"...They taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good" (Moses 6:55)

The other morning as I walked in the cold weather, my heart was very heavy. I was having a difficult time focusing on anything positive and was feeling a bit sorry for myself after an incident that had taken place with family the night before. I wanted to quit thinking about it and focus on something else. I really wanted to run away from the problem, but that would do no good and be very selfish. So, as I walked, I looked around at the stark contrast between the white of the snow and the dark branches of the trees. I thought of how the trees go dormant during the winter and that eventually spring always comes after what seems like such a cold and deathly winter; buds appear and bloom into flowers, leaves poke their heads out and grow. Most definitely, "there is an opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:11).

I started to make a mental list of all the things that I was grateful for, of oppositions as I walked. This helped me focus on something else other than the heavy heart that I didn't want to keep carrying in the bitter, cold morning. I have to be honest, the "bitterness" came from my foul mood, and the "sweetness" was an effort to change my attitiude. There is not a particular order to this list of oppositions, but each, both the bitter and the sweet, has brought a blessing into my life. I hope you will come up with your own list of oppositions. If we "should never have bitter [or opposition we] could not know the sweet" (D&C 29:39). As the Lord said to Adam, "...they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good" (Moses 6:55).  Truly, opposition blesses our lives with bitterness so that we may recognize the sweetness of the Lord and His "tender mercies" (1 Nephi 1:20). Without bitterness, we would not recognize what is sweet. Some of these may not make any sense to you, but this is my list of oppositions...and they need only make sense to me. I share them because I have grown from them, and have tasted the bitter and the sweet, and the sweet is "the most sweet, above all that I ever tasted" (1 Nephi 8:11).

My Short Blessing list of Oppositions 

• being hungry and thirsty in opposition to having enough food and water to eat and drink; not only physically but spiritually as well (see Matt 5:6)
• being bitterly cold in opposition to being warm, especially when I return home to the "warm hearts" of loved ones (see D&C 121:9)
• having a sick child in opposition to having a child become well or my children healthy all the time (see D&C 42:48)
• icy roads that I fall on and have to pick my self back up in opposition to roads that have been cleared and are easy to follow so that I don't stumble and fall (see 2 Nephi 4:32)
• being tired and exhausted in opposition to being awake and alert (see 1 Cor. 15:34)
• feeling alone and abandoned in opposition to feeling totally loved and surrounded by loved ones (see D&C 6:20-21)
• being in excruciating pain in opposition to having no more pain or free from pain (see Alma 36:19; Revelations 21:4; Mosiah 27:29) 
• tears of sorrow in opposition to tears of joy (see Psalms 126:5)
• darkness and night in opposition to sunshine and daylight (see Moroni 7:15) 
• making enemies in opposition to making and having friends (see Matt 5:44; 3 Nephi 12:44)
• barren, no growth in opposition to planting trees, pruning shrubs and  bushes and watching the beauty of these grow (see Alma 33:23)
• impatience, fretting, and worrying in opposition to waiting patiently, being calm, filled with faith (Psalms 37:5-11)

As I pondered these oppositions, and looked around me at the cold of winter that covered the earth, I realized that all these things testify of Christ. They all call us to Him, "He that ascended up on high, as also He descended below all things, in that He comprehended all things, that He might be in all and through all things, the light of truth; which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ" (D&C 88: 6-7). As we go through opposition, which gratefully we do, even though it is difficult and hard and sometimes we desperately don't want to, we can look to Him, the One who knows how to succor us according to our infirmities (see Alma 7:12) and heal our all our wounds and our souls and thus, we may know "to prize the good".

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." (2 Nephi 2:11)

Some days you just fall flat on your face when you hit ice. Well, at least I do. I now have a bruised elbow, and a bruise ego, but other than that, I'm good. I also have a greater appreciation for a healthy body. I have decided that falling was a good thing.  Why? Because without falling I wouldn't realize just how good I have it. I have a body that works, that my fingers can type these words, my eyes can see the beautiful world and creations all around me. I can see the beautiful faces of our children. I am blessed to have teeth~ I am so grateful I didn't smack my mouth or my jaw today. If I hadn't fallen, I wouldn't be appreciating the usual pain-free elbows I have or the knees that are so wonderful to help me pedal my bike, normally without pain.

Today, the opposition that landed me flat on my chest, face, and everything else helped me have a better perspective. It says: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so...righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness not misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must need remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility" (2 Nephi 2:11). After falling today, and smacking into the cold, hard cement, I would choose to feel pain so that I could feel the joy rather than have no pain and no joy. I wouldn't give up either one...joy and happiness, kindness and love are too incredible to give up. So, I will endure the pain so that I can have the joy.

Christ wants all of us to have His joy and the only way we can have it is to endure pain. He said, "Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full. Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul. And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life" (D&C 101:36-38). "The spirit and the body are the soul of man" (D&C 88:15) and we get to experience joy and sadness, pleasure and pain so that we may know to "prize the good" (Moses 6:55). Life isn't easy at times, but it isn't all bad either. We get to choose for ourselves to "prize the good". We get to know the joy because of the pain. We get to know the light because of the dark. We get to know holiness because of misery.

What a blessing to fall and to get back up. We don't have to stay on the ground or remain in our sins unless we choose to remain there (see Alma 9:15).  The beauty is we also have a choice to get up off the ground, return to standing, or in other words~ repent (see Alma 9:15). "If [we] return unto the Lord with all [our] hearts, ...and prepare [our] hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only: [then] He will deliver [us] out of the hand of [our enemies]", or in other words, our fall (1 Samuel 7:3). Choosing to get back up when we fall down may be difficult, but it is the choice that leads us up and closer to Christ. It is returning to Christ. It brings the greatest joy one could ever want and frees one from pain. This I testify.