Carrying the Load

by H. Linn Murphy

In my life and random acquaintances and in my church job I've come up against a fair amount of people who suffer. Often their plights are such that I go home feeling badly for them, wondering what I can possibly do. Often there is nothing. I just lamely try my best to find some little thing to say.

I almost feel as if there should be another shoe dropping momentarily. It seems to me that I've dodged something. I have acquaintances who suffer with multiple hardships and can't ever seem to get a break. I on the other hand, feel so blessed, so lucky. Sometimes it's almost hard to take.

The thing is, I can't go around in life thinking that. The Lord tests us in different ways. I do have challenges. They're just different, so far. Often I wonder if I'd handle the same problems they've got any differently than they do. Would I be any more valiant? Will I be? Because surely there are bigger things coming.

This weekend Elder Bednar told us that happiness is not the absence of a load, but carrying that load with grace, and carrying the right load.

Sometimes we needlessly shoulder the wrong backpack full of miseries. We shackle ourselves with health problems from eating unwisely, or drinking too much soda, or worse problems like drugs or pornography. We make unsound choices and have to deal with unwanted pregnancies or lousy jobs or any number of other burdens.

So the idea is to avoid yoking ourselves to needless loads, while cheerfully accepting our plight--our allotted load.