surely extreme!
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