121. Have you had your own Personal Gethsemane? I have had -- twice!

I ran across this article this morning from a blog called:  LDS S.M.I.L E.  You 

can also follow it at:   http://www.ldssmile.com  (Copy and paste) 

         It stands for LDS Spiritually Minded is Life Eternal.

I have copied it as it was in their blog.  In my title, I mentioned I have had a Personal Gethsemane, not once, but two times, both quite different.  They are extremely personal, and I will not go into them here.  Only some family members know, and not even some of whom are my dearest friends.  Some deep problems are very personal, and some are known by many people, and perhaps are mentioned in the media!  They are as diverse as our lives are!

But I do know the only thing that allowed me to keep my faith, courage, and personal self control to go on with normal life was our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the comfort I felt from prayer, and yes -- Personal Priesthood blessings.  My prayer for each of you is that when these times come, and you may have had those experiences already, that you will feel His love, and the love of those around you, and realize -- as my dear mother, Ruth, used to say:  "This too shall pass away".  I testify that it will!  

It is quite interesting about these difficult experiences -- After they are past, and you regain your equilibrium so to speak, from then on you feel empowered to a degree -- You don't worry about each problem that arises each day.  You know you have passed through difficult situations and come up on top, and you can do it again if you have to!  My love and comfort to any of you if you are going through difficult times right now!
I do believe that many of my ancestor's stories I've written, and will also write in the future in this blog, contain experiences they had which are as difficult or more difficult than any we have experienced!  I hope you have time to read to the bottom of this entry ----
            This is the article from LDS S.M.I.L.E   -------------------

Our Own Personal Gethsemane

MARCH 18, 2014 BY: JOHN HUNTINGHOUSE

Everyone will face a time in their lives where they must go through their own personal Gethsemane. I’m not talking about small issues that come up on a daily basis or talking about having a bad day or week. I’m not even talking about many of the larger problems or stresses that we all face in this probationary state we call life.

No, I’m talking about the very small number of times in our lives where we are on the brink of even living. Where everything in our life is going wrong. The moments that not only can we not see the way out, we can’t see anything at all. Those moments where we feel completely lost and alone.Those times where you spend countless hours shedding tears on an already soaked pillow.  Those nights where you wake up as deeply saddened as you did going to bed.  I’m talking about those very limited times where the easiest choice in front of us may appear to be to just give up.

So what do we do in these situations? Where do we turn? How do we move on? The easy Sunday School answer is to turn to Christ. Remember that Sunday School answers are the right answers, they just lack depth in their responses. So let’s delve a little deeper.

There are simply going to be times in our lives where no one else around us can perfectly understand the trials and tribulations that we are personally facing no matter how good their intentions may be. There are just going to be times where we fall on our knees pleading for help because we have nowhere else to go and nowhere else to look but up. It’s during these moments, almost out of necessity, that often times we start to receive a glimpse of His infinite and perfect love that God has for us.

These are the moments where our religion's rubber meets the road.  No more friendly platitudes in Relief Society, no more BYU?Utah jokes in Elder's Quorum.  These moments are where we need to know that God lives, that He hears us and that He loves us and we need to know them now.

As painful, hopeless and dark as these moments may be, often times they provide us with the spiritual experiences that are so incredibly personal, that our faith and testimony in this gospel truly does "come forth polished as gold".

Such example could be like Ashlee’s story when she found out her husband was murdered and was cheating on her all in the same night and was left to raise five children by herself.  Or Stephanie’s story where in 2008, she and her husband Christian were in a airplane crash and over 80% of her body was burned.

Both of these individuals not only survived their challenges, but have come forth through these trials as shining beacons of hope for the rest of us.

So many times in life we try to do everything on our own. Too prideful to accept or acknowledge that we need help. Remember that as we carry the various burdens we inevitably face in this life, it’s not the weight or size of the load that breaks us down but almost always the way we carry it.

Two amazing quotes from Elder Holland and President Uchtdorf concerning Christ’s involvement in our lives during our own personal Gethsemane:

“Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now. When He says to the poor in spirit, ‘Come unto me,’ He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way.”

–Jeffrey R. Holland, Broken Things to Mend, April 2006

“My dear brothers and sisters, there will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Church. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose. He is the Son of the living God.”
– President Uchtdorf – October 2007 Have We Not Reasons to Rejoice

Remember that just like our Heavenly Father was keenly aware of the massive burden Christ was about to bear, He is just as aware of the challenges we are about to face (or are facing) in this life.

Just as Christ knew that His Father would be there for Him and that eventually the glorious Sunday morning would come to overcome any of the sorrows and pains felt just a few days earlier, we too will experience our own personal Sundays where everything comes full circle. We just need to be patient enough to allow God the opportunity to justify our faith in Him.

Christ’s love is not dependent upon yours. The abundance or lack of love you demonstrate towards Him or yourself, does not increase or diminish His.  He loves you perfectly and fully. Your strengths do not increase His love and your weaknesses certainly do nothing to diminish it. The epitome of charity, being the pure love of Christ, was demonstrated during that hollowed night at Gethsemane.

Regardless of where we are at in our lives and the mistakes we may have made, the atoning power of Christ is here to provide us our own, incredibly personal story of redemption.  (end of article)

I just have to add something I just read -- which points out that we have to know the "bitter" in order to appreciate the "good".  Perhaps those Gethsemane moments will in the future, by contrast, help us realize how HAPPY WE ARE !

"Look at ourselves-run over our own experience, and we shall discover that ourselves, our neighbors, our friends, our acquaintances, and all people do not always know when they are happy.  In other words, if you could crowd an individual or a community into heaven without experience, it would be no enjoyment to them.  They must know the opposite; they must know how to contrast, in order to prize and appreciate the comfort and happiness, the joy and the bliss they are actually in possession of" (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 78).