There is no “happy ever after” in this life.  There is just “endure to the end happily.”  Expecting a life free from pain and sorrow and filled with nothing but fun and happiness is unrealistic, even though the movies of my youth left me with that belief.

Why is that? Our Father-in-Heaven sent us to earth to be tried and tested to see if we would be obedient to him. In order to be tried and tested he put something in the mix to make that happen and that thing was “Satan”.

Satan is here to tempt us to make bad choices and to lead us away from our Father. Why would Satan want to do that? He is miserable because of his bad choices and being cast out of Heaven so he wants us to be miserable like him.

The test is to prove that we can remain faithful to God in spite of trials, temptations, sorrows and hurts that come our way.

Not only does Satan try us but life brings hardships as we deal with other people, natural disasters and our own failings.

Thankfully, no matter what comes along there is one freedom which can never be taken away from us and that is the freedom to choose our attitude in any given circumstance. Victor Frankel’s words.  We can endure, with a good attitude and an understanding of why we are being tested.

Why do we need to be tested? God has plans for us.  He gave each of us gifts, talents, abilities, potential and a mission. He allows things to happen to us, to teach us what we need to know to fully reach our potential and mission. He also has great plans for us in the next life. If we can’t survive the testing here, we are of no value to him. Think of all the extreme trials and testing Jesus and our prophets went through to be able to reach their potential and fulfill their mission. We are no different!

Without this understanding of the reality of our existence, many of us cheat ourselves of the peace and happiness we could enjoy. Instead we think negatively. We falsely believe that we shouldn’t have to experience hurt, pain and sorrow. When hurt comes, we often think life’s not fair, we didn’t deserve it and if there is a God he’s wouldn’t have allowed it to happen to us.  When bad things happen to good people we don’t always stay good.

When we are hurt, we get mad at God, feel sorry for ourselves, rebel, and give up. We often choose to sin, turn our back on loved ones, and become filled with anger, hatred, resentment and revenge.

When we do these things it doesn’t change anything. It only makes things worse.

In reality we must have our eyes wide open and see that what we are experiencing is another test!

For example: we may feel justified in leaving our marriage and remarry only to find that in our new life we still have trials and pain. We forget we take ourselves with us and our habit of how we handle our trials. We are still being tested.

We can’t run away from trials and testing, they will follow us wherever we go. We can only endure to the end in love and faith if we want to find joy and happiness in this life and be worthy of eternal life in the life to come. This understanding can help us “endure to the end, happily.”

To survive our trials, we need to draw close to Heavenly Father in faith and love so he can help us learn and grow and become what he knows we are capable of. He knows if we endure and overcome the trails and pain we will be lead to our life’s purpose, abilities and potential so we can fulfill our mission.

James 5:11 we count them happy which endure. Mark 13:13 He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

— Eva Fry

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