Kirkby Family

"Why is non-endurance a denial of the Lord? Because giving up is a denial of the Lord's loving capacity to see us through 'all these things'! Giving up suggests that God is less than He really is . . . So much of life's curriculum consists of efforts by the Lord to get and keep our attention. Ironically, the stimuli He uses are often that which is seen by us as something to endure. Sometimes what we are being asked to endure is His 'help' - help to draw us away from the cares of the world; help to draw us away from self-centeredness; attention-getting help when the still, small voice has been ignored by us; help in the shaping of our souls; and help to keep the promises we made so long ago to Him and to ourselves . . . Whether the afflictions are self-induced, as most of them are, or whether they are of the divine-tutorial type, it matters not. Either way, the Lord can help us so that our afflictions, said Alma, can be 'swallowed up in the joy of Christ' (Alma 31:38). Thus, afflictions are endured and are overcome by joy. The sour notes are lost amid a symphony of salvational sounds. Our afflictions, brothers and sisters, may not be extinguished. Instead, they can be dwarfed and swallowed up in the joy of Christ. This is how we overcome most of the time - not the elimination of affliction, but the placing of these in that larger context."

-- Neal A. Maxwell, Wherefore, Ye Must Press Forward, 112.