In Helaman Chapter 7, the prophet Nephi cries out in frustration and bitterness to God over the sorrow and tribulations he has encountered in the wickedness of his brethren and wishes that he could have had his days in the days of his ancestor and namesake Nephi, because then he could have had joy. Of course, he was perhaps not remembering that his ancestor’s brothers had tried to kill him not just once, but several times, or that he had nearly starved to death in the wilderness, or drowned at sea, or any of the dozens or hundreds of other reasons that the first Nephi would have found sorrow, rather than joy, in his day. This life is one big test, and we all like to imagine that if we had the opportunity to swap tests with someone else, we would do so much better. But our Heavenly Father has designed the perfect test for each one of us. We understand only imperfectly the reasons and the purposes for our own tests and understand the details of the tests of others even less perfectly. Paul personally stood and watched Stephen, the righteous servant of the Lord, stoned to death for doing exactly as directed by the Lord. Paul was later stoned himself, several times, and survived. Was Paul more or less righteous than Stephen? The people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi were tested in their conviction to never shed blood again and did the right thing as they praised God even in the very act of being cut down and slain. Their own sons were tested in turn by taking up arms in defense of their families and did the right thing in turn by standing and fighting. The Lord heard the prayers of the fathers and allowed them to be slain, and He heard the prayers of the sons and ensured that not a single one perished. . The Lord allowed the believers in Ammonihah to be burned alive, and He stopped the believers among the Nephites at the time of his birth from suffering a similar fate. “And the elders of the church, two or more, shall be called, and shall pray for and lay their hands upon them in my name; and if they die they shall die unto me, and if they live they shall live unto me. Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection.” (D&C 42:44-45) The only test that we should be concerned about is our own. If we face the challenges in our life with faith and find that our faith seems to be yielding different results than someone who seems to be going through an identical situation, then that is no concern of ours. Maybe they had more faith than we did, and maybe they had less. Maybe the Lord trusts them more, and maybe He trusts us more. The challenges we face are hard enough without us trying to compare ours with those of other people. It would be like in school we are taking a history test and trying to copy off the answers from the person next to us, only they’re taking an algebra test. What I do know is this is our time to prepare to meet God. We would not fare as well as we think we might if we were to try to live out our lives in another time or place. Yes, we might have different challenges if we had someone else’s test, but different does not mean easier. I hope we can all learn to keep our eyes on our own test and lean on the Lord when our own strength and understanding fails us and I know if we do this we will find that God will help us to overcome every single obstacle that we face, for He has selected each and every one of them especially for us.
