For sweet MaryLynne

My sweet beautiful friend, MaryLynne, is having major struggles with pain in her health battles, a part of which is cancer.  This is for her as well as all of us in our life treks.  Draw strength from it, MaryLynne.  You are in our prayers and we love you.

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The Divine Shepherd has a message of hope, strength, and deliverance for all. If there were no night, we would not appreciate the day, nor could we see the stars and the vastness of the heavens. We must partake of the bitter with the sweet. There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless.

When we pluck the roses, we find we often cannot avoid the thorns which spring from the same stem.

Out of the refiner’s fire can come a glorious deliverance. It can be a noble and lasting rebirth. The price to become acquainted with God will have been paid. There can come a sacred peace. There will be a reawakening of dormant, inner resources. A comfortable cloak of righteousness will be drawn around us to protect us and to keep us warm spiritually. Self-pity will vanish as our blessings are counted.

The blessings of eternity will surely come to those who endure refining, as the Lord Himself taught: “He only is saved who endureth unto the end.”  I testify that Jesus is the Christ and the Divine Redeemer. He lives! His are the sweet words of eternal life.

James E. Faust, “Refined in Our Trials,” Ensign or Liahona, Feb. 2006, 2–7