“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink— Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.” (D&C 19:18-19). When the bitter cup is placed before us, each of us have a choice. We can submit ourselves to the will of our Heavenly Father and keep our eye single to His glory and partake of the bitter cup and finish our task. This choice will require us to suffer pain and anguish. It will be the hardest thing that we do. But if we choose to partake, then the Lord will magnify and expand our abilities and turn weakness into strength and in the end will crown us with His glory. Our other choice is to shrink. We have the power to refuse to submit our will to our Heavenly Father’s, to close tight our lips when the bitter cup is placed before us, and to unequivocally deny any virtue or benefit to come from the hardest moments of our lives. This is not a wise choice nor is it a path that will lead us to greater happiness and peace, but it is one of the choices before us. To deny ourselves of the opportunity to exercise faith and hope and show our trust and our love for our Heavenly Father by enduring well the trials placed before us is to shrink, to diminish, to sever our ties to the true vine and to wither into a dry, brittle, fruitless stick, good for nothing but to be trodden underfoot and cast into the fire. To drink from the bitter cup is to grow and expand and to progress towards our divine potential. To refuse to drink from the bitter cup is to shrink and devolve and to backslide away from our Divine potential. Jesus Christ did not shrink, but drank and drank and drank from the bitter cup until His soul expanded wide as eternity. I hope that we can follow His example and make the sacrifices necessary to learn and grow from the worst moments of our lives and endure well all of our hardships and not shrink, so that all things may work together for our good.
