Attitude Toward Trials

Everyone who has ever lived on earth has faced trials, even Jesus Christ. Nothing in God’s plan for us ever promised us a trial-free life. Homosexuality is just one possible trial a person can have on earth, and Mormons who struggle with this understand that there are other trials just as challenging. Nothing in God’s plan says that He considers a trial an excuse for sin.Temptation

Having a temptation doesn’t mean we must give in to that temptation. A person with alcoholic tendencies must not drink. A person with a longing to steal must not steal. A person with a temper must not give in to that temper. Whatever the temptation, one reason we’ve come to earth is to gain control over our bodies and our minds, to live as we’re supposed to live regardless of the temptations. The Savior showed us the example of how to handle temptation when Satan came to Him with three temptations. He dealt with each one, finally sending Satan away. This is how we also must cope with our own temptations.

Trials

There is no question that having homosexual tendencies is a trial, one that requires a great deal of work to manage at some points in our lives. Everyone has trials. Everyone struggles with something. It’s part of the mortal experience. We don’t know why this particular trial occurs or what causes it, but the whys don’t really matter. What matters is what we do about it and how we choose to feel about it.

Feelings are a choice. There may be times when feelings overwhelm us, but in the long run, we can choose how we want to feel. Choice is an essential part of God’s plan for us. He promises us the right to make choices. We can’t choose our trials, but we can choose our attitude toward those trials.

James E. Faust, a former high ranking church official, said:

“Here, then, is a great truth. In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner’s fire…. In this way the divine image can be mirrored from the soul. It is part of the purging toll exacted of some to become acquainted with God. In the agonies of life, we seem to listen better to the faint, godly whisperings of the Divine Shepherd.

Into every life there come the painful, despairing days of adversity and buffeting. There seems to be a full measure of anguish, sorrow, and often heartbreak for everyone, including those who earnestly seek to do right and be faithful. …The thorns that prick, that stick in the flesh, that hurt, often change lives which seem robbed of significance and hope. This change comes about through a refining process which often seems cruel and hard. In this way the soul can become like soft clay in the hands of the Master in building lives of faith, usefulness, beauty, and strength. For some, the refiner’s fire causes a loss of belief and faith in God, but those with eternal perspective understand that such refining is part of the perfection process.” (James E. Faust, “Refined in Our Trials,” Ensign, Feb 2006, 2-7)

When viewed with a proper attitude, any trial, including that of homosexuality, can be seen as a blessing, something that will refine us and help us achieve what God most wants from us, the opportunity to become everything He knows we can be, and to return home to Him, sin-free and trial-free.

This trial, like any other, can be the means of helping us become more like the Savior, stronger, braver, more in control of ourselves and our passions. Or it can become the means to make us give up and give in, allowing our trials to control us instead of having us control them. The choice is entirely ours, but God’s truth will always be God’s truth, and can’t be changed. All that can change is our attitude toward the truth and our desire to honor it.

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