Suffer the little children

Today was one of those lovely enlightening days where I have been given small, but great insight to something I have pondered much throughout my life. My answer came in testimony meeting. Its interesting how you know how unified in thought and heart a ward is by what happens during testimony meeting. Our ward always seems to take on a unified theme in testimony bearing. Today the focus was children.  The example they are to us and how much the Savior loves them.

 Interestingly Elder Oaks conference talk was brought up 3 times and I have had Elder Oaks conference talk on my mind all week and have listened to it 3 or 4 times this week. It is a very emotionally difficult talk to read through as it touches on the rampant abuse of children all over the world. It has caused me to offer Heavenly Father the same prayer I have given so many times "How is HE and the Savior witness and knowledgeble to such great injustices towards His little children and able to deal with it." I wonder if they sometimes wish justice was immediate. I just picture them being in a constant state of sadness and emotional turmoil watching the evil acts placed upon the little children. I too bore testimony expressing these thoughts and how I know children are an heritage of the Lord and are ENTITLED to a nuclear family consisting of a mother and Father who honor each other. In the Proclamation to the Family it states "Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity" Nowhere in any doctrine does it state that we are "entitled" to children. They are a gift and should be treated as such. 

I have  so many friends with a background in a abuse and it gives me such heartache. When contemplating their challenges "Much is give Much is required" has always ran through my head as I think of the "goodly parents" I was born to. 

After I sat down a woman stood up and enlightened me to why certain spirits go to abusive homes and Heavenly Fathers understanding and role in these situations. She said she did not want to share this testimony, but the prompting was to strong. She shared that she was abused as a child and teenager. (later she relayed to me it was sexual abuse) She said she of course went through years of extreme anger and resentment, but through staying close to Heavenly Father it was revealed to her that in the Spirit World we made certain promises and Heavenly Father made certain promises to us. Her promise was that she would accept being placed in an abusive family and Heavenly Father promised her in return that he would stand before her anytime she needed him and feel her with his love and strength and value so she could get through her challenges. I was thinking how amazing she was to be on that level to receive such amazing revelation and to accept it and hold fast to its truth. As she sat down I expressed my appreciation for her testimony and she went into further detail to me and stated my question of how Heavenly Father could witness such things led her to the pulpit. She said that in the height of her anger and abuse she prayed and said "I love you, but you will never understand what I went through because you are not a woman and have not experienced sexual abuse." The Lords answer to her made me cry uncontrollably in the middle of sacrament. (To me it sounds as if he took her away in a vision to explain how he does understand.) He said (me paraphrasing) "oh, but how I do understand. You think I wasn't sexually abused? I was forced to walk publicly naked in front of everyone and received abuse from everyone present. The only difference between yours and my challenge is yours was private. Mine was on display for all and made known to the whole world." I never thought of the Savior experiencing this type of abuse and it pained my heart. There are many other amazing details to her account, but I don't want to share as I have not had her permission as of yet.

Now I have a desire to fast and pray and find out exactly what promises I made to Heavenly Father so I to can live up to my potential. 

My heart goes out to all who have or are experiencing any kind of abuse. I find that many difficult people inside are just pain filled children that experienced much hurt in their childhood. I see cars all the time with babies and toddlers strapped in the back and the window rolled up and both parents smoking. I see mothers and fathers degrading and screaming at their little 1 and 2 year olds as they jerk them into the store and I feel so helpless. I want to take those children in my arms and express how much I love them. Its comforting to me to know that Heavenly Father is also aware of them and taking care of them in his own ways and I can at least pray for their welfare.