The Blessing of Opposition

Elder Marlin K. Jensen gave a talk this past Sunday that is wonderful.  Here's a link with a brief summary of what he shared.  I loved the lessons we can learn from trees.  Here is #2

Holiness can only be brought to pass through adversity and testing.

Elder Jensen spoke of an experiment conducted a few years ago in a designated area of the Sacred Grove. To provide the healthiest young trees a prime place to grow, gardeners cleaned out the area and took away opposition that could prevent the trees from growing. Their hope was that the trees would flourish and develop, as they grew without competition for water, sunlight and soil nutrients.

"As a result, none of the trees in the test plot compared in size or vitality to the trees left to grow more naturally and that had to overcome opposition in order to survive and thrive,"he said.

One of the key doctrines of the Book of Mormon is that there must be an opposition in all things, Elder Jensen taught. “A world with opposites provides choices between good and evil, so that agency can operate. Equally important, however, is the principle that opposition must exist for spiritual growth to occur—or as father Lehi puts it—for ‘holiness’ to be brought to pass.

“I want to stress that understanding this principle—that spiritual growth requires opposition and adversity—and even embracing this principle at your age is a key to accepting and being generally happy with life. It is also critical to experiencing needed personal growth and development.”
Sooner or later, all will encounter opposition and adversity, he said. “The list of opposing forces is nearly endless—and so are the blessings of personal growth and development if we have the faith to take the long view and endure it all well,” he said.

My favorite part about opposition is in this video here from 29:25 - 37:11