That Age

I attended Ryan Schuhmacher's funeral today and while I was there I realized that I've reached that age.  The age where bad things happen.  I've had friends with miscarriages, still births and infertility.  Divorces happening, parents and friends passing away.  People lose jobs, lose friends and have financial difficulties.  Friends and loved ones leave the church and lose their testimonies.  Mental, physical and emotional issues run rampant.  Drugs and alcohol take over peoples' lives.  These things are out of our control.  

I miss those days when we were young and the biggest problems in our lives were who we were going to sit with at lunch or being upset that we couldn't watch as much TV as we wanted.  

My recent scripture study has been on trials and adversity leading to patience during trying times.  Something that stuck out to me was how much of a presence there was of the word "hope" in the scriptures I read.  

LDS.org states that "Hope is the confident expectation of and longing for the promised blessings of righteousness. The scriptures often speak of hope as anticipation of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.  When we have hope, we trust God's promises. We have a quiet assurance that if we do “the works of righteousness,” we “shall receive [our] reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23). Mormon taught that such hope comes only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ: “What is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise” (Moroni 7:41)."  

Trials/adversity...patience...hope...faith....eternal life.