Peace more than joy

“In my annual school blessing in autumn, Heavenly Father told me that I’d be going through a lot of sadness throughout the year and I was supposed to love it. Basically, suffer and be happy about it. It was interesting having those experiences throughout the year of me being super, super sad, not even wanting to go forward at all, but learning to be happy about it and be thankful for the sadness. Which is no fun, because when you’re sad you want to be angry and say, ‘Why are you doing this? This is kind of a jerky thing to do—and then tell me to be happy about it.’ It’s like God’s way of saying, ‘Hey, let me throw some fire on you. And then please try to pour yourself a glass of water while this fire’s on you.’

“Looking back, it’s the one year I’d totally live over again. Which is super odd. When you feel sadness, they say sadness is good because then you know happiness and the happiness becomes a lot better. I think I liked the sadness. Though I couldn’t make joy out of the sadness, I found the sweetness and the peace within it. I learned to love peace more than joy.”