Trials That Lead to Blessings

P and I were driving home from Idaho Sunday.  P wasn't feeling well so I was driving.  It's a 3 hour drive,which leaves a lot of time for thinking.  Lately my thoughts have been about trials.  There are so many struggling right now, I wish I could take away all their pain.  As I started looking back on the trials in my life, I realized that some of my greatest blessings have come from those trials.

1)  Trial:  Death of my mom at the young age of 41
    Blessing:  The testimony that the Lord is aware of me and loves me.  To this day, I have never felt the         Spirit as strongly as I did that Sunday afternoon when my dad laid his hands upon my head and gave me a blessing.  The spirit enveloped me like a blanket and was with me until after the funeral, a short week later.  To be clear, the spirit never left me, it just wasn't as strong as it was when I needed it the most.

2)  Trial:  Living apart from P for 1 1/2 years (only seeing each other on the weekends), while he tried to get our business up and running and I worked 2 1/2 hours away.
    Blessing:  Once we were back together, we had to work extremely hard, but out of all that hard work came a stronger marriage and more happiness together than I could ever imagine.

3)  Trial:  Unemployment for both of us
    Blessing:  The opportunity for me to start my own business, which would allow me to work from home and be a stay at home mom at the same time, while making more money and working half the time.

4)  Trial:  Infertility
    Blessing:  Adoption.  Again, the opportunity to see the Lord's hand in our lives and to be able to experience the wonderful miracle of adoption.

While I was going through these trials, I didn't exactly see the blessings.  But looking back on them now, it is very apparent that these trials were for my good and brought me strength beyond compare.