I believe our Father in Heaven often talks to us with our own words and teaches us through our own understandings.

Those of you who know me know I like to lift weights for fun, weird I know, as if life wasn't hard enough right?!?! When you lift weights you get microscopic tears in the muscle. The good news is that as these little tears repair themselves, they prepare the muscles to handle the same type of exercise better the next time. The muscle gets more resilient, meaning the next time you do that same exercise you won't get damaged as much. That doesn't mean you are stronger, or mean you can lift more weight. It just means your muscle fibers are likely stronger so they won't tear as easily. Over time they'll build up and become a stronger fiber to lift more weight. Because the muscle adapts quickly to the same exercise, one needs to vary the weight, reps, type of exercises, and duration, otherwise you will plateau and there will be no progression.

Here is what I have felt our Father in Heaven telling me… Jason, I would submit that spiritual growth is not much different than physical growth. You have been tested, tried, and challenged in many different ways in your life, and that is a requirement (Isaiah 48:10, D&C 136:31). If all of your challenges were the same you would never grow after the initial shock. In order to progress spiritually, the weight, types of challenges, and duration need to vary otherwise you will plateau.

I have felt myself being stretched and torn by this trial. It has been overwhelming at times contemplating life without our son. There have been tender moments of joy, and sadness, and I’m sure many more of both to come. We do not know what will happen and when it will happen, but we are to walk by faith in this life not sight (Corinthians 5: 6-7). “You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down” C.S. Lewis. I know we will all have to pass through winter in our lives, but the summer always comes after winter. No matter how cold, dark, and bitter the winter, we can find warmth and strength in gospel. Even in the middle of the worst winter we can have the summer rays of heaven, enlighten our minds, quicken our understandings, warm our souls, and distill upon us as dews from the heaven (D&C 11: 11-14, D&C 121:45).

I know that these microscopic tears will give me and our family increased spiritual strength and protection from spiritual plateau (D&C 122:7). Above all no matter what we are asked to pass through I will not forsake my God.

Jason