Thots I don't want to forget

 when Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were in the fiery furnace, the king saw a 4th person and said He looked like the Lord. 

God usually doesn't take us out of our trials. Our trials are given to us to help us grow and to learn lessons. However, God is ALWAYS in our fiery furnace with us if we let Him!

We shouldn't pray to have our burdens taken away; we have burdens to help us become stronger. 

We should pray that the burden or weight of our problems, the pain, suffering and misery caused by the burden will be lifted.

Mists of Darkness

 In the Book of Mormon, in 1 Nephi 8, it talks about the Rod of Iron that Lehi saw in his vision:

19 And I beheld a ^arod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood.

20 And I also beheld a ^astrait and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even to the tree by which I stood; and it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a large and spacious field, as if it had been a ^bworld.

21 And I saw numberless concourses of people, many of whom were ^apressing forward, that they might obtain the ^bpath which led unto the tree by which I stood.

22 And it came to pass that they did come forth, and commence in the path which led to the tree.

23 And it came to pass that there arose a ^amist of darkness; yea, even an exceedingly great mist of darkness, insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were ^blost.

24 And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, ^aclinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the ^bfruit of the tree.

I've read that many times, but never thought about the mist of darkness before. Our Bishop Duran, spoke of it and brought out the point that there was a mist of darkness for everyone. Just because we are faithful and clinging to the rod of iron, that doesn't mean we won't have mists of darkness in our lives. We all have to pass through them at some time. Life cannot be without challenges, and they have to be hard enough challenges to test whether we WILL cling to the rod of iron even when it is very hard to continue and we can't see where we're going.

Everyone is tested but everyone can have the rod of iron to cling to!