"All these things shall give thee experience"

My wife Claudia wrote this experience in early 1974, when our first child was still less than six months old.

Elder Boyd K. Packer once said the only significant lessons he has learned in life have been taught by his children. I too find Michael Adam is one of my best teachers. I would like to share something I've learned from him just over the past two or three weeks.

A couple of weeks ago he learned how to roll over from his stomach to his back. To watch him struggle though just tore my heart out. He wasn't sure what he was doing—it was all so new to him—and sometimes he would get so frustrated at his struggles. I wanted so much to pick him up myself and turn him over—to save all that trouble and heartache—but I knew I couldn't. The struggles made him strong, and he couldn't learn if I did it for him.

It occurred to me one day while I was watching him try that our earth life is but a type and shadow of eternity, a testing ground, and that parents have a very similar relationship to their children as our Heavenly Father has to us. With all this in mind, it came to me that the Lord watches over us too and sees our struggles. But like parents here on earth He sometimes has to just let us struggle so we can learn more effectively through our experience and grow stronger.

"Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good" (D&C 122:7).

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee over all thy foes" (D&C 121:7-8).

How well the Lord has said it. And realizing my own love for Michael Adam, I now have a deeper understanding of the Lord's love for us and of why He gives us trials and tribulations. I am very grateful for these things and for a loving Father who would care to give us these learning experiences that we might grow.