I love the children’s book entitled That’s Good! That’s Bad! It is about a little boy who goes to the zoo with his parents, and after being given a balloon, is lifted up high into the sky away from his parents. The book is his adventure back to his parents. He goes through a series of experiences that appear to be bad but end up being crucial elements for him to make it back to his Mom and Dad. Many of his experiences along the way appear to be bad: “Oh, that’s bad,” but then the next phrase is, “No, that’s good.” The following page then shows what good came from the bad. ![]() The book also includes things that appear good, and then are thought to be bad, but in the end each experience works together for his good, and each experience is needed for him to make it back to his parents’ loving arms (Cuyler, Margery). This book is so much like life. On one page, we say, “Oh that is bad.” And yet, if we keep our faith in God and look for the good, a few pages later, we will see the good that came because of the event that was considered bad. As long as we are living righteous lives, I believe that someday we will see our own lives like this little book; all the things that were bad will show up on the next page as good. At the end of our books, we will see that everything worked together for our good and helped us make it back to the arms of our loving, heavenly parents. We will be happier and better off than we would have been without those experiences, and we will see that God can truly make good of a lot of things. Elder Uchtdorf said, "You may not see how the dots connect now, and you don't need to yet. Simply have faith enough for the moment you are living in now. Using the example of the late 19th-century painting style known as neo-impressionism, Elder Uchtdorf compared life to one of these paintings: "Closer up, these dots appear unconnected and random," he said. "But when you take in the entire painting, you can see how the dots blend into colors and how the colors eventually form shapes that reveal a beautiful pattern." "Sometimes our lives are like neo-impressionistic art," he said. "The dots of color that make up the moments and events of our days can appear unconnected and chaotic at first. We can't see any order to them. We can't imagine that they have a purpose at all. But as a person steps and looks with an eternal perspective, he or she is able to see how the dots interconnect and create beautiful grand design."
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
I'm Alicia Banta
Christian. Mom. Wife. Writer. Lover of life. Archives
January 2021
|