Even though trials in our lives can be difficult, they are important for us to learn from. This is a message Paul Roberts stressed in this week’s BYU-Idaho devotional.
Roberts is the associate dean of the College of Education and Human Development at BYU-Idaho. The name of his talk is “Learning the True Principles of Life,” and it discussed the importance of persevering and learning from the trials that we face.
“Why do we all have problems? Aren’t we supposed to have joy? Isn’t that the purpose of our existence?” Roberts asked in his devotional.
Roberts taught five things we can learn from our problems. Two of them are remembering hope in Christ and learning to rely on others.
His first lesson highlighted the importance of always having hope in Heavenly Father and in Jesus Christ.
“When we experience problems, Satan says we can’t be better, and that we should give up,” Roberts said.
He said if we go to Heavenly Father with problems, He will say, “try again without the burden of guilt and sin. Give me your anger, your despair and your pain and try again with a happy, hopeful heart.”
Roberts ended this lesson with an invitation to "review and remember the compassion that Christ has for you while dealing with each problem you have in life.” He also encouraged listeners to write down their thoughts and share them with others.
His second lesson proposed that facing our trials alone isn’t a good idea. Having someone to lean on is crucial in facing problems.
“Sometimes we mistakenly believe that taking responsibility for our own problems means we fix them without the help of others,” Roberts said. “Other times we mistakenly believe that we are the only ones with a particular problem and that we need to deal with it alone. There is nothing in the plan of salvation that says we need to go it alone.”
He told listeners to try to ask for help and “see what happens.”
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, Roberts said it’s important to validate your troubles.
“If you’re feeling like your burden’s heavy, it’s because it is. You don’t have to justify that somehow your burden is equally as heavy as someone else’s or that your problem is somehow justifiable in the way that you are feeling or responding. You are responding the way that you are responding because it is heavy,” he said.
He also said it’s important for everyone to learn from their problems.
“Those little nuggets, those little true principles of life that you discover through dealing with problems are the treasures that we get to keep with us and take with us,” Roberts said.