The Hand of God in All Things

I am sad that Institute (the Tuesday night scripture study class) is over for a while. I felt like I have really learned a lot this semester as we have talked about discipleship, emulating Christ's character and attributes, and enduring well to the end.

I am glad that there is so much repetition in the church. I think the most important part of a church class is to gain some insight or learn how to better your life or the life of those around you. Each week, month, or year we are at different stages in life, and will hear things a little differently. Some great things were said about Christ's atonement covering not only our sins, but the sins of others, the illness, aloneness, injustice, rejection or other griefs. It was mentioned that we should recognize God's hand in all things (D+C 59:21), not just the wondrous and great.

This next paragraph may not be directly related to the lesson, but it's an insight I gained tonight. It really hit me how prepared Todd was for his final trial in this life. Todd knew that I had a psycho ex-boyfriend. Todd knew who John was. Todd knew I was dating Devin when he died. The last week of Todd's life, we had an experience where I got overly emotional when he had not returned my call right before Institute. When Devin died, I was waiting to meet him at institute, and he never showed up. When I didn't hear back from Todd, I had flashbacks from that awful experience a year and a half prior, and I got really worried. I realized tonight that event may have been part of Todd's preparation and motivation to fight for his life and get the word out about John and his own condition right away. I am so grateful for Todd, and his faithfulness in all he was asked to do. I miss him.

While I know that God was deeply saddened at John's choice to take Todd's life, I think He allowed it to happen. He actually knew it would happen, and did what needed to be done to prepare Todd. He has also done much to comfort us all in this time of trial.